Valencia Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Valencia and the mother of all the churches of the Valencian Archdiocese. On October 9, 1238, King Jaume I restored worship in our church, dedicating it to Santa María, and endowed it with a series of privileges and concessions that were, progressively, enriched with those granted by others kings and pontiffs.
At present, it is constituted by a chapter of 28 canons (historically there were 23), and presided over by the Dean.
The historical importance of the institution, its characters and its valuable historical-artistic patrimony are reflected in the rich holdings preserved in its archive and library. Its funds occupy a total of 1,200 linear meters, not counting scrolls and choral books.
Due to its volume and uniqueness, and to preserve its series practically uninterrupted since the s. XIV, the Archive of the Cathedral of Valencia is considered one of the most important documentary repositories of European cathedrals, and without a doubt, it is among the first archives of the Valencian Community.
After the important work carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries by archivists Juan Pahoner (1756-1781), Ibáñez, and Manuel Lucia Mazparrota, authors of the enormous archival work "Lost Species", it is throughout the s. XX when the Archive of the Cathedral of Valencia has benefited from the important work of the canon archivists and librarians Mr. Roque Chabás Llorens (1891-1912), who organized the archive in papers, parchments and codices. R. Chabás is considered one of the fathers of the Valencian school of historians; Mr. Elías Olmos Canalda (1912-1961), who is responsible for the edition of the catalogs of scrolls, codices and incunabula, Mr. Ramón Robres Lluch (1961-1989) and Mr. Salvador Vázquez Caplliure (1989-2008) successively, helped in the last decade by Mr. Ramón Fita Revert.
It is the will of the chapter that this documentary wealth is available to researchers. Access is free and a great job of digitizing the fund is being done.
The foundation in 1345 of the Theology and Grammar classes of the Cathedral under the bishopric of Ramón Gastó meant the consolidation of the first chapter bookstore. In this first stage he entered the manuscript 146: Fori et privilegia Valentie, given in 1341 by Berenguer March, canon sacristan of the Cathedral of Valencia (1309-1334) and professor of Law at the Montpellier School. According to Sanchis Sivera already in this century, when the old Chapter House was built, a bookstore was built between it and the chapel of San Pedro. Donations from the bishops themselves, canons and individuals, as well as the acquisition of funds, among which the purchase of some volumes from the Library of the Popes in Avignon, such as the Commentaries on the Gorran Bible, stand out its consolidation in the ss. XV and XVI
From the s. XIX the Library is located next to the Archive, binding a significant part of its holdings at the same time that others come from some cenobies such as the Portacoeli Charterhouse or from legacies, such as those of the archivists R. Chabás and E. elms
The Library's ancient collection consists of 427 codices and manuscripts (12th-19th centuries), 117 incunabula and 800 printed books from 1501-1800.
The Auxiliary Library has the sections of: dictionaries and other reference works, History of the Church, especially History of the Church in Valencia and Valencian saints, History of Art and exhibition catalogues, Historiographic Sciences and Techniques ( Archival, Diplomatic and documentary editions, Palaeography, etc.), History of Music, Liturgy..., in addition to the ancient and modern Hemeroteca and the collection of facsimiles.
A total of 8,000 volumes, among which stand out the miscellanies.
Although the first location of the Archive was next to the Old Library, built on the current chapel of Sant Pere and the Old Chapter House, it currently occupies the Eastern part of the metropolitan temple, the two existing floors above the Major Sacristy ( 14th century) and the New Chapter House or chapel of the Relics (19th century).
1238-Current (previous unserialized documents: 1095 – 1238)
Documentary funds
The Archive as a whole is grouped into:
- 9,061 scrolls (1095-1960).
- 7,000 ligalls (XIII-XX centuries).
- 427 codices (XII-XIX centuries).
- 117 incunabula.
Ranking table:
- Statutes, Regulations and Constitutions
- Acts and Chapter Deliberations
- Pastoral Visits
- Privileges and Depreciation Visits
- Court Processes – Ecclesiastical Arm
- Agreements, chapter appointments and taking possession
- Office records and canonical competition
- Edicts
- Panic
- Bulls, privileges and pontifical cartularies
- Memoirs and customary books
- agreements
- protocol
- Processions
- Book of chronicles
- Chapter files
- Exhibition files
- Correspondence:
- Records
- Real card copier
- Correspondence with Madrid
- Correspondence with agents in Rome
- Card copier.
- various
- Letters and trades.
- file
- Factory:
- Factory books
- treasury
- Closet
- Projects and works files
- inventories
- Short Caps / capbreu
- vintage
- Benefits
- Choral distributions
- Accounting books.
- Syndication files
- foundations
- censuses
- Tithes / Books of income and delmaris:
- Income books of the archdeacon major
- Income books of the archdeacon of Xàtiva
- Senior sacrist's income books
- Notebooks of the archdeacon of Alzira's income
- Magister
- rational
- Gallofes/Epactas
- Mass books
- Diaries of masses and celebrations
- Mass orders
- Canonical marking
- very personal
- Obituary canons
- Sacristy collections
- Doubles and birthdays
- Weekly drafts
- Rolls of special celebrations: kings, popes, festivals, burials of canons, dignities, pavordos, bishops, nobles and other authorities.
- Notarial protocols.
- Wills and testamentary clauses
Benimaclet
- Sacramental Records
- Books of baptisms
- confirmations
- marriages
- Deaths
- Marriage records
- parchments
- Music Archive:
- Sheet music
- choral books
Cant Flat
Valencia Cathedral (107 copies)
Monastery of San Miguel dels Reis (63 copies)
Special fund: polyphony (37 copies)
- José Climent Barber fund
- Fund Eduardo Margarit
- Sound Archive (Cd's)
- Sigilography:
- footprints
- Matrices:
Episcopalians
Parochial
From the Cathedral
Some others
- molds
- Other materials: press...
- maps
- Plans
- drawings
- Posters
- engravings
- Gojos
- Reminders and prints
- Graphic file:
- Own graphic file
- Collection of postcards cathedral
- Antonio Rubio postcard collection
- Medals and coins
- Confraternity of Sant Jaume fund (15th-19th centuries).
- Fund Mr. Marcelino Olaechea Loizaga, Archbishop of Valencia (1946-1966).
- Fund Pietro Zampieri (XII-XX centuries)
- Fund of canons:
- Roc Chabás (19th-20th centuries)
- Antonio Rodilla Zanón
- (…)
Orphan Confraternity Fund in Maridar (14th-20th centuries)
Saint Chalice Confraternity Archives
- Confraternity Fund and Feast of Our Lady of the Seu
- Portacoeli Carthusian fund.
- Fund José Gasch Juan
- Background Sculptor José Casanova Pinter
- Foundation Dr. Sumsi
Featured Funds
- Pontifical bulls (around 300).
- Scrolls before the conquest of 1238.
- Diplomatic Collection of James I (120 *docs.).
- Golden Butla of Alfonso the Magnanimous.
- Minutes books.
- Factory books.
- Notarial protocols.
Services and activities
The consultation room has 4 computers available for users to consult digitized documents, which will be provided by the room staff.
Auxiliary library and newspaper library.
The user has at his disposal, upon request to the room staff, request sheets for (digital) copies.
Write to us, send us pictures
Visit us, call us
Address
square Alms s/n
46003 Valencia
