The Museum's Documentation Centre has made available a new selection of historical books that allow for the discovery of how scientific knowledge about the natural world has evolved. Highlights include works dedicated to fish, shells, and mollusks, authored by Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627-1702) and Filippo Buonanni (1638-1725), as well as seven titles by the naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), considered one of the fathers of modern natural history.
The selection also features Vint mesos d’actuació en la Junta de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (Twenty Months of Action in the Board of Natural Sciences of Barcelona), by Josep Maluquer i Nicolau (1883-1960), an engineer and general secretary of the institution, a significant work for the city's scientific history.
All these documents can be consulted in digital format on BCNROC, the open repository of the Barcelona City Council. Currently, the Documentation Centre's antique book collection comprises 750 titles published between 1599 and 1899, most of which are now available online.
