Published in New Approaches in the Research on the Crown of Aragon

Keywords: History of libraries, Incunabula, Valencia Cathedral.

The Valencia Cathedral presently retains 117 incunabula which correspond to 85 different editions. The aim of this article is to show the origin and development of this collection since the Late Middle Ages until today. To this end, we have studied the material features of the books, especially their marks of ownership and provenance. In addition to this, we have analyzed four inventories of the Valencian Chapter Library that were conducted throughout the 16th, 17th and 19th centuries, as well as the inventory prepared by José Sanchis Sivera (1930) and the Catalogue published by Elías Olmos Canalda in 1951. This analysis has allowed us to identify many of the editions preserved today by the Cathedral along with others that have been lost over time, for reasons ranging from the expurgations during the 16th and 17th centuries to a possible transfer to other institutions. Besides, we have been able to establish the early constitution of the collection, since almost 60% of the editions owned at present by the Valencia Cathedral were already there in the middle of the 16th century.