Ángel Álvarez de Miranda studied in Rome with Professor Raffaele Pettazzoni, founder in Italy of the «History of Religions» and of a particular method for its study. Back in Spain, Álvarez de Miranda took the position of the newly created chair –in 1954– of «History of Religions» in the university of Madrid. This essay analyses the international practices of the circulation of ideas favouring the role of the personal «encounter» with these ideas abroad and the translation of foreign works. In (...) this last case, following Pierre Bourdieu, it shows the consequences of the circulation of texts without their own context. (shrink)