Marina Estevez Torreblanca
Madrid, Apr 22 (EFE).- More than 1,500 citizens visit the National Library this Saturday on its open day to see valuable spaces usually closed to the public of the oldest cultural institution in Spain, which keeps jewels such as incunabula, manuscripts, atlases, drawings, prints, posters or music.
After a long wait in the rain, the first visitors to enter at 9:00 in the morning (the last visit is scheduled at 2:00 p.m., already with all the tickets distributed) have found the surprise that their guide would be the director of the Library, Ana Santos Aramburo, who has led a group of 25 people through the different rooms open on this occasion.
“For us it is a satisfaction and a great responsibility”, Santos assured EFE after the one-hour visit, in which he proudly showed and in a festive atmosphere “what men and women before us have been capable of creating , dream and think, and have reflected on some kind of support”.
After queuing around various buildings, visitors have been able to see incunabula such as Giovanni Boccaccio’s “De las mujeres ilustres” (1494), the manuscript of “La dama boba” (1613) by Lope de Vega or the personal archives of Antonio Muñoz Molina, donated by the author himself.
Also several stories by Calleja (which gave rise to the famous saying “you have more stories than Calleja”) from the beginning of the 20th century; the first Spanish video game, “La pulga”, or the one considered the best of those produced in this country, “La abadía del crimen”. The perforated disc of “La verbena de la Paloma” is also shown, available in all formats since it was created; or the first edition of “El rayo que no cesa” (1936), by Miguel Hernández.
The visits on this day, financed by the Friends of the National Library Foundation, have been organized into two parallel tours in which the public has also learned how to bind a book in a practical way or consult copies in the different rooms.
In a relaxed atmosphere in the usually silent and solemn spaces of the library, there have been anecdotes such as that of a pianist who participated in one of the tours, and who was invited by his guide, one of the institution’s librarians, to try one of the guarded instruments.
Founded in 1711 as the Royal Public Library by Felipe V, the National Library houses the created works produced in Spanish territory since the beginning of the 18th century (books, records, magazines, video games…). The institution also guards a rich historical collection in which the Papyrus of Ezekiel, dated between the 2nd and 3rd centuries, is the oldest piece.
Of course, the first edition of Don Quixote, from 1605, whose author, Miguel de Cervantes, died on April 23, 1616, like William Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega, is kept, which is why this Sunday is celebrated throughout the world. World Book Day, with which this open day usually coincides.
In total there are 35 million documents, mostly stored in a second headquarters in Alcalá de Henares, which was inaugurated in 1993, and which has six towers already built and a seventh in the pipeline.
It is, therefore, an enormous bibliographic and documentary collection that includes books, magazines, maps, engravings, drawings, scores, brochures, etc. And that is increasing at the rate of half a million units a year, both in physical and digital format.
In fact, many old works have already been digitized, and it continues as one of its main projects, for consultation by the public and researchers through the National Hispanic Library, where they can be freely downloaded. In addition, it is possible at any time to obtain the library membership card with only the DNI, and that of a researcher with the support of a University.