Serendipity as a research source: an example from the University of Salamanca

Abstract

We present an example of the possibilities offered by serendipity as a research source. On many occasions it is difficult to establish a link between the objects found inside books and the people who left them; at any rate, they tell us little or not enough to trace even a minimum life itinerary. This is not the case in the instance we present here. The University of Salamanca acquired Teodoro Martín Robles’s library, made up of some 2,000 titles, in 1954. The amount and diversity of the objects found in his books - drawings, notes, letters, photographs - stimulated our curiosity, and with the help of archival records and historical press references we have been able to rebuild to a large extent his biography and to fit into that framework the pieces of the puzzle scattered throughout the pages of his books.