Origins of Spanish Instruction at Columbia University > Other Early Figures
Professor Henry Alfred Todd taught at Columbia from 1893 until his death in 1925. He was one of the most distinguished American philologists and promoted relations between the United States and Spanish-speaking countries. In addition to publishing a series of philological works, he was co-founder and co-editor of the Romanic Review, the first English language academic journal dedicated entirely to Romance studies, founded in 1910.
Versification of the cuaderna vía as found in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (title page)
In 1905 John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald was the first student to obtain a doctoral degree under the direction of Professor Todd with a thesis on the "cuaderna vía", a Spanish medieval metrical form, in Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos. Fitz-Gerald became one of the most renowned American Hispanists and taught at Columbia between 1899 and 1909.