SERRANO y PINEDA, LUCIANO. - Spanish Benedictine and historian, b. 7 Jan. 1879 at Castrocinza (Burgos), d. 17 July 1944 at Burgos.
Benedictine in Sept. 1894, ordained priest in Dec. 1902, and entrusted by Abbot Guépin with a thorough inspection of Spanish ecclesiastical archives to locate ancient codices on Gregorian chant, he carried out this task with Fr. Casiano Rojo and published the writings of Gué on Gregorian chant? (Barcelona 1905) and Música religiosa (ibid. 1906). He then edited the first three volumes of Fuentes para la historia de Castilla (1906-10). In 1911-15 he studied in Rome the relations between Spain and the Holy See during the time of Philip II, which he published in 4 vols.: Corresponencia diplomática entre España y la S. Sede durante el pontificado de s. Pio V (Rome 1913-14) and, together with various other works, compiled the Indice del Archivo de la embajada cerca de la S. Sede (ibid. 1915). On the death of Guépin he became abbot of Silos in 1919. The care of the abbey did not, however, distract him from his beloved studies, and he continued to edit medieval sources and Spanish history of the 16th century with equal mastery. In his later years he also took an interest in the history of the abbey (El real monasterio de S. Domingos de Silos. Su historia y tesoro artistico, Burgos 1926) and that of the diocese of Burgos (El obispado de Burgos y Castilla primitiva desde el siglo V al XIII, 3 vols., ibid. 1905). He also published: Correspondencia diplomática entre España y la S. Sede (Rome 1914). In 1940 he became a member of the Royal Academy of History in Madrid.