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Trajectory

SLIMM was the brain child of Lola Badia, who, coming from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and the University College of Girona (CUG), entered the Department of Catalan Philology of the University of Barcelona (UB) as a Catalan Literature professor during the academic year 1987-1988. It was modeled on the British system, whose introduction in Barcelona can be explained by the Seminar's developer's by then recent stays at the Warburg Institute of the University of London and at the Hispanic Studies Department of the Westfield College (now Queen Mary) of the same university. During its first seven years of existence, SLIMM was solely concerned with the Middle Ages.

The topics it dealt with were related to on-going doctoral theses in the UAB, the UB and the CUG. Text editing, both issues regarding graphic criteria and section compilation, were its main concern, since the NEORL (New Edition of the Works of Ramon Llull) and the OFE (Works of Francesc Eiximenis) were beginning to develop, and these were ventures in which the first core members of the Seminar were involved.

During the Seminar's third year, Eulàlia Duran, also professor of Catalan Literature at the Department of Catalan Philology of the UB and scholar on  Modern Age, offered a session on a 16th century topic, and in its sixth year, Josep Solervicens, by then a grant holder in the Department, discussed some aspects of his doctoral thesis on Renaissance dialog; these were the first steps towards a new orientation, which eventually defined SLIMM's final profile. In its second phase, beginning in its eighth year, 1994-1995, it expanded its target audience and its time-span, as well as diversifying its sessions' themes, adding topics on the History of Science in vernacular and general History of Culture, up to the point it encompassed the whole of pre-Renaissance literature and culture, in accordance to the doctorate programme at the Department of Catalan Philology of the UB of that time: "Interpretation of Early Catalan Texts". At present, SLIMM topics are related to the research projects of their members gathered around the narpanmimesi and sciència.cat core. New generations of doctoral students  joined the original core of members, and the works of newcomers were interspersed by sessions brought forward by the most prestigious masters, such as Martí de Riquer, Miquel Batllori, Josep Romeu, Modest Prats, Jocelyn N. Hillgarth or Robert B. Tate.

Upon Eulalia Duran's retirement, in the academic year 2004-2005, on the 18th year of the Seminar's existence, the SLIMM sector devoted to the 16th-18th centuries went on to be coordinated by Josep Solervicens, who had become a lecturer in the Catalan Philology Department of the UB. A tendency to diversify interests has been  increassing since then, with visiting experts on Renaissance and Baroque poetics and rhetoric, and Spanish Golden Age researchers, as well as junior researchers on different areas of Medieval literary, scientific and historical culture. During the academic year 2006-2007 abstracts of the seances have been written, that can be looked up in the present website.

SLIMM has benefited from the UB Faculty of Philology's infrastructure for most of its sessions, which have taken place in its venues. Not all its sessions have had the same audience attendance, nor were there the same number of meetings throughout all its years of existence; the minimal requirements for it to exist, however, have always been met. For the last thirty years, SLIMM has gradually become a landmark for Medieval and Modern Catalan literature studies. This anniversary suggests that it has many more years ahead, as it will keep gathering vocational Early Literature scholars keen on amiable discussions and learning one from another, that is to say, producing what is nowadays called the transfer of knowledge in a context of excellence. 

On the twentieth anniversary SLIMM became visible in internet with its first website and the institutional logo SLIMM was created.

Since November the 5th 2020 SLIMM has associated the ICREA researcher Anna Alberni as a manager and its sessions have become available in videoconference via Blackboard-Collaborate.