Lluís Domènech i Montaner (Barcelona, 1850-1923)
Cover of Historia del Arte, 1886
Printed on book cloth
Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona
As from 1880, a modern publishing industry emerged that produced large quantities of illustrated books thanks to the progress that had been made in image reproduction systems such as chromolithography and photoengraving.
There were two kinds of illustrated books:
- Deluxe large-format illustrated volumes, which first appeared in 1870.
- Collections of literary works that were smaller, illustrated and decorated, and known as biblioteques.
Biblioteques were volumes that were notable for the aesthetics of their illustrations, their binding and their high quality. They were book-objects that bore a similarity to the great deluxe books of the age, at the same time as being popular in style.
These books are typical of Aestheticism, an ideological trend in Modernisme that championed beauty in art.
