On 21 May 1836, the principal of the Universitat de València, Francisco Villalba, signed the original and the copy of the inventory of books that entered the university library from the monastery of Montesa.  Around six hundred titles were incorporated to the academic institution together with the funds of other disentailed institutions. All of them served to open the public library of the University in 1837. This exhibition, curated by Francisco M. Gimeno Blay shows part of these wonderful works at the time in which we celebrate the seven centuries of the Order of Montesa.

The objective of the current exhibition, that can be visited in Sala Duc de Calàbria until 14 January, is to show a small sample of the books deposited in the Universitat de València from de library of the Order of Montesa. Originally these books were in the castle of Montesa, destroyed by an earthquake in 1748. After the disaster, the books that survived were moved to the palace of the Temple of Valencia. In addition to these, it was added those acquired by Vicente Blasco García between 1767 and 1771, making up a library that constitutes a true reflection of the cultural context of Valencia of the second half of the 18th century. It is an erudite collection, where you can find from ecclesiastical literature to the great representatives of Spanish humanism of the 16th century or the figures of the historical science of the 17th century.

 The origin of the books is recognised thanks to the exlibris that they preserve, whether they be printed or manuscripts. Most of them are labels stuck on the inside of the front cover or on the respect sheets at the beginning of the book. In addition to informing us about the owner, they provide important information to discover the "order of the books", that is, to know how "knowledge" was organised in the monastery's library. Others have preserved the silent testimony of handwritten notes in which the ownership of the books is remembered by some distinguished montesianos, among them, the principal Vicente Blasco García and Francisco Estruch.

This exhibition has been designed following the order by subjects devised by the German bibliographer and scholar Oliver Legipont. That system, which divides the knowledge into four classes (theological, philosophical, historical and legal) and into eighteen subjects, is contemporary to the moment in which Vicente Blasco acquired most of the copies of the library of Montesa and it served as a model for the organisation of the university library after its reopening in 1837.