The most remarkable of the National Library Museum
If we walk down Serrano Street, we cannot avoid running into the facade of the National Library, which develops in us a curiosity to analyze its details. The powerful columns that hold the pediment seem. If we lift our head slightly, we find medallions that, like the statues, embody illustrious writers such as Fray Luis de León, Quevedo, Santa Teresa de Jesús … is when we raise our heads to heaven when our eyes find the pediment. And it is at that time that you realize that you are facing an important house of the knowledge of the arts, science and letters, guarded by peace: poetry, music, architecture, painting, sculpture, Philology, History ..
Apart from this magnificent visual experience, crossing the doors of the museum that is next to the staircase we immerse ourselves in a trip through time. When we enter the first rooms we discover the history of the National Library (former Public Library Network). In turn, various audiovisual resources explain the library aspects. The writing room and supports are curious, in which we can find from a “bic” ball to supports such as scrolls or papyri. We continue touring the corridors of the museum and discover the minimum room. This shows us the history of knowledge and its dissemination: facsimiles, incunable, codices. But what is most interesting is the generalized knowledge that begins to develop from the birth of the printing press in the fifteenth century. Until then the printed books were called incunable, another aspect that is treated in the exhibition. The monks were responsible for capturing knowledge. Thus, this function of reproduction and dissemination of knowledge belonged to the Catholic Church, also with the power of censorship. Thanks to Johannes Gutenberg, the work capacity was extended, being the printing companies in charge of printing the texts, whose topics were expanded. This depended on the request or the readers’ commission. The printing press revolutionized culture, because the number of books multiplied, as well as the number of readers, which had increased considerably. This meant for literacy a great impulse, because knowledge was extending.
Another aspect that I would like to highlight from the exhibition are the facsimiles. They suppose an almost identical reproduction of the original document. In this way, the National Library provides facsimiles of its most valuable documents as a security measure, and the privilege of admiring the original document is reserved only to those who request it. Before the invention of the printing press, the facsimiles were reproduced in parchments, whose characteristics are inimitable.
To conclude, the experience of visiting the National Library Museum was so interesting that there is no doubt that you should visit many more times, including the library itself, in whose stays we did not have the opportunity to stop.
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