Biblioteca històrica (Universitàt de València), Universitat de Valencia

Valencia, Spain

Contacts

Carrer de la Universitat, 2 | Carrer de la Nau, 2 - 46003 València

(+34) 963525478

https://www.uv.es/uvweb/servei-biblioteques-documentacio/ca/biblioteca-historica/novetats-1285874781823.html

Description

The origin of the Library goes back to the donation, in 1785, of the books of the Valencian icon Francesc Pérez Baier. It was inaugurated in 1788, with Vicent Blasco as rector. Following this generous example, other professors offered their libraries to expand the nascent university "library". Unfortunately, during the Napoleonic invasion a bomb fell on the University building and caused a fire, as a result of which most of this foundation fund was lost. This catastrophe served as an incentive to Valencian rectors, professors and patricians, who rebuilt the Library, bequeathing their private collections to it. Among them, Vicent Blasco, Domènec Mascarós (first librarian of the institution), Salvador Perellós and Onofre Soler. The University, for its part, carried out a purchase policy that served to increase its already rich fund. It opened its doors again in 1837 with this fund, plus the works from the libraries of the convents suppressed by the confiscation of Mendizábal. For this concept, they entered the books that had belonged to the convents of the Discalced Carmelites, the Franciscans, the Augustinians (of Alcoi, Xàtiva and Valencia), the Discalced Trinitarians, the Dominicans, the Order of Montesa, etc.; the most important and valuable fund, however, was the one from the monastery of Sant Miquel dels Reis, with the legacy of Ferdinand of Aragon, Duke of Calabria.