Voces del Prado

A user of the old library

Javier Docampo Capilla, Head of the Library, Documentation and Archives Area, 2005-2016

m Javier Docampo and I worked between 2005 and 2016 as the Museum's Head of the Library, Archive and Documentation.
In 1997, if I remember correctly, I prepared an exhibition on William Howard, the English engraver from the 18th century, for the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao. It was my first professional contact with Miguel Zugaza, and in the preparation of the exhibition I went to the Library at the Prado, because it had documents that I could not find anywhere else. At the time, which must have been 1996, the year before the inauguration of the exhibition, the Library was still located at the Villanueva building. There was a catalogue printed out from a computer. There were no computer terminals available for use by the public. I remember Ángel Cuenca, who was already working there, probably the worker of most seniority at the Library. He was always so efficient, he'd bring me the books and I could check them in a very pleasant room. I was told that people would go there to consult the etchings and drawings kept at the Museum.
From what I've found out over the years, there was virtually one closet with around 400 or 500 books. You can imagine it would have lives of artists, catalogues of foreign museums, books destined to cataloguing tasks for the few curators that the Museum had at the time. The Library grew, although quite slowly. It never really developed the way one would have expected at such an important institution. In that respect, I was fortunate to be at the helm in a period of change. Not due to any merit on my part; simply because we enjoyed the decisive support of the Director.