The CODICIS project funded by Erasmus+ successfully culminates with an international conference in Puebla, Mexico

The conservation and dissemination of our documentary heritage is essential for the consolidation of our identity as a country.

CODICIS, an international project for the conservation of documentary heritage, was closed at an event held in Puebla, Mexico.

Dr. Tomás Salazar Steiger, director of the Department of Humanities at the Universidad Católica San Pablo (UCSP), considered the protection of documentary heritage important to contribute to the consolidation of the country's identity. This was indicated during the inauguration of the symposium: “Library cooperation in the heritage field”, held at the José María Lafragua Historical Library of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), in Mexico in the month of November 2023.

“Convinced that there is no identity without memory, we understand the recovery of our historical and cultural memory as an essential task, in which the research, conservation, protection and dissemination of our documentary heritage is fundamental,” he said at this event that closed the CODICIS international project.

In his speech, he considered that political, economic and institutional crises respond to a cultural crisis that comes, in large part, from forgetfulness and ignorance of identity. Therefore, it is important to counteract this situation.

“We believe that the university has a fundamental role in combating this ignorance and forgetfulness, and we wanted to respond to this situation. That is the primary meaning of the Center for Peruvian Studies at UCSP, an area that has been dedicated to promoting the recovery, conservation and dissemination of Peru's documentary heritage, with the hope of consolidating academic reflection on our country and its destiny," he commented. .

CODICIS Legacy

“It has been a great responsibility and honor to be in charge of the Codicis project, which brought together 9 institutions from 5 countries and which had the support and financing of the Erasmus+ program of the European Union,” indicated Dr. Salazar Steiger.

Codicis promoted the enhancement of the documentary and bibliographic heritage of Peru, Mexico and Bolivia by training personnel from libraries and historical archives, as well as from the universities that were part of the project. The training sessions were led by experts from Spain and Italy.

He highlighted that one of the legacies of Codicis is that it had a multiplier effect in Arequipa, since trained librarians and archivists have the conditions to prepare other professionals in this field.

In addition, he highlighted that thanks to this project, a laboratory for digitizing historical documents has been implemented at UCSP, which will later be able to help preserve the documentary heritage of Arequipa and the south of the country.

“It has been a great satisfaction to participate in the project. And one more step in the institutional maturation for the Department of Humanities and San Pablo, standing out not only in Arequipa but internationally, and encourages us to continue betting on large projects that will benefit the Arequipa community and Peru," he indicated. .

Likewise, he shared that professionals attending the symposium commented that Arequipa has great potential for conservation work on written heritage, since it has very valuable documents in excellent condition (such as those protected in the La Recoleta library) due to the dry climate, among other factors.

This academic event also made it possible to learn about the work carried out by other universities, such as the formation of the Latin American Network of Graphic Culture by the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and to listen to the master lectures of Dr. Roger Chartier, professor emeritus of the Collège de France and Dr. Ana Santos Aramburo, director of the National Library of Spain.

The CODICIS project was made up of the Universidad Católica San Pablo (coordinator), University of Piura, both from Peru. For Mexico, the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and the Universidad Panamericana in Guadalajara participated. For Bolivia, the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés and the Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo in Tarija. The European peers were the University of Catania, Italy and the University of Barcelona, Spain. Incoma from Spain joins them.