In this literary entry, several publishing houses are betting on novelties related to the history of art. Pablo Picasso’s stay in Gósol in the spring of 1906 put the charming municipality of Berguedà on the map forever and changed his way of painting forever. Iñaki Rubio describes this journey and its implications in Pau de Gósol. Picasso in the Pyrenees (Comanegra). It is a book that links with what has already been read in these hot months. In the same publishing house, Joan Safont has presented L’estiu passat, about the summer holidays of artists and writers such as Mercè Rodoreda, Pere Calders, Montserrat Roig or Josep Pla, but also about Picasso himself or Joan Miró in Mont-roig del Camp.

Without leaving the Romanesque that inspired the Málaga painter, Lluís Domènech Girbau and Teresa-M. Sala retraces in From the book that Lluís Domènech i Montaner did not write (UB Editions) the study excursions that the architect made to elaborate the first history of Romanesque art in Catalonia. A volume that never saw the light of day, but from which the authors recovered unpublished texts, files, drawings, plans and photographs. The same publisher publishes History of a hidden Gaudí. The banner of the Orfeó Feliuà. Xavier Jové and, again, Teresa-M. Room, they reconstruct the creative process of the piece in the context of the time.

A little later in the season, Sylvia Lagarda-Mata will publish Catalunya, terra de bandolers (Angle Editorial), where she collects historical facts, biographies and legends of banditry and its impact throughout the entire Catalan geography. The reader will find names such as Perot Rocaguinarda, Serrallonga, Panxampla, Toca-son… In the same vein of recovering one’s own heritage, whether oral or architectural, Carles Cartañá and Jordi Longás present Catalunya: 50 medieval castles (Cossetània). It is a large format book with full-page color photographs, which fulfills several functions, from presenting the history and function, to providing ideas for excursions and going to meet them in person.

As always, there is no shortage of books related to the Civil War. In Érem feres (Pagès Editors), Oriol Riart presents the direct experience of the soldiers who lived through the war through their personal diaries and a careful reading of the impressions, fears, needs and emotions that the combatants left in writing at the same time of the events.

The historian Daniel Díaz-Esculies also investigates in Vida i mort dels catalans en el fronts de guerra, 1936-1939 (Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat) daily life in the republican ranks with a volume that deals, in all crudeness, from Catalanophobia of sex and the role of women on the front from primary sources. Likewise, at the beginning of October Tigre de Papel will bring together the texts and ideological evolution of Joaquím Maurín. The publication coincides with the 50th anniversary of the death of the renowned POUM leader during the 1930s.

In the area of ??the vindication of the role of women in history, to which, fortunately, more and more work is being devoted, two novelties stand out. Medicine in women. From medieval remedies to turpentines. With a collection of herbs and remedies (Cossetania). A book by the expert in medieval literature and culture, Glòria Sabaté, which pays tribute to these women transmitters of ancestral knowledge. And, likewise, they, the women, were also there. Female correspondents by Víctor Balaguer (1848-1896) (UB Editions). Montserrat Comas recovers the letters of some women who wrote to Víctor Balaguer and from there she discovers the social network of the politician and historian from the female perspective and the intellectual work of the women who were part of the liberal Balaguer environment.

Also a recent novelty is a book that many readers have already begun to enjoy. La febre dels chromos (Comanegra) by Josep-Manuel Rafí about Chocolates Boix and the history of the old Catalan and European advertising chrome that seeks to become the reference of Catalan chromolithography. After years of research, the author explains how the history of the democratization of knowledge and artistic expansion is hidden behind the advertising card. A fascinating journey through almost a thousand representative stickers from the main historical collections.

Among all the novelties, however, the book called to generate debate, on a topic always in fashion, is Vençuda però no submisa (Edicions 62). In the shadow of his own previous studies and also of the threads outlined by Ernest Lluch, Joaquim Albareda delves into a thread of continuity. The UPF professor explains that once the institutions of Catalonia were abolished in 1714 and despite the repression and chronic mistrust on the part of the military and the new authorities, many Catalans continued to dissent and protest, demanding alternatives to absolutism and not They lost the memory of freedoms. The new overview of the 18th century that Albareda presents dismantles clichés and will give something to talk about.