John Leslie was an academic, religious and politician from a noble Scottish family (1571-1671). In 1612 he was in Barcelona (for a few years he stayed in several European cities) and was commissioned by the Consell de Cent of Barcelona to deliver the inaugural speech of that year, on November 15th. The academic year had begun on Saint Luke's Day, October 18th. Leslie delivered the lecture "Lacónica Sophomachia, or the war of science against ignorance" before the members of the Consell de Cent, the rector of the University and the academic authorities, the university community and a wide civil and ecclesiastical representation of the city. 

The text describes, in didactic, and even somewhat theatrical and comical terms, designed to motivate students, how science uses its strengths, which coincide with the main university disciplines (mathematics, physics, medicine, moral philosophy and jurisprudence, logic, grammar and rhetoric, and theology and metaphysics) in the fight against the troops of ignorance: vanity, laziness, indolence, injustice or stupidity. Leslie's speech deals with a topic that is absolutely linked to the university's essence.