MADRID.- The Museo del Prado has opened a research library whose content relates to its collections. Due to its specific nature, this library is an important tool of research both for those working in the Museum and for art historians in general.

The Museum’s library specialises in books on art and in particular in Spanish, Italian, Flemish, Dutch, French, British and German painting from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. Also important are the holdings on drawings and iconography, the collection of exhibition catalogues and the publications on sculpture and the decorative arts. Over the past few years and as a result of the acquisition of the Cervelló and Madrazo Libraries, the Museum now has an important holding of old books on the visual arts.

The library’s holdings currently total around 60,000 monographs and 700 periodicals (around 200 of which are still in publication). Almost all publications are now on computer as a result of the project started in 1987. Readers have direct access to information through the terminals in the Reading Room, as well as to a small reference library.