Carlos Pau Español Collection

Carlos Pau Español (Segorbe, 1857–1937) was a pharmacist and an authority on plant taxonomy thanks to his great contribution in the description of new species and his published articles (more than 300). However, the scientific community never recognized him, and his main activity was pharmacy for more than 50 years.

The material legacy left by Carlos Pau is preserved in two different institutions: the herbarium and the library are kept in the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid, whereas the archive is located in the Botanical Institute of Barcelona (IBB).

The Carlos Pau collection dates between 1873 and 1937 and contains more than 4,000 documents (nine boxes and 1.5 linear meters of archive), which were donated by Pau himself to Font i Quer before he died.

Part of the collection has already been catalogued and can be consulted in the Catalogue of the CSIC Library and Archives Network. The rest of the collection has been catalogued and digitalized during 2021 (and it is currently waiting to be published) thanks to Dr. Uriach donation.

 

Content of the collection
  • The collection is made up mainly of the correspondence that Pau maintained with botanists and pharmacists such as Brother Sennen, Joan Cadevall, José Cuatrecasas or Pius Font i Quer, as well as with scientific entities and administrations, both national and international.
  • Some of the correspondence is written on postcards. This is because back then the use of postcards for quick communications or specific issues were very frequent due to their reduced cost compared to letters. Not all collection postcards show an image; some of them have only the layout to indicate the address and the space for the stamp, allowing the sender to write on both sides. With the aim of highlighting this part of the heritage that the IBB preserves, an online exhibition has been prepared with a sample of the postcards received by Carlos Pau. In it you can see images of countries and cities or works of art from the beginning of the 20th century.
  • Family-run documents such as invoices and receipts.