In fact, it is the family library. And the history of the library, says Conxita Estruga, “is our history.” In a broad sense, because it collects the crown of Aragon and Barcelona. But also intimate: the brothers have watched her grow since they were children. At the age of seven, she accompanied her father to second-hand bookstores in Gòtic. She waited patiently and, as a reward, they had a snack at Sant Felip Neri, “a Coca-Cola, he said, and some chips.” Jordi Estruga i Estruga presided over the Barcelona Bibliophiles Association for two decades, “the booksellers gave him their lives and he was always grateful.” He died in April 2020, covid; This year he would have turned 90. Now her children take turns spending a week with her mother in the apartment where she has lived since they got married. When it is Conxita’s turn, she digitizes the cards that her father wrote by hand.
He says it is a beautiful process, feeling him close, asking questions and having a conversation with him. Not followed, but full of mysteries and secrets: why is the first book he bought as a bibliophile, in the seventies, by Saint Oleguer? Probably because his name was Oleguer Bonestruga, and Estruga, from a family from Mequinenza, was a gentleman from Barcelona. Why do you have an incunabulum of Saint Vincent? And a grammar from Nebrija (the first printed in the vulgar language in Europe, with Gothic font, from 1497)?
He received a catalog every day. And it is now, in this immersion, when his third daughter becomes aware of the dimension of what there is. It will be a job that will take him a lifetime to discover her father’s library. Here are the constitutions of Catalonia, the Consolat de Mar, the New Plant Decree, the royal decrees. Like one from 1778 – the Inquisition would still last more than half a century – which prohibits introducing the book Year 2440 into the country. Another bans entry into bound books, to prevent leather workers from being left without a job.
Director of the Ferrer laboratories, Jordi Estruga traveled a lot, and always returned with books: from Argentina, Mexico, Sicily, Germany. He even hid them under the bed to avoid scolding until they bought the adjacent apartment. There are shelves everywhere. Television, only in the rooms; common spaces were for talking. In the hallway, large sliding panels with maps. Surely as a result of woodcuts, his passion led him from history to cartography and engraving in the eighties. A map occupies the coffee table in the room where he received bibliophile members.
“The world of bibliophilia is spectacular. It does not stop at the content, it studies the printer, the typographer, who bound it; If you are curious, you can’t stop,” says Conxita. She became a member when her father died and she is a member of the board of directors. The tradition of the Nadales continues from him, but instead of engravings, she recovers a poet and an artist, for example Felícia Fuster. She studied Philosophy and Letters, specialized in contemporary art, and is the director of Media Rights
His love for literature comes from his maternal grandfather. “When we were little, he gave us amazing books that I have very much saved”: La Fontaine’s Fables “with illustrations that you die for”, Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty. Then he moved on to poetry, also thanks to him, Bécquer, Wilde. Later, Crime and Punishment. He is passionate about Ferrater; Whenever he reads it, he gets excited. And the damned ones, Baudelaire, Rimbaud. From his father’s library, he shares above all the fascination with the Three Architects of the Book: Lluís Jou, Jaume Pla and Miquel Plana, who were in charge of editing, printing, and design. Perhaps libraries cannot be inherited, because you make them yourself. But upon entering his father’s home, Estruga has a great time, “and that’s how I get to know him; rather, I am confirming that he knew him.”
