Josep Porter, son of a family that had to emigrate to Barcelona from Montblanc, began helping his rag-picker father and ended up esteeming so much those books that people came away with, among which there were wonders, that he would end up becoming one of the most esteemed booksellers in the city. Many enlightened aristocrats spent hours in his select bookstore and Porter encouraged them to form an association. In 1944, the Barcelona Bibliophiles Association was established, with Alfons Macaya as its first president. Among the main activities was “the publication of books, preferably in limited and numbered editions, dedicated to members; the organization of visits to libraries and other cultural events.
This 2024 the ABB, the oldest bibliophile association in Spain, will turn eighty years old. To find out what they are up to, I visit their headquarters located in the Royal Academy of Good Letters. I am received by the secretary of the association, Albert Corbeto, art historian and professor of typography. Regarding the differences between the 1944 association and the current one, he tells me that “at the time it had a more elitist idea, only fifty members, and the current members are no longer aristocrats. There are many liberal professionals, doctors, also booksellers and bookbinders. We are on the verge of 140 members, although we would never grow beyond 150, which seems to us to be the limit. But the objectives remain the same: to generate unique books in editions taken care of down to the smallest detail with limited editions. We also hold meetings with dinner and a conference from an expert in the world of books.”
He is clear that the paper book still has a lot of life ahead of it: “The technology of the paper book has not been surpassed. In fact, you see digital editions and the technology imitates the way you turn the page, even the noise of the page!”
“It is not easy to have a level edition in less than a year and a half. You work with artists, in an artisanal way, taking care of all the details of the process.” I tell him that they are like a publishing house, but with a different rhythm… “It would be like a non-commercial publishing house. We don't need the promotion part because we already have the books sold. The copies are numbered and in the name of each partner.”
He enthusiastically shows me the two latest books created by the association, currently chaired by Pau Salvat, from an illustrious family of publishers. La llibertat de premsa, with texts by Louis de Bonald and Nicolas de Condorcet, is fresh from the oven of letterpress printer Elías Plana.
In a video he shows me, Plana appears spreading fresh ink on his rollers with a spatula as if spreading a slice of bread. It is hypnotic to see the illustrations printed sheet by sheet. The resulting pages have a shine and texture very different from chain printing.
La nostra cuina traditional contains culinary texts by Josep Pla accompanied by illustrations painted in oil by Ferran Adrià. It strikes me that the artist is someone as innovative as Bulli because I related bibliophile books to very ancient volumes. Albert Corbeto smiles: “A bibliophile's book does not have to be modern! We look for the most interesting artists of the moment.”
A page catches my attention in which two shrimps float on the paper that have a strange vividness and tells me that it is a gyotaku, a technique prior to photography practiced by Japanese fishermen to show their catches, consisting of inking the fish or seafood and stamp rice paper with them. A delicatessen.
Corbeto tells me many things about how the association works, but when I say goodbye he tells me the most important thing: “What has not changed in eighty years is its first objective: to promote the love of books.”
