Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial Library

The library founded by Philip II in the Escorial Monastery not only responds to one of the main concerns that the King had throughout his life, that of collecting and hoarding books but also to one of the fundamental ideals of humanism. Humanists such as Juan Páez de Castro, Juan Bautista Cardona, Antonio Agustín, Ambrosio de Morales, Benito Arias Montano, etc., collaborated in the monarch’s plans to create a royal library. In the texts in which they expressed their opinions on this ambitious project, which are still preserved, we find the explanation that the current premises that we know as the Main Hall or Hall of Frescoes were not reduced to being a mere repository for the collections. of books, but also housed everything that could serve to make the library a place of study and scientific work: drawings and engravings, portraits of characters, mathematical and scientific instruments, maps, spheres, astrolabes, reproductions of fauna and flora, monetary and medal table, etc.

Well into the second half of the 16th century, there was still no sizeable public library in Spain similar to those already existing at that time, mainly in Italy, such as that of San Marco in Venice, whose construction was undertaken in 1536, the Laurenciana in Florence, completed in 1571 or the Vatican [in operation since 1450]. It was a widespread desire among humanist scholars of the time to have at least one, in which the literary treasures, both manuscripts and prints, would be brought together. They undoubtedly existed in Spain but were dispersed in the different libraries of monasteries, cathedrals, and individuals.

The chronicler Juan Páez de Castro played a pivotal role in articulating this collective desire. In a well-reasoned ‘Memorial’ to Philip II, he made a compelling case for the urgent need to establish a public library, with a special emphasis on the inclusion of ‘handbooks’. This memorial , a treasured autograph in the RBME (sign. &-II-15), is divided into four parts, each presenting a cogent argument for the library’s creation.

” Four things,” Páez de Castro says in it, ” I will briefly discuss. The first is the antiquity of bookstores and the esteem in which they were held by ancient kings and later by Roman emperors […]. The second is from the honor and benefit that comes to the kingdom and the entire nation. The third, of the place where it will be built, and how the building will be distributed, [and] what will be placed in each apartment. The books and other things will be gathered” (published by Blas Antonio Nasarre, Chief Librarian of King Ferdinand VI, in 1749, p.7s.; and republished by the Junta de Castilla y León to commemorate Book Day in 2003)

Páez de Castro proposed Valladolid as a place to find it, “both because VM resides there many times and because of the royal audience, universities, colleges, and monasteries and frequency of all nations. ” But, when in 1559 Philip II left the Netherlands to return to Spain and chose Madrid as the permanent seat of his court, he rejected Páez de Castro’s advice to establish his great Library in Valladolid, or Salamanca, or Alcalá, or some other central city with a university atmosphere, and decided, against the opinion of some humanists, that the place of that library would be the monastery that he had planned, probably, since the death of Charles V (1558), which would include a basilica, a royal pantheon, palace, convent for Hieronymite monks, hospital, seminary, college of arts and sacred theology, and a library, as stated in the charter or deed of foundation.