pinned.events

In 1884, after lengthy negotiations, the Spanish state acquired the library of the House of Osuna. Built over generations and comprising more than 35,000 printed volumes and manuscripts, it was one of the country’s most important bibliographic collections. Its future had been thrown into doubt by the financial troubles of the twelfth Duke of Osuna, Mariano Téllez Girón, and the risk that the books would be dispersed after his death in 1882. An economic agreement with his widow, María Leonor de Salm-Salm, made it possible for the Ministry of Public Works to purchase the collection and divide it mainly between the National Library of Spain and the libraries of the Senate and Congress. Between 1888 and 1892, the remaining books were distributed to around ten university libraries, including the University of Valencia. This exhibition follows the collection’s journey to the Historical Library of the University of Valencia and highlights both the value of the surviving works and the long-standing work of the institution’s staff in locating and cataloguing copies. Dukes, duchesses, librarians, binders, and the volumes themselves guide visitors through a twofold journey: one focused on the figures who built and preserved a public reference library between the XVIII and XIX centuries, and another on the books as objects, now historical, cultural, and heritage witnesses to the House of Osuna.