For more than 40 years, through field work that's taken him to many corners of the Spanish-speaking world, University of California, Davis, professor Samuel Armistead has sought to create a comprehensive archive of Spanish folk literature. He is considered an expert on the Romancero -- Hispanic traditional narrative poetry that is one of the foundations of the Spanish poetic tradition. During all of his travels and studies, Armistead, a professor of Spanish literature, has labored quietly over his research -- work considered highly valuable in scholarly circles, but not the sort that lends itself to public attention with splashy headlines of discovery. That seems to be changing. For Armistead is receiving significant recognition nationally and internationally for his lifelong academic passion. The accolades include the prestigious Nebrija Prize from a major Spanish university, a half-million dollar National Science Foundation grant and a supporting grant from a Los Angeles non-profit foundation. "I can think of no one more deserving of these multiple awards and honors than our colleague Sam Armistead," said JoAnn Cannon, dean of the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies. "The Nebrija Prize appropriately honors Sam's lifelong contribution to our understanding of the culture of Spain. "And, of course, I am enormously pleased that the National Science Foundation has recognized the significance of Professor Armistead's work. The new online research database to be created with the grant will be of extraordinary value to Hispanists, musicologists, folklorists and medievalists." In July, Armistead will travel to Spain to receive the International Nebrija Prize at the University of Salamanca, the primary objective of which is to reward the research and teaching work of those who have devoted their professional life to Hispanism and to honor the dedication of a Hispanist who is not a native speaker of Spanish but who has contributed significantly to the study, knowledge and diffusion of the culture of Spain. The prize includes a cash award of approximately $30,000 and the publication of one of his books. He was nominated for the prize by his department chair, Hugo Verani, of Spanish and classics. "This prize honors one non-Spanish professor every year who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to the study of Spanish culture in the world," said Bruce Rosenstock, religious studies and classics lecturer, who collaborates with Armistead. "The Spanish press awaits the news of this award with great excitement. To every Hispanist in the world, this prize represents the highest honor one can receive for one's scholarly work." To Armistead, the prize is most welcome. "I don't know of any Spanish recognition that is more important for those scholars who are not Spanish but who have devoted their lives to the study of Spanish culture," Armistead said. "I am just delighted by it. It's a good thing for Spanish studies at UC Davis and for humanities here." The National Science Foundation last week awarded Armistead and Rosenstock $500,000 over three years to fund a digital library initiative that will make it possible to provide scholars throughout the world with a new online research database of traditional folk literature of the Sephardic Jews. Beginning in the 1950s, Armistead began work on a 16-volume study of the oral literature of Jews who settled in Spain and Portugal; he has already published three volumes, has now completed the preparation of volumes four through seven, and is at work on volume eight. His studies involve traveling both within the United States and in other countries, including Morocco, Spain and Israel, to interview those people who retained the oral traditions of ballads, lyric poetry, proverbs and even riddles, passed down from their Sephardic Jewish ancestors who were expelled from Spain in 1492. The NSF grant is particularly vital to his work, Armistead said. It will enable him and his co-researchers to preserve their field tapes of interviews from all over the world in an electronic fashion, saving thousands of hours of time, he said. "The grant, I hope, will allow me to get through my life's work in time. It's what I've always wanted," Armistead said. And, he says, the NSF grant will provide for a record of the interviews for anyone to study language and life histories, among other topics. "It'll be there. I feel very strongly that here is a group of people who are no longer with us," Armistead said. "They confided in us, handed over to us their repertoire of songs, many of which could go back to 1492, or even before. This is ancient material people created as they went along, and each has put their imprint on what they were singing." The Maurice Amado Foundation of Los Angeles, dedicated to the perpetuation of the Sephardic heritage and culture, announced this week that it also would support the digital library project with a gift of $40,000. "These are extraordinary and remarkable achievements, rare for researchers in the sciences ... and much rarer yet for scholars in the humanities," Rosenstock said. Three years ago, a book was issued in homage to Armistead's work, "Oral Tradition and Hispanic Literature: Essays in Honor of Samuel G. Armistead." In 1992, another such volume, "Hispanic Medieval Studies in Honor of Samuel G. Armistead," was published. Armistead joined the UC Davis faculty in 1982, after having been a professor at the University of Pennsylvania for 12 years, and an associate professor at UCLA earlier in his career. He received all three of his degrees from Princeton University, including his Ph.D. in 1955. He is the author of 25 book-length publications and more than 400 articles. He has lectured on Spanish ballads, epics and chronicles at major higher education institutions throughout the world. Last year, Armistead received one of the campus Academic Senate's most prestigious honors when he was named the 56th Annual Faculty Research Lecturer. Over the years, he has received numerous national and international honors, including grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Philosophical Society and the Spanish Ministry of Culture. In 1994, he received the National Jewish Book Award in Folklore and Anthropology. Tel Aviv University in 1995 awarded him a medal in recognition of his substantial Sephardic research.