The Secularization of Conventual Libraries in Catalonia during the Crisis of the Ancien Regime

This article analyzes the repercussions that had for the bibliographical heritage of Catalonia the initiatives of secularization that were carried out in Spain from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century: expulsion of the Jesuits (1767), War of the Spanish Independence (1808-1814), Liberal Triennium (1820-1823) and governments of Toreno and Mendizabal (1835-1836). The good intentions pursued by the legislation regarding the safeguard of the cultural heritage that the religious houses were preserving were annulled by the reality brought by the wars, the economic difficulties and the bureaucratic disability of the Spanish State. A great part of the conventual libraries of Catalonia was pillaged or destroyed. The books that could be saved were gathered in episcopal libraries or new public created libraries. These centers operated more as warehouses of books, for academic and erudite use, than as platforms for the diffusion of the habit of reading between the citizens.