Since her children became independent, Joan Font lives with her ghosts. He was widowed four years ago. His wife was an expert in medieval English history and read in six languages. He was putting the books in the apartment that they secretly entered in 2000, because there were too many. They are 10% of the approximately 30,000 that he has spread across five houses. In the Empordà there are those from the world of wine, local monographs and universal literature. “I have tried to give them a good life, that the temperature and humidity are adequate,” so that when they reach other hands they do so in good conditions and in good health, he says.
He likes things to be good at home, starting with books: “I want my guests to be happy.” For this, the continent is as important as the content. The libraries in the Barcelona apartment match the doors made by the Woevodskys. Font spends little time in the living room, giving him the impression of being a guest. Yes, she uses the dining room because she has imposed it on her; She likes to cook, although she almost always eats out. He sleeps little, four hours, he reads on the bed (not in it) or in a good armchair, in the office, never on the sofa.
Here he has a lot of Spanish binding from the 20th century (Brugalla, Galván, Palomino), incunabula, religious books, the Index librorum prohibitorum, history of the Jesuits, the Spanish-American bookseller's Manual by Antoni Palau Dulcet, from 1907. He is passionate about his country, “We are a small country and we do things freely.” After studying in the Piarists, at the end of the sixties he entered Virtèlia, a Catalan and secular school aimed at a professional bourgeoisie. They had a library in the classroom and a deep devotion to the Mare de Déu de Montserrat, which made him interested in the subject. At the age of 9 he read all of Enid Blyton's The Five. Then he was captivated by Verne's Miguel Strogoff. At 12 or 13, he switched to Gothic literature, going to the Mercat de Sant Antoni.
Bibliophilia would come as an adult, “if you are curious, the world of books is infinite.” He says he is a vice; “It's not bad, but it can lead to ruin, like all excessive hobbies.” He compares it to hunting and instinct. He remembers buying books by fax, in the late 1990s. He received the catalog, placed the order with the card number, and received them a month and a half later. Now you can participate online in the auctions, you have them after three days. He is cerebral. Of course, when he sees something that interests him in a store, he buys it because he is excited about it and he is in a hurry. He is vice-secretary of the Barcelona Bibliophiles Association. And vice president of the Catalan Academy of Gastronomy and Nutrition; He is in charge of publications, such as La nostra cuina traditional, with texts by Josep Pla illustrated by Ferran Adrià.
He collected bibles of different Christian confessions, he became enthusiastic about The Thousand and One Nights, he searched for different editions around the world. A lawyer dedicated to international law, he has been able to travel and frequent bookstores and antique shops in other countries. When he went with his children to Egypt, he took two copies of the Baedeker guides (the first to rate monuments with stars), one from 1914 and the other from 1923; Between both dates, Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered. He distinguishes between bibliophile and reader. The first examines the book, looks at it, enjoys it aesthetically, reverentially: “It provides indescribable pleasure, it worships the object.” He is also a reader, a passion forged by the trident Pla, Porcel and Espriu, one of the few who rereads. If he loves a current book, he has it bound in leather by Josep Cambras: “It's like giving amnesty to the bull that has been brave and has fought well.”
Among the incunabula, there is a Duns Scoto published in 1490 in Venice and with a 19th century Portuguese binding and a silver clasp. “It's a sample of how long the book lasts.” He believes that in 500 years there will be nothing left in audiovisual support. On the other hand, he has specimens that have passed through five, six owners before. He is aware that he will leave, they will change hands and have other lives. “We are a circumstance; We keep them, we accompany them, we watch them for a while and we make sure that nothing happens to them.”
