{"id":16090,"date":"2019-04-25T10:50:25","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T10:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=16090"},"modified":"2020-11-06T16:54:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T16:54:34","slug":"the-role-of-salvador-sanpere-i-miquel-in-the-origin-of-the-library-of-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/the-role-of-salvador-sanpere-i-miquel-in-the-origin-of-the-library-of-the-museu-nacional-dart-de-catalunya\/","title":{"rendered":"The role of Salvador Sanpere i Miquel in the origin of the Library of the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Yolanda Ruiz<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
\"Library<\/a>
Library storeroom<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The past of the Library of the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de\nCatalunya<\/a> is centennial\nand has always been linked to the city’s museums. For a long period it was of\nmunicipal titleholdership until 1990, with the enactment of the law of\nmuseums, Llei 17\/1990<\/a>,\nof 2nd November, when it was integrated into the organisation chart of the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a centre of reference in terms of\nCatalan art research. Its collection is made up of more than 150,000 volumes, magazines\nand other diverse documents about art, history, archeology, museology, conservation,\nrestoration, photography and numismatics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial\ncollection, that can be found in the Library of the Museum of Artistic\nReproductions, was formed by means of the acquisition of books carried out by Salvador Sanpere i\nMiquel<\/a> in 1890. For Catalan art historians, the role that Sanpere played in\nthe formation of the collection of the Museum of Artistic Reproductions is well\nknown,  which was inaugurated in the central\nnave of the Palau de la Ind\u00fastria<\/em><\/a> of Barcelona, the\nmain building of the Universal Exposition\nof 1888<\/a>, which was located in the Ciutadella Park and which no longer exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Museum of Artistic Reproductions and its library<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the day of the inauguration of the\nMuseum, on 29th June 1891, its director, Josep-Llu\u00eds Pellicer<\/a>, gave a speech in which he qualified the library as an essential element.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The formation of the Graphic Library of\nthe Museum of Artistic Reproductions was not by chance, but it was planned\nwithin the creation process of the museum and of the pedagogical goal to which\nit responded.  The aim was to gather\ntogether a collection of images, based on postcards, photographs, prints and\nbook illustrations, so as to exemplify the horizon of the museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason,\nSalvador Sanpere, who had been commissioned by Barcelona City Council to travel\naround Europe with the mission of acquiring objects that would constitute the\ncollection of the museum, took advantage, despite the lack of budget available\nto him, to establish contacts with two publishers.  On the one hand, Ferdinando Ongania<\/a> from Venice, and\non the other hand,  Karl W. Hiersemann<\/a> from Leipzig, from whom he acquired various\nbooks for an amount higher than 16,000 pesetas, 10%  of the total budget of the museum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The now missing Palau de la Ind\u00fastria where the Museum of Artistic Reproductions was located <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Works acquired from Ferdinando Ongania <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Salvador Sanpere made a purchase of books\nto the value of 5,094 pesetas from Ferdinando Ongania, a publisher specialized\nin publications related to Venice, who was a pioneer in the application of\nphotographic techniques in the illustration of art books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emblematic and monumental work of\nFerdinando Ongania, and one which was acquired by Salvador Sanpere, was La\nBasilica di san Marco in Venezia illustrata nella storia e nell\u2019arte da\nscrittori veneziani<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> a numbered edition\nof 500 copies, with an illustrative device that included an impressive\ncollection of heliotypes, chromolithographs, heliographs and engravings\naccompanied by texts signed by famous scholars of the time: Ferdinando\nApollonio, Camillo Boito, Raffaele Cattaneo, Pompeo Gherardo Molmenti and Antonio\nPasini, amongst others.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n