Ramon Miquel y Planas and his Biblioteca catalana: medievalism, publishing and bibliophilia in early twentieth-century Barcelona

Abstract

RAMON Miquel y Planas (1874-1950) was the complete bookman. He published on the history of texts, binding, printing and bookplates; folklore and criticism of contemporary literature; preceptive works on publishing; and on the normalization of Catalan. His most enduring works, however, are his editions of medieval and Renaissance texts in a number of series, most notably the popular Histories daltre temps and the luxurious Biblioteca catalana. Here the hand of Miquel shaped every aspect of the book, physical and intellectual: the choice of typeface, of paper, the choice of graphics and binding, the establishment of the text, the critical matter (including some opinionated aperçus), seeing the work through the press (the vicissitudes minutely documented in the preliminaries and colophons) and the often difficult financing.