This book contains the proceedings of Mapping, Measuring and Modelling the Universe, a workshop on cosmology and large-scale structure held at the Palau de Pineda in Valencia from 18th to 22nd September 1995.

The study of the large-scale structure of the Universe is one of the most active fields of research in contemporary astronomy. One of the most interesting aspects of this subject is a particularly vigorous interaction between theory and observation. The major scientific motivation for the Workshop was to promote this interaction still further by bringing theorists and observers together for a week of seminars and discussions.

The second major motivation for this workshop was to encourage the devel- opment of research in cosmology with the European Union. An important role in facifitating scientific collaboration in cosmology within Europe is played by the European Cosmology Network (ECN), which links most of the universities and laboratories engaged in active research in this area. Having a workshop in Spain seemed a good opportunity to bring the various members of ECN together for more concentrated discussions and hopefully to promote new collaborative arrangements. It was decided, however, that invited speakers should not be limited to the European Union and the final list of contributions represents the truly international flavour of modern research in this area.

The need for a workshop along these lines was demonstrated early on in the organisation by the large number of applications both to attend and present talks, not all of whom could be accomodated. It was also interesting to see the level of interest in this meeting amongst the public at large, as witnessed by the near constant presence of Spanish TV crews during the meeting!

Most of the invited talks and contributed talks appear in this proceedings. Some of the talks have the character of reviews, others are more specialised. The talks are arranged in 7 parts which should be self-explanatory, although there are a number of papers which cross the boundaries between the parts and such a division is therefore to some extent arbitrary. Taken together, they give a good and accurate impression of the state of current cosmological research inside and outside Europe. The quality and variety of the'papers presented also demonstrates that the workshop did achieve the two aims outlined above, even excluding the valuable (if less formal) discussions that occured in the tapas bars and restaurants of Valencia!

Finally, the organisers of the meeting gratefully acknowledge the following for financial support:

o Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo (sede Palau de Pineda, Valencia);
o Universitat de Valencia (Vicerrectorat d'lnvestigació);
o Dirección General de Investigación Cientifica y Técnica del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia;
o Conselleria de Cultura, Educació i Ciéncia de la Generalitat Valenciana;
o IBM (they paid for the coffee breaks);
o last, but by no means least, many of the participants obtained travel funds from the European Union Human Capital and Mobility Programme which funds the ECN network.

Thanks are also due to Jeannette Barnes for her help in compiling this volume and to all the authors who submitted their manuscripts promptly and in the right format!

Peter Coles, Vicent Martinez & Maria-Jesus Pons-Borderia

January 1996