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Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid

Link to Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid

This content description is also available in Spanish

Historical note

Created by Philip V, the Royal Library opened to the public in 1712. It contained in its initial collection works originally from the Librería de la Torre Alta del Alcázar, books brought by Philip V from France, and the deposit libraries of the supporters of Archduke Charles of Austria in the War of Succession. From this century onward a strong acquisitions policy allowed for growth through incorporation of important manuscript and print libraries.

The 19th century saw important growth in the collections of the Library that, from 1836 on, would be called the National Library. During this period convent libraries abolished by the Mendizábal secularisation were added, as well as important personal libraries purchased on the deaths of their owners or donated by their heirs. These include the libraries of Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber (1849), Agustín Durán (1863), Cayetano Alberto de la Barrera y Leirado (1868), the Marquis de la Romana – that formed a large part of the Camarista de Castilla Fernando José de Velasco y Ceballos library – Serafín Estébanez Calderón, Luis de Usoz y Río (1873), Countess de Campo Alange (1884), Ricardo Heredia (1891 and 1894), Luis Carmena y Millán (1892), Francisco Asenjo Barbieri (1894), and Pascual de Gayangos (1899).

During this period specialised libraries on topics such as the federalism of Francisco Pi y Margall (1902), those of José María Asensio y Toledo (1949) and Juan Sedó Peris-Mencheta (1968) on Cervantes and his works, that of Antonio Graiño (1959) on Philippine works, Tomás García Figueras (1966) on African topics, and the Manuel Gómez Imaz collection (1977) on the War of Independence (1808-1814) against the invading Napoleonic forces were added.

Name and coverage of file

Most of the bibliographic records originate from the contribution made until 1990 by the Biblioteca Nacional to the Spanish Bibliographic Patrimony Collective Catalogue. Description is provided, book-in-hand, for works printed in Spain or Spanish America, or in the Spanish languages, during the 17th century, for authors whose names begin with the letters A – F, and works printed outside of Spain for authors whose names begin with letters A – B.

In addition to the code that identifies the BNE as the cataloguing agency in these records, other codes can appear that identify cataloguing centres in the different Autonomous Communities that send records to the Spanish Bibliographic Patrimony Collective Catalogue. [For example: AR = Aragón, AS = Asturias, CAM = Madrid, CARM = Murcia, CLS = Castilla y León, CV = Valencia, GA = Galicia.]

The rest of the records represent works acquired by the BNE since the end of the 1980s. Records originating from the reconversion of manual catalogues, and not benefiting from book-in-hand description, are scheduled for future completion.

Mode of cataloguing

All of the records catalogued using book-in-hand have been created according to ISBD(A) and the BNE Reglas de Catalogación and are rich in notes information (typographic signatures and illustrations). The copy notes are included in separate records that have not been sent in this first delivery of records to HPB.

In some works non-roman titles have been substituted by three hyphens. Copies bound together have been individually described, linking them to the record for the corresponding edition. In the associated notes for such records the circumstance for their being bound together will be indicated.

In the case of incomplete copies description has been made using different reference works treating complete copies of this title. The missing parts are indicated in a copy note. If the correct edition for the copy cannot be identified the description dates will be included between brackets.

Present/Absent fields

Personal name headings, whether authors, collaborators or subjects, have been standardised. Birth and death dates are included in some of the personal name entries, as are titles designating nobility, office, or religious order.

In the publication statement places, booksellers, publishers and printer names are provided for practically all Spanish works, and for some foreign works. In some materials like unbound sheets (ballads, correspondences, carols), briefs, plays, etc., form/genre terms have been assigned to facilitate retrieval.

Treatment of multivolume works

When a title, printer or pagination discrepancy is found in different volumes of a work, individualised description is provided. In foreign works two levels of description can be observed in a broad contents note or individualised description for each volume.

Recommendations for searching

It’s possible to search by author, title, printer, and place of publication, in the form that they appear in the work or in the standardised forms. Uniform titles exist for some literary, legal, and religious forms in accordance with the Reglas de Catalogación. Information regarding persons related to a work can be identified using the following normalised abbreviations:

Anot. - annotator Com. - commentator Dib. - designer Ed. – editor Ed. Lit. – literary editor Grab. – engraver Il. – illustrator Imp. – printer Pr. – preface Tr. – translator Trad. – translator

Descriptions of illustrations included in the works can be found looking in the notes for engravers or woodblock printers using “grabados calcográficos” or “xilográficos” or their abbreviations: grab., calc., or xil. Searches can be limited by country or language of the publication using standardised codes. The same is true with the date of publication. In the case of printings without a publication date on the title page or colophon, the abbreviation “s.a.” can appear in the publication field, but the coded information reflects whatever date was included as a note in the description and can approximate a date of publication (certificates, licenses, commendations, described events, known flourishing date of the printer). Topical headings are present in many records, including form/genre terms assigned for some works such as ballads, sermons, carols, plays, legal statements, etc.

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 resources/hpb/content/biblioteca_nacional_de_espana_madrid.1350996026.txt.gz · Last modified: 2012/10/23 14:40 by baldwin

 

 

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