Montaner y Simón

Description

Founded by Ramon Montaner i Vila and Francesc Simón i Font in 1867, this imprint came to lead the Catalan and Spanish publishing industries, and it was a benchmark publisher in the sector until the mid-20^th century.

Its editions, which spanned a wide variety of topics including history, literature, geography, travel, science and even the Bible, stand out for their high-quality printing and the accuracy of their illustrations. The language of the publications was always Spanish, and they were targeted at a bourgeois, wealthy audience. The publishing house’s headquarters was one of the first Art Nouveau buildings in Barcelona, built by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. In 1993, this building was declared an asset of national interest in the category of historical monument. The Fundació Antoni Tàpies has been based there since 1990.

Montaner y Simón was a large publishing house; 240 employees worked on just the ground floor on Carrer Aragó. It used more than half a million kilograms of paper per year, had more than 800 correspondents and agreements with 14 companies in South America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso, Puerto Rico, Havana, Mexico City, San Salvador, Bogotá, Guatemala City, Caracas, Lima, El Callao and later Guayaquil). The volume of exports to the Americas was assessed at half a million pesetas per year. During the first quarter of the century, its catalogue contained more than 250 titles.

During the 1940s and 1950, the company devoted itself to publishing bibliophile editions. This new line required a huge investment, which dovetailed with the period of defaults in the South American market. Because of these difficulties, the publishing house filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by the publisher José María González Porto, who founded among others the Unión Tipográfica Editorial Hispanoamericana (UTEHA). This new owner maintained the same editorial lines and kept publishing informative encyclopaedic works, dictionaries, technical books, handbooks and literature works. González-Porto died in 1975, after that, the publishing house closed in 1981. Much of the documentation was destroyed, with the exception of some which was conserved thanks to the efforts of collectors and private individuals. 

In 1994, the Biblioteca de Catalunya purchased a collection of woodblock matrixes from the publishing house, and in 2000 a small portion of its documentation reached the library through the Ramón Borràs autograph collection. This company’s history can be traced through the collection of publishers’ brochures and catalogues conserved in the Bergnes de las Casas Library collection.

Montaner y Simón

Authors

Montaner y Simón published extremely valuable, widely recognised authors, as well as figures from the day such as Apel·les Mestres, who was the artistic director of the publishing house.

• Alighieri, Dante, 1265-1321

• Aubin, José M.

• Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo, 1836-1870

• Bellessort, André, 1866-1942

• Boscà, Joan, ca. 1492-1542

• Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884

• Cajal, Federico

• Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, 1600-1681

• Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616

• Chateaubriand, François-René de, 1768-1848

• Conrad, Joseph, 1857-1924

• Defoe, Daniel, 1660-1731

• Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870

• Domènech i Montaner, Lluís, 1850-1923

• Echegaray, José, 1832-1916

• Espronceda, José de, 1808-1842

• Fernández de Moratín, Leandro, 1760-1828

• Fita, Fidel, 1836-1917

• Giner de los Ríos, Francisco, 1838-1915

• Homer, s. VIII a.C.- s. VIII a. C.

• Isop, s. VI a.C.- s. VI a.C.

• La Fontaine, Jean de , 1621-1695

• Lafuente, Modesto, 1806-1866

• Larra, Mariano José de, 1809-1837

• Madrazo, Pedro, 1816-1898

• Malte-Brun, Conrad, 1775-1826

• Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino, 1856-1912

• Mérimée, Prosper de, 1803-1870

• Miquel i Badia, Francesc, 1840-1899

• Oncken, Wilhelm, 1828-1905

• Pagès de Puig, Anicet de, 1843-1902

• Pi i Margall, Francesc, 1824-1901

• Puig i Cadafalch, Josep, 1867-1956

• Ratzel, Friedrich, 1844-1904

• Rivas, Ángel de Saavedra, Duque de, 1791-1865

• Sienkiewicz, Henryk, 1846-1916

• Stendhal, 1783-1842

• Thiers, Adolphe, 1797-1877

• Vilanova y Piera, Juan, 1821-1893

• Zorrilla, José, 1817-1893

Montaner y Simón

Illustrators and photographers

The publishing house not only chose first-rate illustrators but was also on the front lines of new printing techniques. It also hired highly qualified staff, such as Narcís Ramírez, to create its engravings.

• Balaca, Ricardo, 1844-1880

• Brunand, Eugenio

• Doré, Gustave, 1832-1883

• Gual, Adrià, 1872-1943

• Mas i Fontdevila, Arcadi, 1852-1934

• Mestres, Apel·les, 1854-1936

• Riquer, Alexandre de, 1856-1920

Montaner y Simón

Collections

Montaner y Simón created a line of collections targeted at an educated audience with discerning taste, which includes different collections in fields like literature (novels, poetry and theatre), science, history, biographies, bibliophile editions and children’s books. In the 1960s and 1970s, it added a more informational line in its collections. Throughout its lifetime, it published 38 collections.

• Barcelona histórica y monumental (1946-1976)

• Biblioteca científica (1931-1973)

• Biblioteca de novelas selectas (1931-1948)

• Biblioteca de síntesis histórica (1964-1973)

• Biblioteca espiritual (1942-1976)

• Biblioteca estelar (1973-1976)

• Biblioteca histórica (1931-1976)

• Biblioteca náutica (1966-1976)

• Biblioteca selección (1939-1978)

• Biblioteca temática Montaner y Simón (1980)

• Biblioteca universal (1911-1946)

• Biblioteca UTEHA de economía y administración de empresas (1980)

• Biblioteca UTEHA de historia (1968-1973)

• Biblioteca UTEHA de sociología y psicología social (1980)

• Carabela (1949-1968)

• Cenit (1949-1976)

• Colección Ariel (1944-1948)

• Colección Artemisa (1948-1955)

• Colección Casiopea (1949-1975)

• Colección de goigs (1948)

• Colección Medusa (1948-1955)

• Colección Montaner y Simón de ciencias naturales (1973-1978)

• Colección panorama (1964-1975)

• Colección UTEHA de ciencias naturales (1966-1968)

• Ediciones Hora (1943-1964)

• Enciclopedia UTEHA para la juventud (1966-1975)

• Enciclopedias de la vida práctica (1966-1975)

• Historia del teatro español (1949-1952)

• Hombres, épocas y países (1949-1964)

• Manuales técnicos UTEHA (1966-1976)

• Manuales UTEHA (1964-1979)

• Manuales UTEHA breves (1973-1979)

• Obras maestras de los clásicos de Occidente (1951-1979)

• Panorama (1949-1968)

• Polimnia (1942-1978)

• Serie parva (1949-1976)

• Tolle Lege. Serie de moralistas (1944-1976)

• Verge i els sants a Catalunya (1951-1952)

Montaner y Simón

Magazines

Montaner y Simón published two magazines: La ilustración artística and El salón de moda. Both were innovative in terms of their printing mechanisms based on electroplating techniques and the reproduction of colour lithographs by photomechanical means. La ilustración artística  used the half-tone photoengraving method back in 1883, just one year after the system had been patented by Georges Meisenbach in Munich.

La ilustración artística (1882-1916) was given to subscribers to the Biblioteca Universal Ilustrada collection. It was a magazine in Spanish on a variety of topics such as news updates, literary articles, fashion, customs, new technologies and studies in geography and medicine. Each issue was illustrated with six engravings. The magazine’s iconography was clearly inspired by Marià Fortuny.

El salón de moda contained everything that might be of interest to bourgeois women: rules of behaviour for housewives, how to be a good wife and mother, chapters from novels, dress and embroidery patterns, news updates, the latest fashions in Paris and Madrid, pastimes, and a variety of recipes (to clean silver, remove stains from silk, etc.).

It also published many engravings accompanied by a brief explanation at the beginning of the magazine, along with a colour plate at the end of each issue. The majority of its authors published under pseudonyms, such as Anarda, Siebel, K. Sabal and others.

• El Salón de moda

• La ilustración artística: periódico semanal de literatura, artes y ciencias (1882-1916)

Montaner y Simón

Outstanding works

The early era of Montaner y Simón left a legacy of books boasting extraordinary quality with a palpable taste for style and editing.

• Zorrilla, José. Ecos de montañas. Leyendas  históricas. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1868.

First work by Narcís Ramírez published on commission by Montaner y Simón. It has 36 plates and the publishing house’s binding.

• Dante, Alighieri. La Divina Comedia. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1871-1872.

Large edition of one of the most renowned works in world literature illustrated by Gustave Doré.

• La Sagrada Bíblia. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1871-1873. (reedicions 1883-1884, 1888, 1890-1892).

This work stands out for its large size, the details of its decorations and its numerous plates illustrated by the artist Gustave Doré.

• Cervantes, Miguel de. El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1880-1883.

Edition of the masterpiece of Castilian literature which stands out for its monumentality yet its affordable price. It was illustrated by the celebrated painter Ricardo Balaca.

• Diccionario enciclopédico hispano-americano de literatura, ciencias y artes. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1887-1898. (apèndixs 1898-1889 i 1907-1910).

We cannot cite Montaner y Simón without mentioning its most ambitious project, the Diccionario enciclopédico, which had 25 volumes and countless illustrations.

• Lafuente, Modesto i més tard Valera, Juan. Historia General de España. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1879-1882. (Palau, 1a edició 1877-1885, 2a ed. 1879-1890).

Monumental work by the historian Modesto Lafuente which started with a first edition of 6 volumes that was later expanded to 25 volumes in the second edition.

• Oncken, William. Historia Universal. Barcelona: Montaner y Simón, 1890-1894.

A work that stands out for its numerous engravings.

• La Creación: historia natural. Barcelona: Montaner y  Simón, 1872-1876.