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For the second year, the Museu de la Música de Barcelona library has created a small selection based on a specialist bibliography, which can be used to document many of the instruments in the permanent exhibition. Until 23 April, you will have a chance to see some object books, including Josep Borràs’ thesis on dulcians from the Iberian Peninsula, next to a dulcian; a book about building brass instruments, next to a trumpet; a book about Antonio de Torres, next to his guitars; and a magazine with an issue dedicated to the iconography of the serpent, next to a serpent.

This library initiative also serves as a visualisation event, with a ‘museology’ of the books,  as well as offering visitors a chance to participate in a competition via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, using the hashtag #bibliomuseu and mentioning the museum. The prize for the winner, the image that receives the most votes, will be the museum guidebook Un sol món, músiques diverses (One World, Different Music).

Over the course of the exhibition, these books, eschewing everything digital and technological, with no need for mediation, are exhibited just as they are, in addition to 500 instruments in the display cases, creating a direct link.

The library, located on the floor above the museum and open to the public, holds over 4,300 books specialising in organology, history and the evolution of the instruments in ethnographic, historical and scientific contexts.