In case you did not know this, my field of academic research is Francisco de Isla, an 18^th C Spanish Jesuit who wrote Fray Gerundio de Campazas, Spain’s best-selling novel of the century.

Every Summer for the last few years, my friend Paco and I go to El Escorial to visit their old and antique book fair – and have dinner after. I normally just have a browse and rarely buy anything, as my reading list is already far too long. But this time, I found a gem.

The Biblioteca Jesuítico Española by Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro is basically a bibliography of Spanish and Portuguese manuscripts found in seven Roman libraries and then some. And guess what? It has a bunch of references to our man Isla. Manuscripts found in different libraries in Rome, Toledo, Madrid, even Loyola in the Basque Country. Not bad for 10 Euro!

Then something special happened. I noticed the bookseller’s T shirt, referencing Monty Python’s Life of Brian. When I pointed this out to Paco, he knew exactly the shop where the fellow bought the shirt!! So we had to take a photo!

So now I must figure out which libraries I want to investigate their Isla manuscripts. This will be based on if I can find some sort of research grants to go investigate. This is where you come in: do you have any tips on how to look for research grants? Let me know in the comments, please.

Thanks!