Eduardo Hinojosa y Naveros
(Alhama de Granada, 1852 – Madrid, 1919)

Eduardo Hinojosa y Naveros studied law at the University of Granada. In 1870, he moved to Madrid and finished his Ph.D. at the University of Madrid two years later. He also learnt several languages, a fact that allowed him to meet the great European law scholars.

In 1878, he moved to Germany, where he stayed for two years.
He was immersed in the new methodological and scientific currents that dominated the study of European history and law. That experience was essential for the development of his ideas about the history of Spanish law. His teaching and his writings were instrumental for the creation of the most important school of the history of Spanish law in
the 20th century.

As professor of Early and Medieval History of Spain, and Latin American History at the University of Madrid, he carried out the arduous task of the scientific and educational renewal of the university.
He complemented that mission with his work in the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios (JAE), as member from 1907 until his death in 1919. He headed the History of Law department in the Center for Historical Studies. Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, José M. ª Ramos, Loscertales, and Galo Sánchez studied with him and carried on his teaching ideas.

Hinojosa was a active member in Cánovas del Castillo’s Conservative Party and held important political positions: civil governor of Alicante (1881), Valencia (1892 and 1896), and Barcelona (1900); senator from the University of Santiago de Compostela and the Royal Academy of History, and Director General of Public Education (1898-1900). Joaquín Costa, Giner, Azcárate, and Ortega y Gasset, figures so far apart ideologically from him, praised and admired him.