Espasa

Description

Espasa was founded in Barcelona in 1860 by Josep Espasa, who with his brothers created the Espasa Hermanos publishing house. Initially, it primarily specialised in illustrated books, and it dominated this sector of the market until new companies were founded. Translations, primarily of medical works, were another of this imprint’s lines of publication.

It has left its mark worldwide through the Enciclopedia universal ilustrada europeo-americana, issued in conjunction with CALPE (Compañía Anónima de Librería y Publicaciones Españolas). This prestigious work, which includes 70 volumes with 10 appendixes and 27 supplements, was indispensable in libraries, archives, universities, companies and even private homes in the 20^th century. It was the outcome of the project that Josep Espasa i Anguera started in 1907.

In 1925, the publishing house merged with CALPE (Compañía Anónima de Librería y Publicaciones Españolas), which had been created in 1918, and together they continued the project of publishing the Enciclopedia. The company known as Espasa Calpe has produced numerous reference works such as dictionaries and grammars, and it has been at the forefront of publishing paperback books, with its important Colección Austral. Its publishing output has been important not only in Barcelona but all over the Iberian Peninsula and much of the Americas. It joined Grup Planeta in 1992.

Espasa

Authors

Throughout its history, this imprint also published authors writing on a variety of topics, from medical manuals to dictionaries and grammars, in which it has been a point of reference. It has also produced religious and literary works.

• Argullol, Josep d’, 1839-1886

• Benet i Jornet, Josep M., 1940-2020

• Blanch, Adolfo, 1832-1887

• Bofarull, Antoni de, 1821-1892

• Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616

• Cortada, Joan, 1805-1868

• Donadiu i Puignau, Delfí, 1845-1904

• Fernández y González, Manuel, 1821-1888

• Gebhardt, Víctor, 1830-1894

• Labèrnia i Esteller, Pere, 1802-1860

• Malgaigne, J.-F. (Joseph-François), 1806-1865

• Soler, Frederic, 1839-1895

• Stanley, Henry, 1841-1904

Espasa

Illustrators and photographers

Ever since it was founded, Espasa enlisted the aid of great illustrators, such as Magí Pujades, who was also a partner in the publishing house. It used high-quality wood-cut engravings, which kept it on the forefront for many years.

Tomàs Padró, Eusebi Planas and Apel·les Mestres are other prominent illustrators who worked with Espasa.

Illustration by Tomàs Padró in Poesías Catalanas by Frederic Soler.

Illustration by Apel·les Mestres in Margaridó

• Mestres, Apel·les, 1854-1936

• Padró i Pedret, Tomàs, 1840-1877

• Planas, Eusebi, 1833-1897

Espasa

Collections

The two most important collections in the history of Espasa-Calpe were the Colección Austral and Clásicos Castellanos, both oriented at literature.

Espasa

Magazines

Its most popular magazine was El mundo ilustrado, which featured a wide variety of contents and stood out for its profusion of illustrations.

Title page of El mundo ilustrado and engraving, 1879.

• Almanaque Sud-Americano [18--]-[19--]

• El Mundo Ilustrado, biblioteca de las familias (1879-1883)

Espasa

Outstanding works

• Soler, Federich. Poesías catalanas. Barcelona: Espasa Germans y Salvat, 1875.

First work of Catalan literature published by the imprint. It stands out for its meticulous details and the profusion of illustrations by Tomàs Padró.

Digital version of the work at the Miguel de Cervantes virtual library

• Cortada, Joan. La Voz de la conciencia, ó, El libro de la familia : coleccion de ejemplos morales. Barcelona: Espasa y Cía., 1864.  

Illustration in La Voz de la conciencia o el libro de la familia. Barcelona: Espasa, 1864.

Sample of moralistic literature. The illustrations are by Eusebi Planas. Digital version of the work in Google books.

• Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. El Ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. Barcelona: Espasa Hermanos, 1869.

Portable edition of the great classic of Spanish literature illustrated by Daniel Urrabieta Vierge.

Title page of the first volume of Don Quixote illustrated by Daniel Urrabieta Vierge.

• Labèrnia, Pere. Diccionari de la llengua catalana. Barcelona: Espasa Germans, 1864.

Title page of the dictionary by Pere Labèrnia.

New expanded and improved edition of the first dictionary by Pere Labèrnia, published after the author’s death. It adopted the reform suggested by Antoni de Bofarull and includes an excerpt of his rules on spelling and prosody. Digital version of Diccionari de la llengua catalana in Google Books.

• Bofarull, Antoni i Blanch, Adolf. Gramática de la lengua catalana. Barcelona: Espasa Hermanos, 1867.

The Renaixença movement prompted the publication of Catalan grammars which sought to organise the language and its usage. Espasa published the one by Bofarull.

• Malgaigne, Joseph François. Manual de medicina operatoria. Barcelona: Espasa Hermanos, 1878.

One of the publishing house’s strong suits was its translations of medical works.

• Donadiu i Puignau, Delfín. Diccionario enciclopédico  de la lengua castellana. Barcelona: José Espasa Editor, 1890-1898.

• Enciclopedia universal ilustrada. Barcelona: Espasa (Després Espasa-Calpe), 1907-

Title page and first page of the encyclopaedia

This work was the most important one issued by Espasa. It was disseminated so widely that the publishing house was unable to reach the production levels needed, and in order to do so it merged with CALPE in 1925.