The collection of engravings has more than 11.270 separate plates. The most ancient are from the second half of the 16th century and the most modern from the first half of the 20th, from Spanish and European scopes and with a well represented variety of techniques.

 

Most of the collection comes from a donation made by the Biblioteca Nacional de España to the Universitat de Barcelona in 1887. According to the reports of this institution from that year, 213 duplicates and 5.402 plates were donated but with no more detailed information.  A characteristic of these engravings is that they are stamped with the inscription: “Biblioteca Nacional enajenado”. Some of them also have a stamp referring to their former origin: “Colección del Sr. Dn. V. Carderera adquirida por el gobierno en 1867”.

 

We also have evidence of a donation from the Calcografía Nacional to our library in 1881, but in this case we do not have any evidence of quantity or any other information about the material donated. 

 

All the engravings have a unique reference number made up of various elements that reflect the order in which they are organized: dimensions (indicated by a letter), origin (Spanish or foreign), century, name of engraver, and number of record.

All the engravings are inventoried in two record books available for consultation in the Rare Books and Manuscripts CRAI library room or through an email request to: bib.fonsantic@ub.edu.

 

Online Catalogue

 

The engravings in the online catalog are included in the Genre = gravats, and the vast majority of Spanish engravings are already included and include access to their image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Memory of Catalonia 

 

 

Digitized prints can also be viewed through the MDC's collection (MDC (Digital Memory of Catalonia).

 Engravings in the Blog de Fons Antic