Archival Sources of the Bookbinder Antonio de Sancha at the Real Academia Española During the Second Half of the 18th Century

Abstract

The work aimed to find out who Antonio de Sancha was as the official bookbinder of the Spanish Royal Academy in the second half of the 18th century, by analyzing the books of agreements, annual accounts, janitorial notes, and receipts from the Archives. Once all the documentation had been analyzed, the Library catalog was consulted to locate the works found in the documents. All the bindings were analyzed in situ through a description of the materials used, construction techniques, techniques and decorative elements, and state of conservation. In addition, the bindings and decorative details such as irons being digitized. This allowed to update the corpus of irons of Antonio de Sancha and to know the number of copies, prices, to whom the works were addressed, the relationship with other bookbinders and printers, thus contributing to the knowledge of the history of the Royal Academy itself and also of the history of the Madrid and Spanish bookbinding workshops in the latter part of the 18th century.