Catalan culture and catalan nationalism in the XIX century. Guimerà’s Renaixensa' Dr. Ramon Bacardit. Specialist in Catalan Romanticism. Barcelona Throughout the nineteenth century a broad cultural movement unfolded within Catalan society and echoed in other territories that shared the same language (Valencia, Roussillon, Balearic Islands). Stretching the typical biological metaphor of that period, it was called Renaixensa, a term that was also used as the title of one of the most emblematic publications of the movement. Other marginalized cultures within States where another language is hegemonic witness the same phenomenon through similar experiences. However, each case is different. As for Catalan, its use survived even among sectors which had already yielded to the hegemonic language. That is to say, even though diglossia was deep-rooted throughout the nineteenth century, intellectuals as well as middle and upper classes never ceased to believe they were speaking a language, not a dialect. This bond between the speaker and his language is essential to understand the adherence to the latter. But why did this happen? As stated by Joan Lluís Marfany (2001; p. 487-488), Catalan had been linked to important eighteenth century political institutions. It was connected with legal codes, courts, kings, popes (Borgias used it in their private correspondence), and above all, Catalan was related to a literary tradition that – it was thought- derived from Occitan, the language of the troubadours and had influential medieval authors such as Ramon Llull or Ausiàs Marc. This language allegiance from most of Catalan society to its language was significantly different from other cases like Occitan or Breton in France, or even Galician in Spain. Galicia, for instance, also underwent its own literary Rexurdimento, but the lack of social awareness regarding its cultural, historical and political personality led to a fast castilianization of its citizens. (Beramendi 2012; p. 18). Despite the accounts of nineteenth century authors as far as the literary tradition is concerned, one can argue that there was a remarkable continuity, primarily associated