By Marta Pérez Cruzado
ABU DHABI, 26th May, 2023 (WAM) –Democratize knowledge and wisdom located in great masterpieces created in the Middle Ages. This is the great bet made by the Spanish Manuel Moleiro when in 1990 he decided to open a publishing house specializing in the cloning of unique manuscripts and codices, only exhibited in the most prestigious libraries and museums in the world.
Today, more than 30 years later and after positioning itself as the most recognized brand in the West, with 50 published titles, Moleiro has decided to disembark with its works of art at the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, which takes place in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. United States (UAE) until May 28.
“To democratize means to open up the works and that they are not reserved only for a few; when you visit a museum and find one of these books, you see it open to one page, only one percent of the publication is available,” said the firm’s representative, Diego de Urbiola, in statements to the Agencia de Emirates News – WAM.
He also explained that “there are many Picassos, and they have a market value, but of these manuscripts there is only one and if it disappears, that knowledge is lost forever.” “What we do is preserve it and keep it for posterity,” he said. .
After receiving an invitation to participate in the Abu Dhabi Book Fair, the Moleiro firm decided to take the opportunity to “open up” to this market, where, according to Urbiola, they are “unknown”.
This is not the situation of the publisher in Europe, where it has managed to create a “great resume”. His works are among the possessions of the royal families, the Vatican or have even been filmed in films such as ‘The name of the rose’ or the Spanish television series ‘Isabel’.
“If you’ve seen the Italian film, the book rescued by actor Sean Connery from the monastery’s library fire is ‘Beato de Liébana’, reproduced by us,” stressed the firm’s representative.
This title and many others, such as ‘The Book of the Hours of Juana I of Castilla’, are already out of print. The firm exclusively launches limited editions of 987 copies of each work and, at the moment they are sold, they are not published again with the aim of granting a very special collector’s character to the pieces.
The prices of these manuscripts and codices can reach 20,000 euros per copy, although it must be pointed out that they vary depending on the work and the investment that each one has required.
The sale of the work is always accompanied by a study volume carried out by historians and specialists in each field so that buyers can understand both the character of the book and its historical perspective. In fact, many of the titles “are in Latin and are unreadable” to the people who purchase them.
Among the so-called ‘illuminated’ manuscripts that have been brought to Abu Dhabi, where illustrations predominate, is the ‘Miller Atlas’, a set of maps of the discoveries made by Portugal in 1519. The Australian coasts appear drawn for the first time.
There is also ‘The Book of Happiness’, commissioned by Sultan Murad III, named King of the Ottoman Empire in 1574 and belonging to the National Library of France.
The cloning process of these “treasures”, which can last from 2 to 6 years, requires “very restricted access” to the institutions with which Moleiro “works in close complicity”, always under “controlled atmospheric conditions” and even “with police supervision,” Urbiola said.
After analyzing the work, Moleiro is in charge of “cloning” it. He uses the same materials that were used in the original book. As data of the detail that is displayed, it serves that up to 96 hours are dedicated to the cover of each issue.
The Spanish publisher, present for the first time in the Arabian Gulf, does not rule out making a new incursion soon and “betting” on the region with relevant titles of Islamic and Arab culture.
2023-05-26 06:51:56
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