The Pérez i Baier research room it is part of the university Historical Library and owes its name to one of its major benefactors.
At the initiative of Principal Vicent Blasco, author of the curriculum of 1787, the construction of the Library was promoted, from the books offered by Francesc Pérez i Baier, as well as the construction of the university press, created for the publication of the new manuals that were used in the classrooms, following a project presented by the academic architect Joaquim Martínez. The Library was inaugurated in 1795 and other professors offered their funds. Likewise, during the War of Independence, there was a fire during the bombing of the city in 1812, by the Napoleonic troops under Marshal Suchet, which destroyed part of the building and the foundational library fund. On 7 January, the library burnt and books were reduced to ashes. As the fire grew, “professors, students and janitors struggled to save what they could” (Fernando Llorca, La biblioteca universitaria de Valencia)
The refurbished Library was filled again with various private donations and bequests: Principal Vicent Blasco, Domènec Mascarós, first librarian, Salvador Perellós and Onofre Soler, etc., and reopened its doors in 1837. Marià Liñán i Morelló had defrayed the building of shelves, with all the ornaments, capitals, façades, cornices and doors made by the carpenter Maure Comín for 17.000 reales, and he donated his books and coin collections. Over time the funds from seized convents were incorporated: Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans, Trinitarians, Order of Montesa, etc. but specially those that came from the San Miguel de los Reyes monastery that included a part of the library of Alfonso the Magnanimous and his successors at the court of Naples, through the legacy of Fernando de Aragón, Duke of Calabria and his wife, Germaine de Foix. Later, the donations by Professor Francesc Xavier Borrull, and by Giner de Perellós Dosaigues Marquis (1843), Vicent Hernández Mañez, Vicent Alfonso, in 1867, Francesc Carbonell, and Principal Joan del Castillo, the provost Francesc Estruch, Salas Quiroga, and many others enriched exceedingly this library.
Before the last refurbishment (1997-2000), the Library had the reading room and one for researchers, and also the one called the codices and manuscripts room and various offices. The entry was through the monumental staircase designed by Xavier Goerlich, of pink marble with brass and wood railings, decorated with chandeliers and classical niches with stone tops. It was illuminated by a large window with emblems of the University.
At present, the Historical Library has and shows a large, important and varied collection. It also has reading rooms, offices and modern storerooms.
