Guillermo de Osma

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Guillermo de Osma
Born
Guillermo Joaquín de Osma y Scull

(1853-01-24)January 24, 1853
Havana, Captaincy General of Cuba
Died1922
Occupation(s)Diplomat, politician and art patron
Known forFounding the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan and endowing the De Osma Studentship at the University of Oxford

Guillermo Joaquín de Osma y Scull (24 January 1853 – 1922) was a Spanish diplomat, politician and art patron. He served twice as Spain's Minister of Finance, as president of the Council of State and as the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Alhambra. A prominent Hispanist and patron of scholarship, he founded the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid and endowed the De Osma Studentship at the University of Oxford, where he had been the first Spaniard to study following the Universities Tests Act 1871.[1]

Biography

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Osma was born to Juan Ignacio de Osma Ramírez de Arellano and Emilia Rosa Scull y Andouin on 24 January 1853 in Havana, then part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, into a family of statesmen with transatlantic connections.[1] His paternal grandfather served as a judge in the Viceroyalty of Peru and married María Josefa Rosa Ramírez de Arellano y Baquíjano, niece of the Peruvian intellectual José de Baquíjano y Carrillo.[1] His maternal grandfather, Joseph Scull, was a merchant born in Philadelphia who settled in Havana in 1798 and became a Spanish subject in 1812; Scull's family owned sugar plantations throughout western and central Cuba.[1]

After leaving Cuba for France, Osma studied at the Sorbonne in Paris.[1] Following the Universities Tests Act 1871, which removed barriers for non-Anglicans to study at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham. Osma became the first Spaniard to study at the University of Oxford, at Pembroke College. Osma obtained a first-class degree in historia moderna (modern history). In 1877, Osma joined the Spanish diplomatic service, before going into politics.[1]

Osma served twice as Spain's Minister of Finance, under Prime Minister Antonio Maura, president of the Council of State and was the first president of the Board of Trustees of the Alhambra.[2] He was a member of the Senate of Spain from 1919 until his death, and he received the Legion of Honour of France.[1]

Osma founded with his wife, Adelaida Crooke y Guzmán, 24th Countess of Valencia de Don Juan,[1] the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan in Madrid in 1916; tuning their residence into a museum and research centre housing their extensive art and manuscript collections.[3][4] On 15 March 1916 a notary formally established the Institute; the Board of Trustees included Prime minister Antonio Maura, scholar Miguel Asín Palacios, Spanish peer Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, American philanthropist and scholar Archer Milton Huntington and British archaeologist Sir Charles Hercules Read.[1]

In 1920, Osma endowed the De Osma Studentship at Oxford to support research in Spanish art and history; it was the university's first modern endowment, as well as their first Spanish studentship.[1] The De Osma scholarship has supported distinguished scholars including the medievalist Anthony Luttrell and the historian Henry Kamen.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pérez de Arcos, Marina (13 January 2021). "Individual, Institution, and Impact: The Untold History of the de Osma Studentship in Spanish Studies at Oxford". Hispanic Research Journal. 21 (3): 276–320. doi:10.1080/14682737.2020.1874721. ISSN 1468-2737. Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  2. ^ a b Peyró, Ignacio (23 April 2020). "Guillermo de Osma, así fue el primer español que estudió en Oxford". Diario ABC (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 November 2025.
  3. ^ Lermer, Andrea; Shalem, Avinoam (23 August 2010). After One Hundred Years: The 1910 Exhibition "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst" Reconsidered. BRILL. p. 248. ISBN 978-90-04-19102-0.
  4. ^ "Wayback Machine" (PDF). sedic.es. 21 April 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2025.