La colección de incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia: tras las huellas y vacíos de su formación*

Robinson López Arévalo[1]

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

Reception: 22/10/2015

Evaluation: 22/04/2016

Approval: 06/05/2016

Research and Innovation Article

Resumen

Este texto hace un recorrido por la forma en que se reunió la colección de incunables que hacen parte del acervo bibliográfico de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, manifestando cómo han sido sometidos a diferentes organizaciones, sistemas de catalogación y ubicaciones. Factores como: el motivo y momento de la entrada de los libros dan cuenta de la relación que los individuos y las comunidades han tenido con el libro antiguo. Para su elaboración se indagó en los diferentes catálogos e índices que ha tenido la Biblioteca y en los informes de los directores de la misma. Éste constituye un primer paso hacia el reconocimiento y la difusión del patrimonio bibliográfico colombiano.

Palabras clave: incunable, Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, patrimonio bibliográfico, libro antiguo.

The Collection of Incunabula of the National Library of Colombia: through the traces of and gaps in its formation

Abstract

This article tracks the formation of the incunabula collection that forms part of the stock of the National Library of Colombia, manifesting how this collection has been subject to different forms of organization, systems of cataloguing and locations. Factors such as the reason and moment of entry of books account for the relation that individuals and communities have held with ancient and rare books. In order to do this, we examined different catalogues and indexes that the library has had, as well as the reports presented by its directors. This study constitutes a first step towards the recognition and dissemination of the Colombian bibliographical patrimony.

Key words: Incunabula, National Library of Colombia, bibliographical patrimony, rare and ancient books.

La collection d’incunables de la Bibliothèque Nationale de la Colombie: sur les traces et les vides de sa formation

Résumé

Ce texte retrace les origines de la collection d’incunables qui constitue une partie du patrimoine bibliographique de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Colombie, en montrant comment elle a été soumise à différents types d’organisation et catalogation. Des facteurs comme les raisons de l’entrée des livres à la Bibliothèque et le moment où celle-là s’est produite rendent compte de la relation que les individus et les communautés ont entretenue avec le livre ancien. Pour l’élaboration de cet article nous avons étudié les différents catalogues de la Bibliothèque ainsi que les rapports rédigés par ses directeurs. Il s’agit de faire un premier pas vers la constitution et la diffusion du patrimoine bibliographique colombien.

Mots-clés: incunable, Bibliothèque Nationale de Colombie, patrimoine bibliographique, livre ancien.

Introduction

What is an incunabulum? The Gutenberg Bible or the 42-line Bible is considered to be the first printed work in the west using mobile type, the first copies were available around 1454. The concept of incunabula ^[2] is used to designate the works that were printed between the point in which said Bible was elaborated and the year 1500. Albert Labarre, a leading book historian, estimates at between thirty thousand and thirty-five thousand, the number of editions published in the fifteenth century, represented by about 20 million books. As regards output, he mentions that, before 1480, there were between 100 and 150 copies; subsequently, some editions reached 1000 or even 2000, but the average remained between 400 and 500 until the end of the fifteenth century^[3].

The incunabula keep among their pages elements that testify to the process of the construction of the printed book, that is to say, the entire journey that led to the creation of the book as the object that we know today, it is there where its importance lies. On the other hand, although it is the same edition, each incunabulum is unique, and in its time each book has belonged to different people, has been read by different eyes and inscribed by different hands; hence its analysis is not the study of an object, but rather of the relationship of human beings and the culture of the printing press.

The National Library of Colombia (hereinafter BNC, by its acronym in Spanish) has 50 titles of incunabula, filled in 36 volumes. The collection does not come from the same origin and its formation follows different historical situations: the expulsion of the Jesuits, the extinction of religious communities and perhaps some donations. Only from the second half of the nineteenth century did the incunabulum term begin to be used in the BNC and it was only in 1997 or 1998 that the decision was made to group them into a bibliographic fund, with the symbol RI - Raros incunables (Rare Incunabula) [4]- as they are organized currently. In this text, for the identification of the books, the symbol RI will be used instead of the title since each volume can have several titles, as is the case of RI 3 that contains 7 different incunabulum works; when used for the first time the signature will be clarified in parentheses if the volume has more than one title.

The usefulness of this work is that it contributes new information and corrects that had on incunabula, as it includes numerous sources that are available thanks to the mass use of the internet. A task that has to be done is the exact identification of the BNC's 223 post-incunabula (1501-1530), since many lack covers and colophons, and therefore the date of printing is approximate; it is necessary to rule out whether an incunabulum exists among these. Although this work focuses on the formation of collections, the work of cataloging and the asset valuation of the books is already advanced.

Next, a tally is made of the most important and pioneering studies on incunabula, in Europe and in Colombia; all of them oriented towards the identification, cataloging and study of how the collections have been assembled.

The term incunabula was first used to define this type of book in 1640, by Bernhard von Mallinckrodt, in his short work titled, De ortu et progressu artis typographicae (The Ascent and Progress of Typographic Art), in which he also delimited the incunabulum period to the first 50 years of the printing press. Then, in 1643, Johann Saubert, in his Historia Bibliothecae reipublicae Noribergensis (History of the Library of Nuremberg), published the first inventory of incunabula, giving continued use to the term coined by the former.

Published in 1925, in German, the book entitled Handbuch der Inkunabelkunde (Introduction to the study of incunabula) is arguably the most important reference work for the study of these books. Its author, Konrad Haebler, worked in the libraries of Dresden and Berlin, and was part of the group that produced the first results of the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (Collective catalog of incunabula[5] ). The transcendence of the work is due to the fact that it is the first that systematically proposes, describes and studies the most important elements of incunabula: title, author, colophon, watermarks of the paper, stamps of the printer, marginalia, registrum, signatures, columns, marks of ownership, engravings, etc.; although later studies have corrected some of his assertions[6].

The German magazine Gutenberg Jahrbuch (Gutenberg Yearbook), published since 1926, is dedicated to the history of books and printing; it specializes in first prints and in the life and works of Johannes Gutenberg. The yearbook, published in Mainz; offers articles in German, French, English, Italian and Spanish; and is delivered to affiliates of the Gutenberg Society.

In France, the cataloging of incunabula dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, when, in 1886, Marie Pellechet began the elaboration of the Catalogue général des incunables des bibliothèques publiques de France, whose first volume was published in 1897. The last publication of the National Library of France: Catalogue des incunables, offers a description of 12000 Incunabula in 8000 different editions; although the work began in 1978, its first volume was not published until 1981 and, in 2014, the last installment was made.

The Bodleian Library, in 2005, published the Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century now in the Bodleian Library, a work that besides being a catalog and manual for classifying and describing incunabula, makes a wide historical tour of how the collection was formed, through donations and purchases, and how they have been treated in the library. This fund has 6700 incunabula in 5600 different editions. The elaboration of the catalog took ten years, which has its roots in 100 years of work, and even more, considering that the first catalog of the library was published in 1605, containing a section dedicated to incunabula. Also highlighted is the Catalogue of Books Printed in the 15th Century now in the British Library; the first three parts are dedicated to German incunabula, from the fourth to the seventh to Italian, the eighth to French, the ninth to Dutch, the tenth to Spanish and Portuguese, the eleventh to English, the twelfth again to Italian and the thirteenth to Hebrew; numerous researchers have worked since the beginning of the 20th century on this catalog, among them: Robert Proctor, Alfred W. Pollard, Adriaan Offenberg, Lotte Hellinga and Paul Needham.

Julián Martín Abad, produced Catálogo bibliográfico de la colección de incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de España, in which 3158 copies are registered in 2297 editions. This book recounts how the incunabula entered the library and how they have been cataloged and grouped over three centuries.

Colombia has a brief bibliography on the subject, and its most representative elements are mentioned below. The book Cinco incunables en la biblioteca general de la Universidad de los Andes gives an account of the books that were donated to this university, by the Chilean Oswaldo R. Buckle, in 1975[7]. It is a text oriented towards diffusion, although it does not leave aside the bibliographic analysis of the old books. The included studies have a biography of the author, a note about the editor, a review of the work and a description of the structure of the books. The work does not report on the handwritten inscriptions and the trajectory of the incunabula before being acquired by Buckle.

In 1982, the Banco de la República published the first catalog of incunabula made in Colombia, entitled Incunables de la Biblioteca Luis Angel-Arango del Banco de la República[8]. This work follows the traditional guidelines of the bibliographic studies when reviewing the 33 incunabula that the library has, it also contains the transcription of some pages and the biographies of a few authors. It also includes reproductions of some important parts, such as the cover, the colophon and the illustrated capital letters. It does not always clarify whether the incunabulum has any marks of ownership, handwritten inscriptions or miniature capitularies.

In 2010, Villegas published El libro de los libros [9]. This is an attempt to disseminate the most representative visual attributes of ancient books, it is not a text for specialists or a catalog; its strength is in the visual impact it produces in someone who is approaching the subject for the first time. Of the two volumes of which it is composed, it barely devotes a few pages to show the most outstanding characteristics of 6 of the 12 incunabula that the library of the Universidad Javeriana owns.

In the same line, so as to make known to the lay public the most important works it possesses, is found the title Tesoros del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario[10]. It outlines four of the 12 incunabula that are guarded among their institutional collections, with more emphasis on the visual than on the bibliographical. La invención de la imprenta y los libros incunables[11] is a work that studies the incunabula of the Universidad del Rosario. It is undoubtedly the most complete within this group of books dedicated to the subject, in the national environment. Almost half of the book deals with reviewing the historical development of the book, from antiquity to the fifteenth century; in addition to enumerating and defining the most important characteristics of the incunabula using a distinguished bibliography. The part dedicated to the incunabula of the university is in part a catalog, an in-depth description and an analysis of their uses; including the smallest details.

In 1924, Marco Fidel Suarez, as thanks for the support received during his government, presented to the Council of Cucuta, a copy, on parchment, of the Liber Cronicarum, printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger, in 1493. In Cúcuta, two works have been written related to this incunabulum. The first: Una mirada al libro Crónicas de Núremberg, Incunable propiedad de la ciudad de Cúcuta[12], makes a small account for the most important aspects of the incunabulum and reproduces several of the engravings of this book. In the second: Monstruos y prodigios, y Rameras y esposas[13], were copied texts of several old books and engravings of the same incunabulum; attempting a reflection on how the themes of its title have been treated in the bibliographic material; its main objective is the diffusion and appropriation of the work.

In general, the works produced in Colombia on incunabula are intended to more or less exhaustively catalog the incunabula. Although they do not account for valuable information for their analysis, for example: how the collections were formed, the uses of the book, the names of the owners, the location in other libraries, the uniqueness of the work and the themes. In truth, these are the first attempts aimed at disseminating these corpuses and the knowledge contained in them.

This article is not a catalog of incunabula, since to date the records are available online through the bibliographic catalog of the BNC. Nor is it framed within the specific works on printers, types of letters, paper, watermarks, etc. This text aims to describe, as far as possible, how the BNC's collection of incunabula was formed, and to reconstruct the way in which these books have been treated: uses, catalogs, groupings, losses, etc. Its main quality as an academic work resides in an attempt to methodize the knowledge about this type of book, in order to facilitate its diffusion and access as part of the national bibliographic heritage.

For the elaboration of this work the old BNC paper catalogs were used, some digitized secondary sources available through the web, the Online Catalog of the Library of Congress of the United States, the Catalog Of the British Library (in particular its incunabula section, called Incunabula Short Title Catalogue, hereinafter ISTC), the collection of incunabula digitized by the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothec), and the incunabula section of the National Diet Library website. The same incunabula, with the traces of readers and possessors, became an important source of information in order to discover the origins of the collection.

The incunabula of the foundational library

By foundational library is understood that collection of works collected after the seizure carried out by the Spanish crown of the goods of the Society of Jesus, with which the Royal Public Library of Santafé was formed, in 1777.

Reviewing the Inventario de la Biblioteca Común del Colegio Máximo de la Compañía de Jesús de Bogotá was the first task in order to identify the incunabula that were registered in the oldest inventory that the BNC has. The work was complicated because the inventory records only include the author, the number of volumes, the size and the type of binding; and lacks the year of printing, the name of the printer, and in general, the data is often vague and ambiguous[14].

The only incunabulum that can be identified with surety in this inventory is Summa que destructorium viciorum apellat, belonging to the section "Moraliste" (Moralist), and currently bearing the symbol RI 35. It is possible that RI 3 (seven titles) is referenced in the Inventario (inventory) as " ITEM. Otro Arte. Un tomo en octava, de pergamino al num^o 2”, "is the only Arte”[15] found in the BNC; it is part of the Gramáticos (Grammar) section. RI 17 (two titles) most likely is in the section "Concionatores" (Preachers), under the following record: "Jacobus de Vorágine Sermones de tempore per totum anni circulum. 1 tomo 8^a, pergamino, n^o 6"[16]. As can be appreciated, the incunabula were organized within thematic groups, like the rest of the collection, and they had no special treatment. RI 2 is not in the Inventario, it is curious that it has a bookplate of the Society of Jesus of Bogota, the Public Library and the Franciscans, however, it is not clear when it belonged to each community.

Given the limitations found in the Inventario de la Biblioteca Común, a solution was to look for bookplates or property marks existing in the works, whether signatures, notes or stamps. It should be clarified that some of the property marks were crossed out, torn or lost over time, so that only information that could be read clearly was taken into account. Those who have the bookplate of the Society of Jesus are: RI 1, RI 2, RI 3, RI 17 and RI 35. RI 1 came from Tunja, so it could not be in this Inventario, which is only made up of books from the Colegio Máximo de Bogotá.

Counting each piece of the volumes, in total 12 incunabula titles belonged to the Society of Jesus, that is to say, they are part of the expropriated books left after the expulsion of 1767.

Mark of ownership of the Society of Jesus of Santafe.

Source: taken from Elio Antonio de Nebrija. Aelii Antonii Nebrissensis gramatici introductionum latinarum. Burgos: Fadrique de Basilea, 1496 (RI 3, Piece 1).

The incunabula of the Royal Library

Four incunabula entered the collections of the BNC when the Royal Public Library of Santafé still existed, but they have no mark indicating that they belonged to the Society; these are: RI 13, RI 15 (two titles) and RI 36. Only 3 have the stamp of the Royal Library. While RI 36 is in the Índice general de libros que tiene esta Real Biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Santafé[17], in the Canonistas (Canonists section). As in the previous Inventario, the incunabula were organized within thematic groups. Of the books that belonged to the Jesuits, RI 1 and RI 35 were not found in this Índice general, despite having the stamp of the Royal Library; RI 13 also does not appear as registered in the Índice. It is important to note that the origin of the works is unknown, as is the exact moment of their inclusion within the collection, although the period of entry had to have been between 1777 and 1819, that is, between the opening of the Royal Library and the departure of the Spanish from Bogota.

In 1796, Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez wrote

[…] the current librarian of this capital wishes to see the age of the oldest book in the Royal Library ... he found three that may be the oldest that can be found in all America ... one whose author, title and date are the ones we transcribe: Joan Valensis Ordinis Fratrum Minorum. De Regimine Vitae Humanae. Impress. Venetiis, Anno Domini M.CCCC.XCVI. Another printed in Nuremberg the same year of 1496, its author Antonio Koberger, and its title: Summa que Destructorium viciorum appellatur[18].

The librarian refers to RI 01 and RI 35, the latter confuses the printer with the author. Also, although he talks about three books, he mentioned only two[19].

The incunabula of the Republic

In the Índice alfabético de los libros de la Biblioteca Pública de la ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogotá[20] appear the twelve incunabula that belonged to the Society of Jesus and the four that entered when the Royal Library of Santafé still existed. This catalog presents innumerable problems for the identification of the works. For example, although most are in alphabetical order by the author's surname, sometimes they were alphabetized by name. Other times the works are not in the section that they should be in, for example: the work of Valensis Joannes (RI 1) appears in the Literatura (Literature) section when it should be in Moralists; Arte by Nebrija (RI 3-piece 1) also appears in Moralists when it should be in Grammar. On other occasions, the name of the author was omitted and the book was alphabetized by the title of the work, as is the case of the work Summa casuum conscientiae (RI 2), known as Rosella casuum, which is in the Biblia (Bible) section and its exhibitors in the letter R - for Rosella - when it should be in S - for Salis. The name of the authors was confused with another person mentioned in the book; for example, the Liber ad Almansorem sive Tractatus medicinae I-X (RI 15-piece. 1) is attributed to Hieronymus de Manfredis but its author is Rhasis Mohammed. The same happened to Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez, the author of Summa que destructorium viciorum apellat, which was exchanged for its printer, then it appears in the letter K for Kobergerg and not in C for Carpentarius. In another case, the first letter of the surname of the author of Opera medica (RI 13) Guainerius Antonius, is changed for an S, in such a way that it became Suainerio. Finally, the records do not have the year of printing, as occurs with Repertorium de pravitate haereticorum (RI 36).

Stamp and monogram of the Public Library of Santafe (RI 1)[21]

Source: taken from Valensis Joannes. Summa Ioannis Valensis de regimine vitae humane. Venice: Georgius de Arrivabenus, 1946.

Distributing the books according to the divisional categories used in the inventory of 1767, and the indexes of 1777 and 1823, these would be classified in the following themes

Theme	Quantity
Grammatical	7
Medical	3
Moralist	3
Preachers	2
Canonist	1
Total	16

Table1. Quantities of works by themes, according to the colonial catalogs[22]

En 1855, se utilizó un nuevo sello para la biblioteca y solo 11 títulos tienen este rótulo, como está pegado es muy posible que a los otros se le haya desprendido; dado que 16 incunables estaban en la BNC en 1823, 5 perdieron este rótulo.

In 1855, a new stamp was used for the library and only 11 titles have this label. As it is glued, it is very possible that the others have become detached; given that 16 incunabula were in the BNC in 1823, 5 lost this label.

In 1856, new catalogs were printed by language (Spanish, French, English and Latin), and in them, the great themes changed. For example, the catalog of works printed in Latin was divided as follows: arts and crafts, ecclesiastical sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, natural sciences, philosophy, history, literature, medicine, and politics and jurisprudence; as can be seen, the many religious themes that existed before came to be called the ecclesiastical sciences; and, grammar was included within literature. Compared with the Índice of 1823, which shows a colonial organization of the library, the new cataloging totally changes this organization. The record includes the number of the shelf, the number of the work, the author, the title, the year of printing and the volumes; although the data is not always complete.

Nine works, of the incunabula mentioned above, are referenced in the Catalog of 1856. The incunabula RI 39 and RI 40[23] appear for the first time. There is no RI 03, which belonged to the Jesuits, the Royal Library of Santafé and the Public Library, and there are several possible explanations. First, because it is not easy to identify the works within the catalog, for example, Hieronymus de Manfredis was again credited with RI 15-piece 1, its author being Rhasis Mohammed; as in the Índice of 1823, Guainerius Antonius is changed to "Suayneiro Antonius" (RI 13). Some books were not included in the catalog, and are vaguely described in two handwritten pages at the end of manuscript 456, for example, one that appears as "[anonymous author]" and another as "Christian work". According to the notes of the same catalog some works were taken as duplicate but, in reality they were different[24]. Another drawback has to do with "many are out of place; for example, among the ecclesiastical sciences appear the poetical works of Petrarch and the medical ones of Luis Mercado ... There is not a single work in the library whose title has been copied according to the rules of the bibliography ... "[25]. Some of the works referenced in the catalog were not delivered to the librarian José María Quijano Otero, a fact that the latter clarified in a copy of the same catalog containing his handwritten notes[26]. Another explanation for these absences is that the work is outside the library, says the librarian Tavera in his report:

[…] it seems that the custom of lending books to a private home was an old one, without even a note on the people who took it, and for this reason there are many incomplete works ... It was in 1873 that the first book or register was opened to write down the works or objects that were lent out from the Institute[27].

With the extinction of religious communities, after the decree of November 5, 1861 - given by Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera - new works entered the library. The influx had to have been after the issuance of the decree and before 1866, a time during which Leopoldo Arias Vargas was director. Until 1868 only the books of extinguished monasteries in Bogotá[28] were admitted, Tavera adds: "The books of the monasteries of this city that were suppressed have been entered into the National Library, namely: Dominicans, Franciscans, Calced Agustinians and Discalced Agustinians." [29] Ten incunabula belonged to the Franciscans[30], five more belonged to the Augustinians[31] and two to the Dominicans[32]. Seven titles belonged to religious communities but by the information of the bookplate it is not possible to identify to which[33], in the majority of the cases the name of the individual and their position in the institution is given but the community to which they belonged was not written.

Tavera himself says: "“[Among] the books belonging to the Society of Jesus, there are few works prior to the first advent to this country of the Fathers of the Society, and it is only in the bookstores that belonged to the monasteries of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians that some incunabula are found"[34]; it is the first time in the history of the library that the term incunabula is used. At that time, the BNC already had 16 incunabula titles, in addition to the 23 that had entered after the decree of the extinction of the communities. By 1879, the earliest book identified in the BNC was " Summa Ioannis Valensis de regimine vitae humane seu Margarita docto[rum] ad omne p[ro]positum : p[ro]ut patet in tabula "[35], that is, the same that had been identified by Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez, in 1795.

At the beginning of the century, "rare books, incunabula, manuscripts, etc. were assembled in special groups and conveniently placed for their supervision and preservation." [36] Surely this task helped Eduardo Posada, in 1906, to establish the following list of incunabula: “1. Valensis Ordinis Tratrum Minorum. De Regimine vitae humanae, Madrid, 1496. 2. Tabamalam Baptista, rosella casuns, 1499. 3. Manfredo Hieronymus, Medicina, 1500” [37]; as can be seen, there are some mistakes: the authors and cities of printing are confused, it is not understood because number one is placed as printed in Madrid, but Manuel del Socorro had clearly established his printing press in Venice, and in number 3 there are two works, but only the first one was referenced. In total, the existence of 36 incunabula was unknown.

According to the report by the director of the library, Gerardo Arrubla, presented in 1912,

[…] the National Library possesses books which, because of their antiquity and rarity, constitute a true treasure, such as the so-called incunabula ... [therefore, the management] arranged to place them in appropriate cabinets, with their stained glass, so that they are kept in the best possible state, as well as to draw the attention of intelligent people to them[38].

Arrubla continues, "because of the recent investigation that occupied me, six incunabula appeared[39]." For 1913, Arrubla notes that cabinet number 1 contained 10 universal incunabula, of which that of Lectus Lucani is not in the collection of incunabula today (at the time it was dated from 1500, but it is certainly later) [40], and others, because of being in the same volume were not counted, meaning that the library believed it had 11 titles. Of RI 25 it says "this copy, is the oldest in the library, it was found in these days" and of RI 16 it states: "both books are bound in one volume and were found recently. [41]" Taking into account that 16 titles belonged to the Royal Library of Santafé, and 23 entered after the suppression of the religious communities, it can be concluded that in 1912 all the incunabula had not been recognized; it was not that the BNC did not have them, but they had not been identified.

In May 1914, Arrubla said that "after a methodological search, fifteen incunabula of world classification could be separated[42], "when it was believed that the library only had 3. It is not easy to identify the new books included as it only cites the year of printing, but approximately 17 incunabula titles must have been identified at this time, the eleven identified in 1913 plus RI 14[43], RI 20 and RI 36, the work without clear identification is possibly RI 24, which has three pieces, which were printed in 1500 and belonged to the bookstore of San Francisco de Santa Fe.

The incunabula cited by Luis Enrique Forero in 1926 are the same cited by Arrubla, including that of Lectus Lucani, which is not an incunabulum[44]. The records of the Forero index include the author, the title, the city of printing, the year and a note on the content. If the works pasted in the same volume are taken into account, the repeated title is removed as well as the work that is not an incunabulum, the Library had 18 incunabula titles, which are still in the library today. This index did not identify RI 3. RI 36, " Repertorium de pravitate haereticorum. Ed: Miguel Albert," has a note in which it is testified that Forero recognized the incunabulum on July 11, 1922, although this work appears in the indexes of 1777, 1823 and 1856. This confirms that incunabula did not have a preferential treatment in the nineteenth century and it was only at the beginning of the twentieth that they began to identify and give special treatment to the rest of the collection; they went from the cabinets to "a metal box, adapted for the purpose, in the management room"[45]. It is also evident that the old indexes and catalogs were not used, as, if the catalog of 1856 had continued to be in use, Forero would not have been surprised by the appearance of a new incunabula that existed in the collection from the very moment that the library started.

The report given by Daniel Samper Ortega in 1931 is rather bleak: "the following rare books have been found, saving them from moisture and mice," and lists 11 incunabula titles. It is a bit strange that after the process that Arrubla and Forero had carried out, the incunabula were found to be under such conditions, although Samper Ortega explains that there was not enough money for the operation of the library[46].

Thirty-one works have the stamp of 1932, a number that agrees with the index of incunabula of 1934[47], in which 19 volumes appear containing 31 incunabula titles. It includes all the works of the inventory of 1767, all that belonged to the Jesuits, those that entered the Royal Library of Santafé, those that appear in the Índice of 1823 and those identified by Luis Enrique Forero. If we take into account the works pasted in the same volume, we remove the repeated title and the work that is not an incunabulum, the library had 26 incunabula titles, which are still in the library today.

Senderos magazine, a BNC dissemination body, published 2 lists of incunabula, a preliminary one in June 1934, and a complete one in October of the same year; the latter can be considered as the first index of incunabula and probably was the prototype for the first catalog. The records include the author, title and year of publication. In total, it reports only 19 titles, although the report of the director of 1934 spoke of 86 incunabula[48]. By early 1934 the works were located in the director's office. In 1935,

“[…] these books were studied one by one, in strict order, without regard to their dimensions or other considerations of method ... [Later] ... they were arranged according to the order in which they had been placed on the shelves, and this operation done, on the back of each was left the name of the author, the title of the work, the city and the year of printing[49].”

In 1940, the first and only catalog on paper that was made of the incunabula of the BNC was typed[50]; it was elaborated by the official Juan Bueno Medina. Of the six volumes that the work has, only the first is dedicated to incunabula. It divides the books by country - in the following order: Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain -, then by printing cities - in the following order: Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Venice, Brescia, Basel, Paris, Lyon, Valencia, Seville , Burgos, Monserrate and Zaragoza - and organizes them chronologically within each city, assigning a consecutive number to each incunabulum; thus the oldest book in Strasbourg has the first number and the most recent incunabulum of Saragossa has the last number. As the catalog took into account printed books until 1530, the numbering reaches up to 267.

Bueno Medina includes the indexes of cities, printers and editors, and authors. The records have a short biography of the author, the title of the work, the transcription of the colophon, the name of the printer; a description of the letters, the number of lines, the abbreviations, the columns, the pages, the size and the binding. The work has some inconsistencies, it confuses the authors' names, changes chapter titles for titles of the work, exchanges the cities, and mistakes the dates of printing. In total, 48 incunabula appear in the catalog; only RI 26 is lacking: Sermones de laudibus Sanctor, et dominicales per totum annuz cu aliqbus tractatib' utilimis pro predicadi officio p clarissimi sacre theologie doctoris illuinati magistri Fracisci de Mayrois and RI 37: Summa contra gentiles, sive De veritate Catholicae fidei, absences which will be explained later; these two works also do not appear in the reports of Arrubla, Forero and Samper Ortega.

The same 48 works of the catalog of Bueno Medina have the stamp of 1948. The two works mentioned in the previous paragraph are not included in the inventory, which were not taken into account in the inventory compiled by the Comptroller between July 1948 and August 1949, since they lack the signature of Octavio Quiñones Pardo[51]. While the inventory was being developed, the loss of some books was detected, therefore the security room was constructed as a way to improve the security of the incunabula; on May 2, 1949, the works moved from the management office to said space[52]. Currently the numbers 33, 35 and 36 are not in the BNC. It is likely that these numbers were assigned to the lost incunabula. Likewise, RI 26 has the number "two hundred sixty-eight" and RI 37 has the number "two hundred sixty-nine"; meaning that these books were entered into this classification belatedly.

In 1957, the director wrote about the incunabula: "in the current placement of the books by decimal cataloguing, the order of numbering made by Quiñones Pardo has not been taken into account at all"[53].

In the Exposición de libros incunables, raros y curiosos, de 1962[54], 40 volumes appear. In this small catalog is RI 37, which means that the oldest incunabulum was detected in the library between 1948 and 1962. RI 26 does not appear in this catalog, nor in the previous ones, nor does RI 18, although the latter appears in other preliminary indices. With these clues, the information regarding this period was sought, and a small article was found in the Boletín Cultural de la BNC that leaves no doubt about the entry of RI 26 and RI 37:

Into the treasury of incunabula of the National Library have recently entered two valuable volumes, cataloged as incunabula ... The titles of the works are the following: 1º. "Sermonis de Sanctis" and other treatises by Franciscus de Maioranis, edition published in Venice in the year 1493; 2º. "Summa contra gentiles sive de veritate catholicae fidei" by Thomas Aquinas, this work was published by Nicolaus Jenson in Venice in the year 1480[55].

Delia Palomina says in her report of 1984, that these two books were acquired by purchase[56].

The following table summarizes the years in which the incunabula entered and their origin.

Origin	Entrance Period	Quantity
Jesuits Bogotá	1767	10
Jesuits Others	1767-1776	2
Unknown	1777-1823	4
Unknown	1824-1856	2
Franciscans	1861	9
Agustinians	1861	5
Dominicans	1861	2
Unidentified communities	1861	9
Unknown	1932-1948	5
Unknown	1953	2

Table 2. Origin of incunabula and year of entry to the BNC

To summarize the matter of the organization of the incunabula, in the indexes of 1767, 1790 and 1823 they were mixed within collection and located within each of the themes; this obeying the norms of the time and at a moment in which the quantity of books was limited. In 1856, the organization changed, these books were located with the rest of the works in Latin and located in the great themes of said catalog, an understandable situation given the decline in the use of Latin, the strength of French and the strengthening of English. In the first two decades of the twentieth century the works were separated from the collection in order to carry out more effective vigilance and so as to expose them to the public in cabinets, although later they were passed to metal boxes. In the mid-thirties, they went to the management office, were catalogued individually and organized by size. In 1940, a new organization was made according to printing cities, starting in Strasbourg and finishing in Saragossa, each title was assigned a number, beginning with 1 and finishing with 267, although with the inclusion of two incunabula in 1953, 269 was reached. In the 1950s, they remained together but their classification changed to the Dewey system. In 1998, the incunabula were separated from the rest of the old books and assigned a new organization and symbol: the letters RI followed by consecutive numbers.

The misplaced

It is possible that some of the records dated before 1500 and that appear in the indexes and catalogs are fictitious copies, whose date of printing is later and therefore such an incunabulum edition does not exist.

In the Índice general de libros que tiene esta Real Biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Santafé (General Index), there exists the following record: “Discípulo. Sermones. 1 tomo a vecerra, en [Lyon], en 1500, n^o 1” (Disciple. Sermons. 1 volume to vecerra, in [Lyon], in 1500, no. 1)[57], since the author is not specified the exact identification of the edition is difficult; although in the ISTC there are three works with these characteristics; it could also be one of the works of Jacobus de Vorágine, but these belonged to the Franciscans and do not have a stamp of the Public Library and neither appear in the index of 1856.

According to the catalog of 1856, the works which are not currently found in the BNC are:

1. Turrecremata, expositio in psalterium, 1500[58]. In the ISTC there are two copies of Expositio super toto psalterio, one from 1502 (Venice) and another from after 1500 (Paris). Of the first, there is a copy in the BNC, very probably it is that which was had as an incunabulum.

2. Lacanus, Carmina, 1500. Very possibly this is the same work that is identified as stolen, between 1942 and 1948. What is odd is that both records have the same error: dating it in 1500, when there did not exist a work with these characteristics, which means it is fictitious[59].

As has been seen, there may be several explanations for the loss of books in the BNC. A note in a catalog can explain such a situation, referring to 6 of these works, it says: "completely damaged by a leak, useless”[60].

The director, Enrique Álvarez Bonilla affirmed:

[…] it often happens that private individuals propose exchanges of modern works for copies of old ones of which there are more than one. As I do not sympathize with these kind of exchanges, I have not celebrated more than two, and that with the express approval of that Ministry and with obvious advantages, in my opinion, for the library. There are works of old edition that today have a high price in Europe, only for their antiquity of character ... There is in this library an old work that, apparently, is worth about 40 cents, and yet it can be estimated at some $200[61].

On the other hand, on April 10, 1894, a transfer of 11,477 books dealing with dead languages and ecclesiastical matters was made to the Conciliar Seminary, this could be another of the paths taken by the books missing from the BNC[62].

Gerardo Arrubla said in May 1915:

[…] in November last year this management discovered that an assiduous reader of the library ... had taken away books that belonged to this establishment. Proceeding with activity, all lost books were recovered; many of which could be verified that they had disappeared from the shelves more than eight years ago[63].

According to the senior officer of the library, Luis Enrique Forero, in 1926, of the work "Repertorium de pravitate haereticorum" there existed 2 copies[64], but at the moment the library has only one.

Reviewing the list of incunabula of June[65] and October of 1934[66], the catalog of Bueno Medina[67] and taking into account the archive of the BNC[68], other misappropriated incunabula are those stated below[69]. Since works three and four of the list, are in the catalog of the exhibition that the National Library made in 1942[70], the theft of these works occurred between 1942 and 1948.

Title

Deza Didacus. In defensiones Sancti Thomae. Sevilla, 14091. 96 p.

Reginaldeti Petrus. Speculum finalis retributionis. Lyon, 1494. 65 p.

Aquinas Thomas. Comentaria in Epistolas Pauli. Basilea, Michael Furter, 16 October 1495. 290 p.

Gordonio Bernardo. Lilio de Medicina. Sevilla, Meynardo Ungt and Stanislao Polono, 18 April 1495. 224 p.

Paraldus Guilhelmus. Summarium summae virtutum et vitiorum. Basel: 1497. 324 p.

Aquinas Thomas. Secundus liber sententiarum. Venecia, 1498. 156 p.

Sandei Felini. Comentaria. Lyon, 1482, 243 p.[71]

M. Annaeus Lucanus. Bellum Civile Pharsalicum. Lugduni, Antonius du Ry, 1500[72].

Table 3. Possibly lost incunabula

Conclusions

Few works on incunabula have been carried out in Colombia, most have been in charge of cataloging books, but not of explaining how the collections were formed, how they were treated in the institutions, what their uses were and what is their patrimonial value. The Universidad de los Andes, Universidad del Rosario, Universidad Javeriana and the Luis Angel Arango Library, are the institutions that have done work on incunabula in Bogotá. The works of Cali and Cúcuta are the only works outside the capital. It is not known with certainty about the existence of incunabula in other parts of the country, such as the important colonial cities or the most outstanding urban centers today[73]. Also, the books that the secular and the regular clergy have, or those that are in the control of private collectors are not known. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that there is no policy that promotes the cataloging and dissemination of old books as elements of cultural heritage. The BNC has planned to prepare a national census of incunabula, initially to have their location and perhaps later, to make a proposal of knowledge (parts, uses, circulation, membership, etc.) and dissemination of the old books.

The incunabula of the BNC do not have a single source, although mostly they come from religious communities (Jesuits, Franciscans, Augustinians and Dominicans). Their entrance into the library is due to situations that occurred in different historical moments, therefore some entered in the eighteenth century, others in the nineteenth and a few in the twentieth, like the work of 1480, which is the oldest the BNC possesses.

Although it should be made clear that the custody, cataloging and classification by the BNC has presented different problems; in some cases, due to ignorance of the issues, in others due to a lack of compliance with the rules, it was at the beginning of the 20th century when the incunabula began to receive special treatment, probably due to the important work that emerged in Europe and the emergence of studies around the book. And it was not until the thirties when a careful cataloging was carried out, after the library moved to its new building (1938) and began modern cataloguing processes[74]. Thus, they were separated from the funds to which they belonged, were gathered in a single collection and access was limited to only researchers. By the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, they had hardly been identified and were treated like other books; the rest of the 19th century was marked by their absence from the collection. In this way, we realize that each epoch has a different relationship with the book, and each period of time values it and treats it differently.

The internet and the digitization of the works have helped, on the one hand, to improve the knowledge we have about incunabula, and on the other, to facilitate access to old books; that is the bibliographic patrimony is available to more people in more places of the territory.

Symbol	Title
RI 01	Summa Ioannis Valensis de regimine vitae humane seu Margarita docto[rum] ad omne p[ro]positum : p[ro]ut patet in tabula
RI 02	Summa casuum conscientiae
RI 03, pza. 1	Aelii Antonii Nebrissensis gramatici introductionum latinarum
RI 03, pza. 2	Elegantie Augustini dati pro iuvenibus perutiles
RI 03, pza. 3	Opusculo epistolarum familiarum & artis
RI 03, pza. 4	Elegancias romançadas de lebrixa
RI 03, piece 5	In vafre dicta philosophorum Antonii Nebrisseñsis. glossemata.
RI 03, piece 6	Alconiae probae foemine eruditissimae ad Adelphû senatorem coniûgem dulcissimû ex Virgilii operibus centones veteris ac Novi Testameti
RI 03, piece 7	Leonardi Aretini Viri laudatissimi ad Colutium Oratoren in Magni Basilii libellum praefatio
RI 03, piece 8	Not incunabula
RI 04	Santorum legendis
RI 05	Preclarissima Opuscula
RI 06	Caecilii Cypriani Opera
RI 07	Operum
RI 08	Operum
RI 09	Not incunabula
RI 10	[Quaestiones super quator libros sententiarum Petri Lombardi cum textu ejusdem. Secunda et quarta pars] V. II
RI 11	Quaestiones super quator libros sententiarum Petri Lombardi cum textu ejusdem. Secunda et quarta pars] V. IV
RI 12	Concordantiae bibliorum
RI 13	Opera medica
RI 14	Homiliarius doctorum de tempore et de sanctis a Paulo Diacono collectus
RI 15, piece 1	Liber ad Almansorem sive Tractatus medicinae I-X. Add: Liber divisionum; De aegritudinibus juncturarum; De aegritudinibus puerorum; De secretis sive aphorismi; Antidotarium; De praeservatione ab aegritudine lapidis; Introductorium medicinae; De sectionibus et ventosis; Synonyma; De animalibus. Tabula de herbis medicis. Hieronymus de Manfredis: Centiloquium de medicis
RI 15, piece 2	Aphorismi secundum doctrinam Galeni. Add: Johannes Damascenus [Mesue?]: Aphorismi. Hippocrates: Secreta; Prognosticatio secundum lunam; Capsula eburnea; De humana natura; De aere et aqua et regionibus; De pharmaciis; De insomniis. Avenzohar: De curatione lapidis
RI 16, piece 1	Liber meditationu vite Domini Nostri Iesu-Christi
RI 16, piece 2	Tractus de spiritu albinus ascensionibis
RI 17, piece 1	Sermones aurei et pulcherrimi variis scripturarum doctrinis referti de tempore p. totum anni
RI 17, piece 2	Sermones pulcherrimi variis scripturarum doctrinis referti de sanctis per anni totius circulum concurrentibus editi a venerabili viro sacre theologie professore Jacobo de Voragine ordinis
RI 18	Sermones magistri, Sermones quadragesimales, Sermones de passione, Sermones de Sactis
RI 19	Sermones dormi secure dominicales Sermones de sancti dormi secure
RI 20	Sermones Roberti de Sanctis
RI 21	Not incunabula
RI 22	Corona aurea coruscantibus gemmis
RI 23	Preceptorium divine legis venerabilis fratris Johanis Nider de Ordini Predicatorum
RI 24, piece 1	Expositio magistri Petri Tatareti super summulas Petry hispani cum additionibus in locis. P priis
RI 24, piece 2	Expositio magistri Petri Tatareti super textu logices Aristotelis
RI 24, piece 3	Clarissima singularisque totiua philosophie necnon metaphisice Aristotelis. magistri Petri Tatareti expositio
RI 25	Quadragesimale doctoris illuminati Francisci Mayronis
RI 26	Sermones de laudibus Sanctor, et dominicales per totum annuz cu aliqbus tractatib' utilimis pro predicadi officio p clarissimi sacre theologie doctoris illuinati magistri Fracisci de Mayrois
RI 27, piece 1	Aurelii Augustini opuscula plurima: quedam non plus impressa
RI 27, piece 2	Plurima Opuschula sanctiaugustini
RI 28	Liber Floreti in quo flores oïm virtutu. et detestationes vitior. metrite continetur una cum commento
RI 29	Not incunabula
RI 30	Not incunabula
RI 31	Opera. Ed: Johann Amerbach, Johannes (Heynlin) de Lapide
RI 32, piece 1	In Somnium Scipionis expositio. Saturnalia
RI 32, piece 2	De natura deorum. Add: De divinatione. De legibus, Academica. De finibus bonorum et malorum. De fato, Timaeus, Somnium Scipionis. Quintus Tullius Cicero: Commentariolum petitionis
RI 33	De evangelica praeparatione. Tr: Georgius Trapezuntius. Ed: Hieronymus Bononius
RI 34, piece 1	Sphaera mundi. Comm: Cecco d'Ascoli, Franciscus Capuanus, Jacobus Faber Stapulensis. Add: Georgius Purbachius: Theoricae novae planetarum. Comm: Franciscus Capuanus.
RI 34, piece 2	Opus (Ed: doctrinae Scoticae in Thomistas Joannes Antonius Patavinus)
RI 35	Summa que destructorium viciorum apellat
RI 36	Repertorium de pravitate haereticorum. Ed: Miguel Albert
RI 37	Summa contra gentiles, sive De veritate Catholicae fidei. Ed: Petrus Cantianus
RI 38	Biblia latina (cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra et expositionibus Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi et additionibus Pauli Burgensis replicisque Matthiae Doering). Ed: Paulus a Mercatello. With additions by Franciscus Moneliensis. Add: Nicolaus de Lyra, Contra perfidiam Judaeorum
RI 39	Repertorium morale (Ed: Johannes Beckenhaub). V. 1
RI 40	Repertorium morale (Ed: Johannes Beckenhaub). V.2

Documental sources

Álvarez, Enrique. “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Informe que el ministro de instrucción pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus secciones ordinarias de 1890. Tomo Segundo. Bogotá: Imprenta de La Luz, 1890.

Álvarez, Enrique. “Informe del Director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Informe que el ministro de instrucción pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus sesiones ordinarias de 1894. Bogotá: Imprenta de la Luz, 1894.

Arrubla, Gerardo. “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Ministerio de Instrucción Pública, Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1912. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1912

Arrubla, Gerardo. (1913). “Del Director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Informe del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1913. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1913.

Arrubla, Gerardo. “Informe el director de la] Biblioteca Nacional”. En Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1914: documentos. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1914.

Arrubla, Gerardo. “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1915. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1915.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Índice general de libros que tiene esta Real Biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Santafé, (Bogotá, [1790]?).

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Catálogo de las obras en latín existentes en la Biblioteca Nacional. Bogotá: Imprenta del Estado, 1856.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. Senderos II, núm. 16 y 17 (mayo-junio 1935): 628-53.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. La Biblioteca Nacional y su exposición del libro. Bogotá: Editorial ABC, 1940.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Exposición libro: Biblioteca Nacional, 26 de julio a 26 de agosto de 1942. Bogotá: Biblioteca Nacional, 1942.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Sistema decimal Dewey para organización bibliotecaria. Bogotá: Prensas de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1944.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. “Nuevos incunables adquiere la biblioteca”. Boletín Cultural 27 (agosto 1953) s.p.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Exposición de libros incunables raros y curiosos. Bogotá: Biblioteca Nacional, 1963.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Colecciones de la Biblioteca Nacional: Tipos y organización física. Versión 9. Bogotá: Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, noviembre 2001.

Bueno, Juan. B. Catálogo de Incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de Bogotá. Bogotá: Biblioteca Nacional, 1940.

Caro, Miguel Antonio. “Informe del Bibliotecario Nacional”. En Memoria del secretario de instrucción pública dirigida al presidente de los Estados Unidos de Colombia para el Congreso en sus secciones de 1881. Bogotá: Imprenta de Colunje y Vallarino, 1882.

Forero, Luis Enrique. “Tesoro de la Biblioteca Nacional”. Santafé y Bogotá 4, núm. 40 (abril 1926): 162-166.

López de Mesa, Luis. Gestión administrativa y perspectiva del Ministerio de Educación-1935. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1935.

Ministerio de Educación Nacional. La obra educativa del gobierno en 1940. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1940.

Palomino, Delia. Informe sobre el primer fondo bibliográfico de la sala de seguridad: los incunables. Bogotá: 21 de agosto 21 1984, Archivo BNC.

Quijano, José María. “Informe del Bibliotecario Nacional”. En: Memoria del Secretario de lo Interior y Relaciones Exteriores de los Estados Unidos de Colombia, al Congreso Federal de 1868, 2a. ed. Bogotá: Imprenta de la Nación, 1868.

Quiñones, Octavio. “Acta de entrega de los libros incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional”. Bogotá: 22 de agosto de 1949, Archivo BNC.

Rivas Sacconi, Fernando. Acta relativa a los incunables universales o clásicos de la Biblioteca Nacional. Bogotá, 21 de febrero de 1957, Archivo BNC.

Samper, Daniel. “Informe el director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Memoria del ministro de Educación Nacional al Congreso de 1931. Tomo I. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1931.

Socorro, Manuel del. “Sigue el discurso empezado en el No. anterior”. Papel periódico de la Ciudad de Santafé de Bogotá, Bogotá, 19 de agosto de 1796.

Tavera, Gonzalo. A. “Bosquejo descriptivo de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia”. Anales de la Universidad XIII, núm. 91 (diciembre 1879).

Ungar, Hans. “Imprenta e Incunables: los Incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional”. Gaceta XI, núm. 19 (febrero 1978): 25-29.

Verasttegui, Antonio de y Moreno, Francisco Antonio. Inventario de la Biblioteca Común del Colegio Máximo de la Compañía de Jesús. Santafé de Bogotá: Real Biblioteca de Santafé. 1766-1767.

Vergara, Francisco. J. “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”. En Informe que el ministro de Instrucción Pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus secciones ordinarias de 1904. Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1904.

Bibliography

Abad, Julián. Catálogo bibliográfico de la colección de incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de España. Vol. I. Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional de España, 2010.

Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. Incunables de la Biblioteca Luis Angel-Arango del Banco de la República. Bogotá: Litografía Arco, 1982.

Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. “Incunables”. Senderos I, núm. 5 (junio 1934): 263-64.

Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. “Nueva Serie de incunables”. Senderos II, núm. 9 (octubre 1934): 180-84.

Carvajal, Juan (editor). Monstruos y prodigios en el Liber Cronicarum incunable de la biblioteca JPF de San José de Cúcuta. Cúcuta: Ediciones Heredita, [2008]?.

Carvajal, Juan (editor). Rameras y esposas: en el Liber Cronicarum incunable de la biblioteca JPF de San José de Cúcuta. San José de Cúcuta: Ediciones Hederieta, [2010?].

Centro cultural de la Alcaldía de Cúcuta. Una mirada al libro Crónicas de Nuremberg, Incunable propiedad de la ciudad de Cúcuta. Cúcuta: Talleres Gráficos de La Opinión, 1998.

Checa, José Luis. El libro antiguo. Madrid: Acento Editorial, 1999.

Haebler, Konrad. Introducción al estudio de los incunables. Madrid: Ollero & Ramos Editores, 1995.

Franco, María Victoria. Cinco incunables en la biblioteca general de la Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 1980.

Hernández, Guillermo y Carrasquilla, Juan. Historia de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia. Bogotá: Publicaciones del Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 1977.

Knudsen, Hans. et. all. Tesoros del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario: 350 años. Bogotá: Villegas Editores, 2003.

Labarre, Albert. Historia del libro. México, Siglo XXI, 2002.

National Diet Library. What are incunabula? Consultado en: http://www.ndl.go.jp/incunabula/e/chapter1/ (12 de mayo 2015)

Posada, Eduardo. Narraciones: capítulos para la historia de Bogotá. Bogotá: Librería Americana, 1906.

Restrepo, Jaime. La invención de la imprenta y los libros incunables. Bogotá: Universidad del Rosario, 2014.

Rubio, Alfonso. Libros antiguos en la Universidad del Valle. Cali: Programa Editorial Universidad del Valle, 2014.

Del Rey Fajardo, José. La biblioteca colonial de la Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá. Santafé de Bogotá: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; San Cristóbal: Universidad Católica del Táchira, [2001].

Villegas, Benjamín (director). El libro de los libros: bibliotecas Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá: Villegas Editores y Universidad Javeriana, 2010.

Cite this article:

Robinson López Arévalo, “The Collection of Incunabula of the National Library of Colombia: through the traces of and gaps in its formation”, Historia Y MEMORIA N° 13 (July-December, 2016), 85-120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19053/20275137.5201

---

* This work forms part of the effort made by the National Library of Colombia to acquire a better understanding of its collection and to disseminate the national bibiliographic patrimony.

Thanks for the comments of José Antonio Amaya, Andrés Felipe Hernández, Sebastian Mejía, Camilo Páez, Alfonso Rubio and Magdalena Santamaría Granda.

[1] Historian of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Young researcher of Colciencias in the year 2011. Has worked in the National Library of Colombia since 2012, developing themes related to written culture: antiquarian books and the history of the book, of reading and of libraries. His last publication is titled "Lecturas útiles y necesarias: oferta del libro en Bogotá, 1870-1886" (Useful and necessary readings: the book supply in Bogota, 1870-1886). Email address: rlopez@bibliotecanacional.gov.co and robinsonlopeza@gmail.com 

[2] “Incunabula is the plural of the Latin word incunabulum, a cradle. Evolving from its original meaning, incunabulum came to mean "place of birth" or "beginning." In the world of books, the word incunabula refers to books that were printed using metal type up to the year 1500. The year 1500 is more a cutoff date of convenience, marking the transition from one century to the next, rather than signifying a definitive change in the appearance of books from 1501 onwards. It was actually around 1530 that a transformation in the appearance of books is said to have begun to take place” (National Diet Library, What are incunabula? consulted in: http://www.ndl.go.jp/incunabula/e/chapter1/ (12 May 2015).

For more points of view regarding the term incunabula/incunable, see: Labarre (2002), Haebler (1995), Checa (1999) and Restrepo (2014).

[3] Albert Labarre, Historia del libro, 80.

[4] "In 1998, the basic system of the physical organization of the general collection of rare and curious items, according to Dewey, was modified with the purpose of rationalizing the growth of said collection and facilitating control. Also, the numbering system of the collection of the security room was modified", (National Library of Colombia, Colecciones de la Biblioteca Nacional: Tipos y organización física, (Bogotá, National Library of Colombia, 2001), 4. Although, an article by Ovalle Mora, published in August 1997, now uses the symbol RI. 

[5] Today, this project is still in operation, its website is called: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Union Catalogue of Incunabula Database. Consulted at: http://www.gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/GWEN.xhtml (12 May 2015).

[6] An update on the work of Haebler is the Manual de incunables, by another German, Ferdinand Geldner; both works form part of the line of studies on technical aspects; in contrast to the works of Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin (The Coming of the Book), Elizabth Eisentein (The Printing Press as an Agent of Change and The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe) and Rudolf Hirsch (Printing, selling and reading 1450-1500), which have a historical aspect.

[7] María Victoria Franco, Cinco incunables en la biblioteca general de la Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 1980).

[8] Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Incunables de la Biblioteca Luis Angel-Arango del Banco de la República (Bogotá: Litografía Arco, 1982).

[9] Benjamín Villegas (Director), El libro de los libros: bibliotecas Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá: Villegas Editores and Universidad Javeriana, 2010).

[10] Hans-Peter Knudsen et. al, Tesoros del Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario: 350 años (Bogotá: Villegas Editores, 2003).

[11] Jaime Restrepo, La invención de la imprenta

Very probably this work served as the basis for the elaboration of the website dedicated to ancient books and, especially, the section dedicated to incunabula: Universidad del Rosario, Clásicos UR, Los incunables de la Biblioteca Antigua del Colegio Mayor del Rosario, consulted on 12 May 2015: http://clasicosarchivohistoricour.org/tag/incunables/

[12] Cultural center of the Townhall of Cúcuta, Una mirada al libro Crónicas de Nuremberg, Incunable propiedad de la ciudad de Cúcuta (Cúcuta: Talleres Gráficos de La Opinión, 1998).

[13] Juan Carvajal (editor), Monstruos y prodigios in the Liber Cronicarum incunabulum of the JPF library of San José de Cúcuta ([Cúcuta]: Ediciones Heredita, [2008?]).

Juan Carvajal (editor), Rameras y esposas: in the Liber Cronicarum incunabulum of the JPF library of San José de Cúcuta ([Cúcuta]: Ediciones Heredita, [2010?]),)

[14] An attempt to accurately identify each of the titles referenced in the Inventario was carried out by José Del Rey Fajardo in his book La biblioteca colonial de la Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá; although, the work has some inconsistencies and leaves many questions open.

[15] It was known as Arte the work: Aelii Antonii Nebrissensis gramatici introductionum latinarum or Introducciones latinas.

[16] Antonio De Verasttegui and Francisco Antonio Moreno. Inventario de la Biblioteca Común del Colegio Máximo de la Compañía de Jesús. Santafé de Bogotá: Real Biblioteca de Santafé. 1766-1767, fol. 150 verso § 24, fol. 72 recto § 16, fol. 33 verso § 8.

[17] “Índice general de libros que tiene esta Real Biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Santafé”, (Bogotá, [1790]?), BNC, fol. 54 recto §10.

The index is a Spanish model, for the Royal Library of Spain there was one dedicated only to incunabula and rare books, titled: Índice chronólogico de las ediciones del Siglo XV y algunas de principios del siglo XVI: Sala 3ª de la Real Biblioteca, pieza typográfica, elaborated after 1736 (Julian Abad, Catálogo bibliográfico de la colección de incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de España. Vol. 1 (Madrid: Biblioteca Nacional de España, 2010), 19).

[18] Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez, “Sigue el discurso empezado en el No. anterior”, Papel periódico de la Ciudad de Santafé de Bogotá, Bogotá, 19 August 1796, pages. 1544-45.

[19] Possibly it refers to: Joannes de Sancto Geminiano. Sermones funebres: eruditissimi viri Fratris Joannis de Sancto Geminiano Ordinis Fratrû Predicatoû verbi divini declamatoribus. Antonii Vincentii, 1536 (RV 77); work with a handwritten note by Manuel del Socorro: “According to the date of the dedication (year 1499) it will have had the edition of this book for 292 years in the present year of 1793”.

[20] “Índice alfabético de los libros de la Biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Santa Fe de Bogotá” (Bogotá, 1823), BNC.

[21] The stamp that Hernández and Carrasquilla (1977, Plate LXX) believe to be of the Royal Public Library of Santafé de Bogotá, very probably corresponds to that of the Public Library of Bogota, that is to say the republican period. Eduardo Posada says: “The library was called the Public Library after the Independence, and a stamp with this name in abbreviation was put on the books, which is conserved in the museum, along with another that seems to say Santafé, in the form of a monogram” (1906, page. 305), it probably began to be used as from December 25, 1823, the date on which the library resumed its operations, after the death of Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez in 1819. I incline towards the hypothesis of Posada since none of the stamps have monarchical elements. Currently, these stamps are kept in the National Museum of Colombia under the registration numbers: 695 and 708.

[22] Moralists: RI 1, RI 2 and RI 35. Grammatical: RI 3. Medical: RI 13 and RI 15. Preachers: RI 17. Canonists: RI 36.

[23] National Library of Colombia, Catálogo de las obras en latín existentes en la Biblioteca Nacional (Bogotá: Imprenta del Estado, 1856), 12.

The incunabula were included in the works in Latin; these are: RI 01, RI 02, RI 13, RI 15, RI 17, RI 35 and RI 36.

[24] National Library of Colombia, Catálogo de las obras… p. 46.

[25] Miguel Antonio Caro, “Informe del Bibliotecario Nacional”, in Memoria del secretario de instrucción pública dirigida al presidente de los Estados Unidos de Colombia para el Congreso en sus secciones de 1881 (Bogotá, Imprenta de Colunje y Vallarino, 1882), 124.

[26] There are various occurrences of the catalog of 1856 in the BNC. For this study, the following are used: R 012.271 C334 and RM 456-piece. 4, this last contains the handwritten inscriptions of the librarian José María Quijano Otero.

[27] Gonzalo A. Tavera, “Bosquejo descriptivo de la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia”, Anales de la Universidad XIII: No. 91 (December 1879).

Decree 634 of 1886, prohibited the removal of books and documents from the library.

[28] José María Quijano Otero, “Informe del Bibliotecario Nacional”, in Memoria del Secretario de lo Interior y Relaciones Exteriores de los Estados Unidos de Colombia (Bogotá: Imprenta de la nación, 1868), 87-88.

[29] Gonzalo A. Tavera, Bosquejo descriptivo… 195.

[30] Those that have bookplates of the Franciscans are: RI 02, RI 4, RI 7, RI 8, RI 16 (two titles), RI 24 (three titles) and RI 25.

[31] RI 5, RI 12, RI 27 (2 titles) and RI 38.

[32] RI 18 and RI 19.

[33] RI 6, RI 14, RI 20, RI 23, RI 32 (two titles), RI 33.

[34] Gonzalo A. Tavera, Bosquejo descriptivo… 187.

[35] Gonzalo A. Tavera, Bosquejo descriptivo… 199.

Currently, it is RI 1.

For librarian reports during the nineteenth century, Tavera himself says "almost every year the Memoirs or Reports that the Director of the Library has, previously, addressed to the Secretary of the Interior and Foreign Relations have been published, and since 1876 onwards, to the Lord Rector of the University " (1879, p. 201).

[36] Francisco J. Vergara, “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Informe que el ministro de Instrucción Pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus secciones ordinarias de 1904 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1904), 129.

[37] Eduardo Posada, Narraciones: capítulos para la historia de Bogotá (Bogotá: Librería Americana, 1906), 310. In this work, the term incunabula is used for the second time to refer to books from before 1501.

RI 01, RI 02 and RI 15.

[38] Gerardo Arrubla, “Informe el director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1912 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1912), 228-229.

[39] Those would be: RI 01, RI 02, RI 13, RI 15, RI 16, RI 17, RI 25 and RI 35.

[40] Surely, he refers to RV 83, Marci Annaei Lucani Pharsalia.

[41] Gerardo Arrubla, “Del Director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Informe del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1913 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1913), 220.

[42] Gerardo Arrubla, “Informe el director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1914: documentos (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1914), 298-299.

[43] In February of 1914 Arrubla said about this work: “due to the patient and disinterested investigations of the young scholar Don Félix M. Guardado, another incunabulum book was found ... the Repertorium de pravitate hereticorum et apostatarum ... printed in the year 1494” (Gerardo Arrubla, cited by Guillermo Hernández de Alba and Juan Carrasquilla Botero, Historia de la Biblioteca Nacional (Bogotá: Instituto Caro y Cuervo, 305)).

[44] Luis Enrique Forero, “Tesoro de la Biblioteca Nacional”, Santafé y Bogotá VII: No. 40 (April1926), 162-166.

[45] Luis Enrique Forero, Tesoro de la… 163.

[46] Daniel Samper, “Informe el director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Memoria del ministro de Educación Nacional al Congreso de 1931, Tomo I, (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1931), 357-358

RI 3, RI 20, RI 25, RI 34 (two titles), RI 36 and RI 39. The work Zachariae Lilii Vicetini orbis breviarium; fide compendio ordineq. captu, ac memoratu facillimum, is possibly RI 83, of 1525.

[47] Biblioteca Nacional, “Nueva Serie de incunables”, Senderos II: No. 9, (October 1934): 180-184. The report of 1935 surely has an error since it says: "in general terms it suffices to say that we have 33 volumes with 86 works in total, of incunabula prior to 1500" (Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, “Informe el director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, Senderos II, no. 16 and 17 (1935): 629).

[48] Luis López de Mesa, Gestión administrativa y perspectiva del Ministerio de Educación-1935, (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1935), 176.

[49] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, 1935, 628.

[50] “Catálogo de Incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de Bogotá” (Bogotá, 1940). It was thought that this work would be printed, but since the National Printing Office did not have "the special types required for a book of this nature", this project was never carried out (Ministry for National Education, La obra educativa del gobierno en 1940 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1940), 54).

[51] The Comptroller was present at the BNC due to the call made by the director Eduardo Carranza (Fernando Rivas Sacconi, “Acta relativa a los incunables universales o clásicos de la Biblioteca Nacional”, (Bogotá: 21 February 1957), Archivo BNC).

[52] One of the suspects was Juan Bueno Medina, who produced the only catalog of incunabula that has been made in the library. Octavio Quiñones, “Acta de entrega de los libros incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional”, (Bogotá: 22 August 1949), Archivo BNC).

[53] Fernando Rivas Sacconi, Acta relativa… 3.

[54] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Exposición de libros incunables raros y curiosos (Bogotá:Biblioteca Nacional, 1963).

[55] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, “Nuevos incunables adquiere la biblioteca”, Boletín Cultural 27, (28 August 1953) n.p.

[56] Delia Palomino, “Informe sobre el primer fondo bibliográfico de la sala de seguridad: los incunables” (Bogotá, 21 August 1984), Archive of the BNC, box 3, folder 28, 8.

[57] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Índice general de… fo. 103 recto § 5.

[58] This work appears in the Inventario de la Biblioteca Común del Colegio Máximo, with the following record: Joannes Turrecremata In Psalmos. 1 tomo, 4^a, pergamino, n^o 5 (Verasttegui and Moreno. Inventario de la Biblioteca Común… fol. 12 § 21).

[59] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Catálogo de las obras… 57 and 89.

[60] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Catálogo de las obras… 4.

[61] Enrique Álvarez, “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Informe que el ministro de instrucción pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus secciones ordinarias de 1890, Tomo Segundo (Bogotá: Imprenta de La Luz, 1890), 79-80.

[62] Enrique Álvarez, “Informe del Director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Informe que el ministro de instrucción pública presenta al Congreso de Colombia en sus sesiones ordinarias de 1894 (Bogotá: Imprenta de la Luz), 154.

[63] Gerardo Arrubla, “Informe del director de la Biblioteca Nacional”, in: Memoria del ministro de instrucción pública al Congreso de 1915 (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1915), 348).

[64] Luis Enrique Forero, Tesoro de la… 162-166.

[65] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, “Incunables”, Senderos I: No. 5, (June 1934): 263-264).

[66] Biblioteca Nacional, Nueva Serie de…

[67] Juan Bueno Medina, Catálogo de Incunables de…

[68] Delia Palomino, “Informe sobre el primer…” 1-9.

[69] Another theft had taken place in the BNC between 1934 and 1937, for more information see: Aníbal Currea, El robo Ortíz Vargas en la Biblioteca Nacional (Bogotá: Editorial ABC, 1937).

[70] Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Exposición libro: Biblioteca Nacional, 26 July to 26 August 1942 (Bogotá: Biblioteca, 1942).

[71] It is not in the ISTC, it is probably a ficitious work, since there's nothing like it.

This work appears as acquired in the report, but it is not currently in the BNC

(Palomino, Informe sobre el primer fondo… 6). The same work appears in the list of Ungar (Hans Ungar, “Imprenta e Incunables: los Incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional”, Gaceta XI: No. 19 (1978): 28.

[72] It is not in the ISTC, very likely it is the following work: Lucani Pharsalia cum annotationibus Sulpitii et Chappusoti. Lugduni: Antonium du Ry impensis Symonis Vincentii, 1523.

It is possibly the same work referenced in: Luis Enrique Forero, Tesoro de la… 89.

[73] Alfonso Rubio assures that the Mario Carvajal Library of the Universidad del Valle has an incunabulum (Rationale Divinorum officiorum, 1500) and, although without a printing date, suspects that Sanctus Thomas de Aquino super quartum librum magistri senteniar (1497?) is another incunabulum (Alfonso Rubio, Libros antiguos en la Universidad del Valle (Cali: Programa Editorial Universidad del Valle, 2014), 13-14).

In 2015, the EAFIT bought the book De arte amandi y De remedio amoris (Venice: Johannes Tacuinus, de Tridino, 1494).

[74] In 1921, the Dewey Decimal Classification was used for the first time by Luis Enrique Forero, but it was left unused until, in 1936, under the direction of Daniel Samper, Miss Janeiro Brooks restarted the task of decimally arranging the books (Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Sistema decimal Dewey para organización bibliotecaria. (Bogotá: Prensas de la Biblioteca Nacional, 1944), 5-6). Forero called this the reorganization of “the National Library on the scientific bases of conservation and functionality” (Luis Enrique Forero, Tesoro de la… 162).