Person
Lacarra, José María (1907-1987)Other forms
Estella-Lizarra (Navarra, España) 1907-05-24 - Saragossa 1987-08-06
Spanish historian and philologist. He was a professor of Medieval History at the Universidad de Zaragoza.
He graduated in Law and earned a Ph.D. in History from the Universidad Central de Madrid. A disciple of Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, Lacarra became closely associated with the Instituto de Estudios Medievales and later succeeded Sánchez Albornoz as the head of the Medieval History professorship at the Universidad Central.
In 1930, he entered the Corps of Specialist Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists, with a position at the Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN) in Madrid. He received a scholarship from the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios (JAE) to complete his medieval studies in Paris.
During the Spanish Civil War, he was part of the Junta Delegada de Incautación, Protección y Salvamento del Tesoro Artístico, focusing on documentary heritage. After requesting a leave of absence from the Corps, he joined the Universidad de Zaragoza as a professor, later becoming dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and vice-rector. There, he established a school of medievalists and founded the Centro de Estudios Medievales de Aragón.
He received honorary doctorates from various foreign universities and was an academician at the Real Academia de las Nobles y Bellas Artes de San Luis de Zaragoza and the Real Academia de la Historia. He passed away in Zaragoza in 1987.
Date of the event: 1936 - 1939