The title of Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española is intended to evoke and pay homage to the well known work by Conde de la Viñaza, Biblioteca Histórica de la Filología Castellana, which has been for decades been a faithful companion to those of us who study the historiography of Spanish linguistics.

Our Bibilioteca opened in October 2010, as a resource of the Universidad Complutense's library, which maintained the site for four years, until we updated to the new version in October 2014.

The aim of the BVFE is to give users an easy and unique method of access to past works that can be found and freely accessed in digital format on the web, although they spread over many different sites.

Following Count of the Viñaza's model, content is divided into various sections, his 3 classifications: dictionaries and all kinds of lexicographic works, grammar and books on the history of language, and orthographies, orthology treatises, etc., to which we have added another category: dialogues, colloquia, phrases, conversations, etc.

Little by little we will expand our content, as we receive information about texts that have been digitized. We are also gradually expanding and optimizing our consultation methods, adding filters and elements to optimize enquiries. As an supplement to the bibliographical records, at the end of 2015 we started offering a short file on each of the authors. These files contain is a succinct biographical profile of the author with a commentary on their works, a list of the titles they produced that are related with the Spanish language (whether they are in the BVFE or not), and an essential bibliography about the author and their works.

It goes without saying that nothing is perfect, and we are aware that there may be slips, errors or incomplete information within our content. So the collaboration that we would ask of you, the user of this website, is to inform us of any corrections or information that should be added by using the dropdown at the top of the main page. The effort we have made has not been small, but there is still a long road ahead. Together we can improve our content. All this has been made possible thanks to the initial help for the research projects from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación (FFI2011-24107), during 2012-2014, which was continued with help from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación (FFI2014-53851-P) for 2015-2017. Since January of 2018 we have had new funding from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación FFI2017-82437-P) of the Government of Spain.

Manuel Alvar Ezquerra

Professor of the Spanish language. Honorary Professor of the Universidad Complutense, Madrid.

September of 2018

Works about the BVFE

Alvar Ezquerra, Manuel, «Estado actual de los repertorios léxicos en la Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española (BVFE) [2014]», en María Victoria Domínguez Rodríguez, Alicia Rodríguez Álvarez, Gregorio Rodríguez Herrera y Verónica C. Trujillo González (eds.), Words across History: Advances in Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Servicio de Publicaciones y Difusión Científica de la ULPGC, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2016, págs. 17-29.

Alvar Ezquerra, Manuel, «La Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española (BVFE): de su nacimiento a su consolidación. Situación en octubre de 2015», en Luis Luque Toro y Rocío Luque (eds.), Léxico español actual VI, Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina, Venecia, 2019, págs. 33-61.

Alvar Ezquerra, Manuel, «La Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española (BVFE). De su nacimiento a su consolidación. Situación del contenido lexicográfico en junio de 2016», en Ignacio Sariego López, Juan Gutiérrez Cuadrado (eds. lits.) y Cecilio Garriga Escribano (coord..), El diccionario en la encrucijada: de la sintaxis y la cultura al desafío digital, Escuela Universitaria de Turismo Altamira, Santander, 2017, págs. 447-460.

Alvar Ezquerra, Manuel y Aurora Miró Domínguez, «Antecedentes y primeros pasos de la Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española», CNR edizioni, Roma, 2013, págs. 49-60.

Calero Hernández, Estela, Nerea Fernández de Gobeo Díaz de Durana y Jaime Peña Arce, «La Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española (BVFE): la digitalización de obras complutenses», en Adrián Menéndez de la Cuesta González (ed.), Encuentros digitales: escrituras, colecciones, aprendizajes en español / Encontros digitais: escritas, colecções, aprendizagem em portugués, Universidad Complutense de Madrid-Fundación BBVA, Madrid, 2018. En línea.

Cazorla, Carmen y María Ángeles García Aranda, «Herramientas filológicas en red: la Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española», e-Scripta Romanica, 5, 2018, págs. 12-27.

García Aranda, M.ª Ángeles y Jaime Peña Arce: «La Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española: de Antonio de Nebrija a Antonio de Nebrija», en José María Santos Rovira (ed.), Raíces y horizontes del español. Perspectivas dialectales, históricas y sociolingüísticas, Lugo, Axac, 2019, pp. 119-135.

García Aranda, M.ª Ángeles y Nerea Fernández de Gobeo Díaz de Durana: «Manuel Alvar Ezquerra (1950-2020). In memoriam», BSEHL, 14, 2020, págs. 3-6.

Tocado Orviz, Estefanía, «Biblioteca Virtual de la Filología Española (review)», Hispania, Volume 101, Number 1, March 2018, págs. 159-160.

This essay is published in the BVFE with the permission of the AATSP, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. The essay originally appeared in Hispania, the official journal of the AATSP. Please, visit www.aatsp.org for more information about the magazine and the organization.