The only handwritten fragment of the Tirant Lo Blanch that was exhibited this week is just one of the treasures guarded by the vast documentary and artistic collection of the Provincial Council of Valencia, which has more than a million books, 5,700 scrolls and 2,000 plans, among many other archives, and around 4,000 pieces, including sculptures, paintings, engravings and drawings, by artists such as Joaquín Sorolla, José Benlliure, Ignacio Pinazo, Equipo Crónica, Rafael Armengol, Andreu Alfaro, Carmen Calvo or Miquel Navarro.
The jewels preserved by the General and Photographic Archive of the provincial corporation, built in 1992 in one of the pavilions of the disappeared Manicomio de Jesús, could cover a distance of 10 kilometers, with which to cover centuries of history of the Valencian municipalities with texts and images.
This week the Provincial Council showed one of the most appreciated documents from its monumental archive. On the occasion of Book Day, the provincial institution broadcast a video of the only known manuscript fragment in the world of Tirant lo Blanch, the chivalry novel written by Joanot Martorell.
These pages of the Tirant were discovered by the researcher Jaume J. Chiner among the funds of the Archive of the Duchess of Almodóvar, one of the private donations that the Provincial Council has received for its conservation and dissemination, as well as the collections of Joaquín Michavila and the Estudio Sanchis, among others, or the archive of the architects Antonio Gómez, in the donation process.
The most curious thing is that the handwritten pages of the Tirant were used, folded in half, as a folder to protect the documents of a judicial process that took place in 1454 related to the Loris family. It so happens that Isabel de Loris is cited in Joanot Martorell’s own work.
As explained by the provincial deputy responsible for the Archive, Ricardo Gabaldón, this fragment denotes the historical and patrimonial value of the funds kept by the Provincial Council of Valencia. “Everyone knows the Batlia and Els Scala palaces, headquarters of the Provincial Council itself, the Beneficència, the MuVIM, the Corbera Castle or the Llutxent Monastery, which are the heritage of this institution and of all Valencians. However, not everyone knows that works as valuable as Sorolla’s The Fisherwomen or Ignacio Pinazo’s The Last Moments of King Jaume I are the property of the provincial institution, which for decades was a pioneer with an ambitious scholarship program for young artists through those who paid for studies in cities like Rome and Paris. And even fewer people know the photographic material and documents kept by the Archive.”
The intention of Gabaldón, responsible for Heritage in the current legislature, is to “work together with technicians so that all these treasures, both documentary and photographic as well as artistic, can reach the municipalities through traveling exhibitions, always guaranteeing protection and conservation.” of this legacy and taking into account the conditions of the spaces in which it will be exhibited.”
The General and Photographic Archive of the Provincial Council has 45,081 boxes, 27,538 publications, 5,719 parchments, around 13,000 photographs and more than 2,000 plans. It must be kept in mind that the deputations took charge by law of the so-called Charity Establishments and were integrating their archives, as well as those of the General Hospital.
A circumstance that generates an immense amount of papers and files and that brings to light curious findings such as the discovery of several documents from the 18th century on the income of the Valencian painter and engraver Hipólito Rovira in the General Hospital of Valencia.
Rovira, born in Valencia in 1693, was the architect, together with the sculptor Ignacio Vergara, of the important renovation of the Palace of the Marquis of Dos Aguas. In the Archive of the Provincial Council of Valencia, in a volume from 1764 of the registration books for the admission of patients to the General Hospital, the stays of Hipólito Rovira are recorded, specifically three admissions, until his death is certified on the 7th. May 1765.
The documentary collections that the Provincial Council has come from the institution itself, but also from charitable, welfare and health organizations and institutions, in the case of the General Hospital, the House of Mercy or the House of Charity. There are also materials from other public organizations and institutions such as the former civil government and from private collections and funds such as that of the Duchess of Almodóvar, where the Tirant manuscript was found.
The Duchess of Almodóvar and her heir soul
In the case of the duchess, the absence of children, the premature death of her parents, the constant litigation she faced to keep part of her properties and her enlightened mentality of the time possibly influenced her decision to designate her soul as universal heir in his will. As a result, she allocated most of her assets to help needy orphans and to promote primary education for boys and girls in the regions that had been her feudal domains.
In addition to these funds, the Archive stands out for its extensive collection of photographs, maps and posters. Regarding the latter, a curiosity. In addition to the bullfighting posters (King Philip V granted the General Hospital the privilege of operating bullfights in perpetuity in 1739), the precious circus posters kept by the Provincial Archive draw attention.
Gabaldón himself remembers that the Bullring “was the best prepared venue in the entire city of Valencia to host shows related to the circus. The Hospital Board owned the right of exploitation and, among its clauses, was the obligation to deliver part of the proceeds to the benefit of the General Hospital, by royal privilege granted to it on September 15, 1582 by King Philip II, which “It granted the monopoly of owning a venue suitable for dramatic performances.” Even today, every Christmas, the circus returns to the Valencia bullring.
