Juan Catalina García López was born in 1845 in Cuenca. He earned degrees in Philosophy and Literature, as well as in Law, in Madrid. In 1885, he secured a position as an inspector in the Corps of Archivists, Librarians, and Archaeologists, and in 1890, he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy of History. Later, he was appointed director of the National Archaeological Museum (1900-1911) and became a professor of Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Numismatics at the Central University (Pérez Villamil, 1911).