History of the Prize

In the mid-19th century, a period of modernization of Spanish libraries began, including the reorganization of the National Library, the creation of the Corps of Physicians and the implementation of the Higher School of Diplomacy. In this context of renewal, the creation of the Bibliography Prize is framed, whose purpose was to improve the national repertoires at a particularly conflictive moment due to the dispersion of much of the Spanish bibliographic legacy suffered after the Deamortization.

By Royal Decree of December 3, 1856, the Bibliography Prize was created, which was developed in the Regulations of the National Library of January 7, 1857 and was realized only three days later with the call of the first competition appeared in the Gaceta. Over almost a century, the Prize made a decisive contribution to the advancement of bibliographical science in Spain with such important works as Catálogo biográfico del Teatro antiguo Español (Cayetano de la Barrera, 1859), Ensayo de una biblioteca española de libros raros y curiosos (Zarco del Valle and Sancho Rayón, 1861) or Los periódicos en la Guerra de la Independencia (1808-1814) (Gómez Imaz, 1908).

After a half-century parenthesis, in 1995 the National Library reconvened the Bibliography Prize, awarded by a jury composed of librarians and bibliographers. In 2002 the bases and characteristics of the Prize (Order ECD/1946/2002) were regulated with the aim of distinguishing the best works in the field of Hispanic bibliography. In 2022, the regulatory bases of the Prize (Order CUD/607/2022) were updated to adapt them to the new forms of research in this field and the new technological environments in which it is developed.

Assessment criteria

• The importance and usefulness of the topic.
• Exhaustiveness in the collection of material.
• Systematization of research.
• The elaboration criteria presented by the author.
• The methodology used.
• The rigor and accuracy of bibliographic descriptions.
• Special relationship with the collections and/or history of the National Library of Spain.