M. Moleiro Editor
Encyclopedia
M. Moleiro Editor is a publishing house specialised in identical facsimile
reproductions of codices, maps and illuminated manuscripts. Founded in Barcelona
in 1991, the firm’s dissemination of many masterpieces in the history of illumination and the great accuracy of its reproductions have made it one of the world’s foremost experts in this field.
, 1951) created Ebrisa, a publishing house specialised in books on art, science and cartography which collaborated on a variety of joint enterprises with other publishers including Times Books
, Encyclopaedia Britannica, MacMillan, Edita, Imprimerie Nationale and Franco Maria Ricci
.
In 1991 Moleiro decided to create a company with his own name and brand. Since then he has specialised in identical reproductions of some of the greatest medieval and Renaissance bibliographic treasures, obtaining authorisation to do so from libraries and museums of great universal renown such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France
, the British Library
, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the National Library of Russia, the Huntington Library and the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
From the start, his ambitious cultural project has focused single-mindedly on the dissemination of these works of art, these manuscripts confined for centuries to archives and display cabinets beyond the reach of almost everyone because of the strict conservation requirements of such items, some more than one thousand years old. To certify this labour of cultural diffusion, each facsimile has a companion volume of studies by manuscript experts.
As a result of publishers applying the term “facsimile” fraudulently and haphazardly to different types of reproduction of far poorer quality in recent decades, M. Moleiro Editor decided to label their codices “quasi-original” to reflect the outstanding results obtained from lengthy processes of trial and error. In 2010, the French newspaper Le Monde
wrote, “The Spanish publishing house Moleiro has invented the “quasi original”, a more appropriate term for describing the extremely painstaking artisan work involved in manufacturing these works which are more like clones than facsimiles”. Indeed, no expense is spared in any of their editions to duplicate the texture, smell, thickness and variable density of paper and parchment, the gold in the miniatures, the leather bindings and thread used to sew them. The resulting copies are therefore deemed to be clones and not merely reproductions.
All this publisher’s editions are unique, first editions, limited to 987 numbered copies authenticated by notary public. The aim of all this is to offer readers a select, painstaking product likely to increase in value over time.
In 2001, The Times
described the work of this publishing house as “The Art of Perfection”. One year later in the same newspaper, Allegra Stratton wrote that “the Pope sleeps with one of Moleiro’s quasi-originals by his bed”. With each passing year, Pope John Paul II
has been joined by other dignitaries including the ex US presidents Jimmy Carter
, Bill Clinton
and George Bush
, the Nobel prize
winner José Saramago
, the president of Portugal Aníbal Cavaco Silva
, and King Juan Carlos I of Spain
.
– the Cardeña Beatus, the Arroyo Beatus, the Silos Beatus, the Beatus of Ferdinand I and Sancha and the Gerona Beatus – and also the three volumes of the Bible of Saint Louis, deemed to be the most important bibliographic monument of all time with a total of 4887 miniatures. Their catalogue also features many books of hours such as the Isabella Breviary
, the Great Hours of Anne of Brittany and the Book of Hours of Joanna I of Castile; medicinal treatises such as the Book of Simple Medicines and Tacuinum Sanitatis and cartographic masterpieces such as the Miller Atlas and the Vallard Atlas.
Facsimile
A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
reproductions of codices, maps and illuminated manuscripts. Founded in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in 1991, the firm’s dissemination of many masterpieces in the history of illumination and the great accuracy of its reproductions have made it one of the world’s foremost experts in this field.
Background
In 1976, whilst still a student, Manuel Moleiro (San Facundo de Cea, OurenseOurense
Ourense is a city in northwestern Spain, the capital of the province of the same name in Galicia. Its population of 108,674 accounts for 30% of the population of the province and makes it the third largest city of Galicia.-Population:...
, 1951) created Ebrisa, a publishing house specialised in books on art, science and cartography which collaborated on a variety of joint enterprises with other publishers including Times Books
Times Books
Times Books is a publishing imprint owned by The New York Times Company and licensed to Henry Holt and Company....
, Encyclopaedia Britannica, MacMillan, Edita, Imprimerie Nationale and Franco Maria Ricci
Franco Maria Ricci
Franco Maria Ricci is an Italian publisher. Among his publications is FMR, an art magazine published six times yearly in Italian, English, German, French and Spanish, based in Milan, Italy...
.
In 1991 Moleiro decided to create a company with his own name and brand. Since then he has specialised in identical reproductions of some of the greatest medieval and Renaissance bibliographic treasures, obtaining authorisation to do so from libraries and museums of great universal renown such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
, the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, the Morgan Library & Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, the National Library of Russia, the Huntington Library and the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.
From the start, his ambitious cultural project has focused single-mindedly on the dissemination of these works of art, these manuscripts confined for centuries to archives and display cabinets beyond the reach of almost everyone because of the strict conservation requirements of such items, some more than one thousand years old. To certify this labour of cultural diffusion, each facsimile has a companion volume of studies by manuscript experts.
Publishing activities
M. Moleiro Editor has enjoyed unprecedented success ever since their first facsimile editions whose meticulous details make them difficult to distinguish from the original manuscripts.As a result of publishers applying the term “facsimile” fraudulently and haphazardly to different types of reproduction of far poorer quality in recent decades, M. Moleiro Editor decided to label their codices “quasi-original” to reflect the outstanding results obtained from lengthy processes of trial and error. In 2010, the French newspaper Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
wrote, “The Spanish publishing house Moleiro has invented the “quasi original”, a more appropriate term for describing the extremely painstaking artisan work involved in manufacturing these works which are more like clones than facsimiles”. Indeed, no expense is spared in any of their editions to duplicate the texture, smell, thickness and variable density of paper and parchment, the gold in the miniatures, the leather bindings and thread used to sew them. The resulting copies are therefore deemed to be clones and not merely reproductions.
All this publisher’s editions are unique, first editions, limited to 987 numbered copies authenticated by notary public. The aim of all this is to offer readers a select, painstaking product likely to increase in value over time.
In 2001, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
described the work of this publishing house as “The Art of Perfection”. One year later in the same newspaper, Allegra Stratton wrote that “the Pope sleeps with one of Moleiro’s quasi-originals by his bed”. With each passing year, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
has been joined by other dignitaries including the ex US presidents Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
and George Bush
George Bush
George Bush most often refers to:*George H. W. Bush , 41st President of the United States *George W. Bush , 43rd President of the United States , eldest son of George H. W...
, the Nobel prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner José Saramago
José Saramago
José de Sousa Saramago, GColSE was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, poet, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Harold Bloom has described Saramago as "a...
, the president of Portugal Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Aníbal António Cavaco Silva, GCC , is the President of Portugal. He won the Portuguese presidential election on 22 January 2006 and was re-elected on 23 January 2011, for a second five-year term. Cavaco Silva was sworn in on 9 March 2006....
, and King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
.
Landmark works reproduced by M. Moleiro Editor
M. Moleiro Editor has cloned several works by Beatus of LiébanaBeatus of Liébana
Saint Beatus of Liébana was a monk, theologian and geographer from the Kingdom of Asturias, in modern northern Spain, who worked and lived in the Picos de Europa mountains of the region of Liébana, in what is now Cantabria and his feast day is February 19.-Biography:He created an important...
– the Cardeña Beatus, the Arroyo Beatus, the Silos Beatus, the Beatus of Ferdinand I and Sancha and the Gerona Beatus – and also the three volumes of the Bible of Saint Louis, deemed to be the most important bibliographic monument of all time with a total of 4887 miniatures. Their catalogue also features many books of hours such as the Isabella Breviary
Isabella Breviary
The Isabella Breviary is an illuminated codex from the late 15th century housed under benchmark Add. Ms. 18851 in the British Library, London.- Background :...
, the Great Hours of Anne of Brittany and the Book of Hours of Joanna I of Castile; medicinal treatises such as the Book of Simple Medicines and Tacuinum Sanitatis and cartographic masterpieces such as the Miller Atlas and the Vallard Atlas.
Complete list of “quasi-original” editions
- Anglo-Catalan Psalter
- Beatus of Liébana, Codex of Ferdinand I and Sancha of Castille and León
- Beatus of Liébana, Gerona Codex
- Beatus of Liébana, Monastery of San Andrés de Arroyo
- Beatus of Liébana, Monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña
- Beatus of Liébana, Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos
- Bible moralisée of Naples
- Bible of Saint Louis
- Book of FelicityThe Book of FelicityThe Book of Felicity is an illuminated manuscript made in the Ottoman Empire in 1582. Commissioned by Sultan Murad III, who ruled the empire from 1574 to 1595, its text was translated from Arabic and all its miniatures were apparently directed by the famous master Ustad ‘Osman, who undoubtedly...
- Book of Hours of Charles VIII
- Book of Hours of Louis of Orleans
- Book of Hours of Maria of Navarre
- Book of Simple Medicines
- Book of Testaments
- Book of Treasures
- Catalan Mappa Mundi
- Christopher Columbus’s Chart
- Genealogy of Christ
- Great Hours of Anne of Brittany
- Isabella BreviaryIsabella BreviaryThe Isabella Breviary is an illuminated codex from the late 15th century housed under benchmark Add. Ms. 18851 in the British Library, London.- Background :...
- Martyrology of Usuard
- Miller Atlas
- Prayer Book of Albert of Brandenburg
- Romance of the Knight ZifarBook of the Knight ZifarThe Book of the Knight Zifar is the earliest fictional adventure tale in prose in the Spanish language. It was written around 1300, probably by a cleric of Toledo, Ferrand Martínez, who is mentioned in the prologue...
- Splendor SolisSplendor SolisSplendor Solis is a well-known colorful alchemical manuscript. The earliest version, written in Central German, is dated 1532–1535 and is housed at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin at State Museums in Berlin. It is illuminated on vellum, with decorative borders like a book of hours, beautifully...
- Tacuinum SanitatisTacuinum SanitatisThe Tacuinum Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha , an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad...
- The Apocalypse of 1313
- The Flemish Apocalypse
- The Golf Book (Book of Hours)
- The Gulbenkian Apocalypse
- The Book of Hours of Joanna I of Castile, Joanna the Mad
- Theatrum Sanitatis
- Theriaka and Alexipharmaka
- Universal Atlas of Diogo Homem
- Vallard Atlas