Professor of Spanish, Head of Spanish Section, and Graduate Program Director of MA in Spanish

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Dr. David Arbesú is Professor of Medieval & Golden Age Spanish Literature. His research focuses on medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, codicology, palaeography, and editorial practices. He has given talks and organized panels at over 70 national and international conferences, and has published articles in numerous peer-research journals.

He is the author of several editions of medieval and Golden Age texts: Crónica de Flores y Blancaflor (ACMRS, 2011); Fazienda de Ultramar (on-line, 2011); Don Juan Tenorio (Juan de la Cuesta, 2012); Obras completas de Juan Pérez de Montalbán (Reichenberger, 2016); Sendebar (Juan de la Cuesta, 2019); and Lope de Vega’s “Las famosas asturianas” for the ProLope series on the Complete Works of Lope de Vega (Gredos, 2019). His most recent projects are an edition of La donzella Teodor (Clásicos Hispánicos, 2022); Libro de los gatos (Cátedra, 2022), and Vida de Barlán e Josafá (CSIC, 2023).

In the field of Florida studies, Arbesú has discovered several important manuscripts: the most complete account of the conquest of Florida, published as Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and The Conquest of Florida: A New Manuscript (UP of Florida, 2017); the lost legal proceedings by which Menéndez de Avilés’s daughter lost the mayorazgo to her cousin, published in the journal Hidalguía (2020); and numerous manuscripts concerning father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales, published in Ehumanista (2023), which led him to write the official new biography of Mendoza Grajales in the journal Florida Historical Quarterly (2023).

Dr. Arbesú is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Spanish Series of Harvard UP’s Dumbarton Oaks’ Medieval Library, and the Book Review Editor of La corónica: A Journal of Medieval Hispanic Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.