Madrid  - Spaniard Jose Luis Iborte Baque has literally spent his life studying, earning 13 university degrees, including three doctorates, between the ages of 19 and
82, the daily El Mundo reported Thursday.

A philosophy graduate at 19, Iborte, now 82, earned his most recent degree, in the humanities a month ago.

In between, the resident of the northern city of Zaragoza has graduated in subjects including company law, geography and history, art history, medicine and surgery, as well as in English, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew and classical philology.

"I only sleep four hours a night," explains the man who has worked as a lawyer, bank employee and taught at a distance education university.

"I studied law because my father forced me to, but my real vocation were always the humanities," Iborte says.

He nevertheless decided to also study medicine at age 73, when a physician snapped at him, telling him not to comment on the doctor's diagnosis until he had graduated in medicine himself.

"Three and a half years later, I sent him (a copy of) my degree for Christmas," Iborte says.

"The more one knows, the more one becomes aware of how much one still has to learn," observes the man who plunged even deeper into his studies after the deaths of his son and wife in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

"I want my epitaph to be, 'I have a book in my hand'," says the 82-year-old, whose next goal is to learn Arabic. (dpa)