Rafael Figueró, the great printer of Baroque Catalonia / Exhibitions / Visit us / Home

Start date: 04/16/2026 End date: 06/27/2026

Place:
Exhibition hall

Schedule:
From Tuesday to Friday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Curatorship:
Xevi Camprubí

triptych
Website of the exhibition

Rafael Figueró i Delmunts (Manlleu, 1642 – Barcelona, ​​1726) was the most outstanding Catalan printer of the pre-industrial era. In the Biblioteca de Catalunya, almost a thousand works from his workshop are kept – among books, pamphlets and loose sheets –, approximately half of the total collection. The exhibition offers a sample of the most relevant prints, coinciding with the three hundredth anniversary of the printer’s death. The journey through the work of Rafael Figueró is also a journey through the most important episodes in the history of Catalonia from the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th.

Rafael Figueró’s workshop, located in the Born district of Barcelona, ​​was responsible for the publication of outstanding works on various subjects: legal, political, religious and also propaganda. Figueró was the official printer for most of the government institutions – such as the Generalitat or the Royal Chancellery – and also obtained, from the hand of Archduke Charles of Austria, the title of royal printer.

He was also the main promoter of the press of the time and of the first periodicals. In 1695 he created the Barcelona newspaperthe first indigenous periodical publication in Catalonia, which, through different stages, existed until the beginning of the 19th century. During the siege of Barcelona in 1714, he was commissioned to print the Diary of the site and defense of Barcelonathe propaganda organ of the Catalan resistance against Philip V.