SCIENCE, CUSTOMS AND THE MODERN SUBJECT: FROM EMULATION TO EDUCATION IN THE SEMANTICS OF SPANISH ENLIGHTENMENT Pablo Sánchez León (University of the Basque Country) [Accepted for publication in Contributions to the History of Concepts 13/1 (2017)] The first modern Spanish Constitution, promulgated in Cádiz in 1812, devoted a whole section to education (instrucción pública). It decreed the creation of elementary schools “in all the localities of the Monarchy,” as well as the selection of a number of “universities and other educational establishments” whenever found “appropriate for the teaching of all the sciences, literature and fine arts.” 1 As in other contemporary constituent processes, with measures of this kind early Spanish Liberals showed their commitment to the dissemination of scientific knowledge as one of the priorities for the expected-to-come era of liberties and progress. What was rather unique, however, was the decision by the 1812 patres conscripti of linking education to freedom of expression and print (and ultimately of opinion): in effect, an article declaring that “[a]ll Spanish have liberty to write, print and publish their political ideas” was placed at the end of the section on instruction. 2 Such an odd location for a fundamental civil right in a modern constitution is revealing of a concern for literacy standards among Liberal authorities; yet it goes beyond the cultural or intellectual and touches upon core juridical and anthropological issues of citizenship. 3 The purpose of this article is not to offer an explanation of this rather enigmatic juridical procedure; neither it is to review the ongoing debate on the peculiarities of the so-called “Constitution of the Catholic Monarchy” vis-à-vis its European and American counterparts. 4 1 Constitución política de la Monarquía Española, promulgada en Cádiz el 12 de marzo de 1812, (Granada: Junta Provincial, 1836), 113, Title IX, articles. 366 and 367. 2 Title IX, article 371, in Constitución política, 114. 3 Specialists have tended to overlook the meaning of this singularity, devoting themselves instead to remark the ample recognition of rights of printing, obtained in practice already before the promulgation of the Constitution. See a recent update on the issue in José Álvarez Junco and Gregorio de la Fuente, El nacimiento del periodismo político. La libertad de imprenta en las Cortes de Cádiz (1810-1814) (Madrid: Ediciones APM, 2009). 4 In the last years, a brand new interpretive framework on the 1812 Constitution has been devised by intellectual and law historians. See especially José María Portillo, Revolución de