The seminar will be taught by Nicolás Bas Martín, Professor of the Department of History of Science and Documentation of the University of Valencia.

The López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (joint centre of the University of Valencia and the CSIC), based at the Palacio de Cerveró, presents the seminar Viajes, cartas y libros científicos: la otra “cara” de Cavanilles, which will take place on Tuesday 29 October, at 17:00, in the conference room of the institute.

If there was a century in which the trinomial, travels, letters and book reached its peak it was during the 18th century, and the life experience of Cavanilles is a perfect example of this. His “Grand tour” in the pre-revolutionary Paris, left abundant correspondence, correspondence that after his return to Spain he maintained with the Parisian bookseller Jean Baptiste Fournier. An epistolary relationship where the books were the main characters, and which gives an insight into the most unknown side of the botanist. Thus the letters became the main medium of dissemination and circulation of books and ideas between Spain and France in the late 18th century, launching a remarkable publishing scheme of booksellers, printers and agents, based in Paris and Madrid. All, with a unique object, to fulfill the intellectual concerns of Cavanilles and his selected group, composed of relevant intellectuals and Spanish nobility. Letters that become “a window on the world”, thanks to which Spain reached the most innovative books in the fields of science, history, literature, fine arts and religions. And among all these publications stands out, the Encyclopédie Méthodique that became the main object of desire.

Regarding to the lecturer, Nicolás Bas, he is trainee lecturer Doctor of the Department of History of Science and Documentation of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of the University of Valencia. He focused his research career in the History of the Valencian Book during the 18th century, with titles like “La imprenta en Valencia en el siglo XVIII: Antonio Bordazar de Artazu” (1997; “Las bibliografías de la Ilustración valenciana (2002); and “Los Orga: una dinastia de impresores en la Valencia del siglo XVIII” (2005). In recent years he has been interested in the circulation of books and ideas in the Europe of the 18th century, which resulted in the publication of his last project, which obtained the Bibliography Award of the National Library of Spain in 2011, and that currently is at press with the title “El correo de la Ilustración. Libros y lecturas en la correspondencia entre Cavanilles y el librero parisino Fournier (1790-1802)”. Currently he is working in the topic about the presene of Spanish books in France and England during the Illustration. His contributions have been published in numerous national and international journals, as well as in different European forums, held in Paris, Montpellier, Brussels and, more recently, in the University of Cambridge.