In 1985, the Governing Board of the University of the Balearic Islands approved the creation of the Department of Spanish and Modern Languages. At that time, the department was comprised of nineteen university lecturers and ten areas. Four years later, in 1989, the Governing Board approved the rules and procedures which regulate the departments, relying on them to be responsible for the operational management of their teaching, carry out research activities or provide technical assistance to other public and private institutions. In 1995, the department was renamed Department of Spanish, Modern and Latin Languages. With the entrée of Greek Philology in 2011, it was finally styled Department of Spanish, Modern and Classical Languages. In 1999, the department had doubled its staff size and has continued to grow, with more than one hundred university lecturers working on the Palma, Menorca and Ibiza campuses in 2020.

Nine areas currently coexist in the Department of Spanish, Modern and Classical Languages: Didactics of Language and Literature, English Philology, French Philology, Galician and Portuguese Philology, German Philology, Greek Philology, Latin Philology, Spanish Language and Spanish Literature.