Hernando Colon's New World of Books by Jose Maria Perez Fernandez

Author:Jose Maria Perez Fernandez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2020-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

The next testimony to the neglect that the books were suffering can be found in a report the Chapter requested from its archivist, Ignacio de Valencia. Dated 25 August 1788, it also includes a brief history of the library. De Valencia points out that during the sixteenth century the Chapter spent considerable funds on beautiful new shelves (estantes primorosos) and the decoration of the room (mandó adornar la pieza en que estaban con varias pinturas del insigne sevillano Luis de Vargas). But his report also laments that many volumes, owing to the negligence of the custodians, were left in inexperienced and unqualified hands and vanished either by theft or by loans that were never recorded, and that the remaining books had been damaged by moths and humidity.35 The bibliographer and scholar Bartolomé José Gallardo (1776–1852) recorded the testimony of Rafael Tabares, one of the librarians in the early eighteenth century, to the effect that “as a boy he went there with others to play, and they amused themselves leafing through the illuminated books and prints, in particular the ancient liturgical manuscripts, some of which had lovely illustrations in beautiful colors.”36

A new librarian, Diego Alejandro Gálvez, was finally appointed on 3 September 1759. With Gálvez also came some funds to move the collection to the Patio de los Naranjos in the opposite wing of the cathedral complex. De Valencia reports that the shelves were renovated and wire mesh was installed as well as locks, in an attempt to protect the books. Moths and humidity, however, continued to wreak havoc: de Valencia reckoned that during this period around three hundred volumes perished on account of the lack of proper care, airing, and cleaning. Rafael Tabares, who was appointed by Gálvez as his assistant in 1777, further reported that many of the books were taken as the library was decanted from one space to another. The bleeding and destruction continued slowly but unabatedly.37 In an episode with decidedly Sisyphean overtones, Gálvez took up the task of reordering the books after they had been moved to the new space. For this task he had a paucity of funds and the help of just two assistants—the aforementioned Rafael Tabares and Juan Nemopuceno González de León, who soon fell ill and quit, leaving Tabares and Gálvez to face this labor alone. As Loaysa had done before them, they restored some damaged books, and they created a new catalogue, a remarkable Índice de impresos y manuscritos (figs. 27 and 28). Their work represented a much-needed advance on the labors of Loaysa a century before. The rearrangement of the books and the work on the catalogue dragged on from 1777 to 1790. Finally, on 28 April 1790, Gálvez and Tabares completed their three-volume manuscript catalogue. The documentation strongly suggests that Rafael Tabares is the unsung hero of these years, during which he was very much on the front line, as it were, in the diligent reorganization of the books and the elaboration of the

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