Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya - Library and Archive

Library and Archive

The Library is the most important documentation centre open to the public. Its origins go back to the books referred to by museum technicians in Barcelona when preparing for the 1888 Universal Exhibition. In the early-20th century, the Junta de Museus (Museums Board) decided that the library should be opened to the public, and decisive impetus was given to this initiative when the Special Committee for the Library was set up in 1907. From that year onwards, the library holdings were constantly enriched by legacies and donations from important private libraries.

The MNAC Library collections comprise domestic and foreign books and magazines on different aspects of art: monographic works on art and artists; photography; numismatics; local history; a reserve section containing a collection of manuscripts; incunabula such as the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle; works published pre 1900; and the books of artists and collector’s editions. Sections of particular interest include that devoted to exhibition catalogues, established in 1913 and containing printed matter on shows held at galleries in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and even further afield, and ‘The Press’, established in 1968, which brings together news items published in the daily media and of interest to the artworld.

It is thanks to the MNAC publications policy, that many of these works were acquired – it aims to promote exchanges and so provide the Library with copies of works published by museums and art centres all over the world.

The Library facilities are designed to provide MNAC technical staff, researchers, students, art professionals and all individuals interested in the art world with all the information they seek. The reading room provides access to the Library catalogue, the Collective Catalogue of Universities (CCUC), several databases (Princeton University, Index of Christian Art; Bibliography of the History of Art; Art Price), and to databases available on CD-ROM and Internet.

Another important element in the MNAC organisational structure is the Archive, founded as a department in 1995 to standardise management of the museum’s documentary collections. With regard to the origin of these collections, the Archive contains both documentation generated by the Museum since 1991, when the consortium was set up, and historic documents from institutions that now form part of the MNAC: the Museu d'Art de Catalunya (Art Museum of Catalonia), the Museu d'Art Modern (Museum of Modern Art), the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints, the Numismatic Cabinet of Catalonia, and the Library of Art History.

The Archive also conserves invaluable historic documentation in the form of the collections built up by different organising committees for fine art exhibitions (1891–1946). Here, too, are other historic resources related to the world of art and deposited in the Museum over the years.

Finally, the Archive also contains a section devoted to the image, comprising some 350,000 audiovisual documents, mainly photographs, on different supports and in a variety of formats. .