Library

The oldest data available to us confirm this, since it only refers to the acquisition of newspapers and illustrations;  only very occasionally the purchase of some books was mentioned. In any case, we can infer that the bibliographic collection was increasing somewhat during the first years of the Club’s existence, since close to the inauguration of the Florida Street headquarters, in June 1897, Carlos Pellegrini wrote to Miguel Cané, then Argentine Minister in Paris and tireless cultural supplier of the Club, pointing out the books required for the new house were mainly for reference and general information, leaving for a later date the recount of what was already owned and a selection of what could be acquired as a novelty, which Paul Groussac was going to take care of. This “list of what was already owned” indicates that, even if it was not very rich, there was already a certain patrimony.

When the palace on Florida Street was inaugurated in 1897, the library and the reading room were installed in two rooms on the second floor, on both sides of the hall of honor and overlooking the street. The young Italian Dario Nicodemi, was commissioned by Pellegrini to prepare the first catalog at the beginning of that century. Much later, when he had already become a well-known playwright, Nicodemi recalled the alternatives of his work, in which he lingered too long, tempted by the reading of those first books, still few in number “but beautiful, crisp in their fine new leather bindings, delicately velvety and sparkling with gold.”

Although we do not have precise references on the number and quality of the works that were acquired during those years, already in 1909 it was necessary to provide the library with a larger room on the first floor, in a space previously occupied by administrative offices. Some old photographs as well as some accounts of foreign travelers who visited the Jockey Club have survived from that room. Thus, for example, Rafael Sanhueza Lizardi, in his work “A Winter in Buenos Aires”, noted that “in the reading rooms, where the main European and American newspapers and periodicals are found, there is a great deal of comfort. The internal regulations prohibiting conversation and loud talking are strictly observed. It is a pleasure to read there because, apart from the fact that they are perfectly lit and the seats are very comfortable, no one disturbs you. One is there, according to the vulgar saying, as if at mass”.

Another renowned traveler was Georges Clemenceau, who toured the Club in 1910. He described the library as “austere”, but no doubt his impression would have been very different if his trip had been delayed a couple of years, since it was precisely at the beginning of the second decade of the 20th century when the Club’s library began to grow, leaving the virtuality of its early days to project itself into the future as an important center of study and research.

The initial push for this transformation was given by Juan A. Pradère, who from 1911 to 1916 performed important functions in the Club’s Board of Directors, directly taking care of the library’s progress. Thanks to his management, the acquisitions of books multiplied, made in the best bookstores of the city, such as those of Lajouane, Moen and Mendesky. Thus, in the 1911 Annual Report, the authorities of the entity were able to report that the library had been enriched with the incorporation of numerous important works, both national and foreign. It was also pointed out that “the Argentine thought and mentality are reflected in the productions of Mitre, López, Sarmiento, Alberdi, Estrada, Gutiérrez, Pellegrini, Cané, etc., etc., and foreign authors contribute with their most notable works to outline the importance of our library, which the Board of Directors intends not to neglect, providing it with everything worthy of being included in it”.

In 1913, advancing in his management, Pradère obtained the necessary funds to acquire a select Americanist collection of 3,500 volumes, which had belonged to the bibliophile Santiago Priano and consisted of curious works on the history of the American republics, old River Plate editions – many of them with dedications in the handwriting of their authors – and a large and rare collection of pamphlets.

Around the same time, negotiations began to purchase the library of the Spanish politician Emilio Castelar, a transaction that was completed in May 1914. The collection consisted of 4,373 works, with a total of 6,450 volumes. The works published in French prevailed, which numbered 2,521. The Spanish works amounted to 1,202 and the English ones to 316, completing the total with Italian, Portuguese and German works. The sale also included 71 works by Castelar, printed in different languages, and four autograph manuscripts by the prolific writer, which are 

still jealously guarded as a testimony of the nervous calligraphy of that master of Hispanic oratory.

The incorporation of these books meant a notable progress for the Club’s library, which enriched its holdings with Hispanic editions of the 18th century, a large number of legal treatises and essays on political and institutional history. There was no lack of Greek and Latin classics, the highest examples of European literature and important studies on economic and social issues, subjects that were very dear to Castelar’s interests.

Pradère died on August 2, 1916, precisely in one of the chairs of the library whose progress he had contributed so much to promote. He bequeathed a formidable work and also the challenge of continuing along the path that he had been responsible for opening without pause or rest. In order to somehow fill the space he had left vacant, the Club authorities appointed Dr. Enrique Peña, who, as Library Inspector, guided the sector until, in 1919; the habit of appointing a subcommittee ofthe Board of Directors to deal directly with all matters related to its operation and the acquisition of books began.

Towards the end of the second decade of the 20th century, the facilities were no longer adequate to preserve the constantly growing bibliographic heritage. In order to provide the section with a space in accordance with its growing importance, it was decided to build a new building on the first floor of a property adjoining the Club, which had been acquired in 1908 without being given a precise destination since then. The works, according to a project of the architects Alejandro Christophersen and Eduardo Sauze, were completed in 1921, and the new building was inaugurated with a conference in honor of Carlos Pellegrini, whose name the library would bear from that moment on. The person in charge of delivering it was Ricardo Rojas, who was also appointed as a member of an advisory Committee that established the guidelines for the new stage that was then beginning.

The surviving photographs of that extensive hall 

allowed us to imagine very well the effect it must have had on those who entered it for the first time. Imposing walls covered with books in all its extension, abundant natural light penetrating through the windows facing Florida Street and a back garden, cozy furniture and ideal corners for reading and fruitful study, contributed to make it one of the favorite places in the house. As for the room that until then had occupied the library, it was transformed into a newspaper library, keeping it as a reading room for newspapers and magazines that, always renewed, were exhibited on its tables and kept in sober bound volumes.

While the referred refurbishing works were being carried out, the acquisition of books did not stop. Thus, for example, the artistic library of Don Miguel Berro Madero was purchased, with which the Fine Arts section was formed, and 250 volumes were incorporated from the one that had belonged to Perito Francisco P. Moreno, with qualified titles on travels, geographical discoveries and scientific expeditions carried out between the XVII and XIX centuries. It was with these memoirs and descriptions, left by Father Sepp, Charles de Brosses, Louis Antoine de Bougainville, Thomas Falkner, Jacques-Julien de Labillardière, John Mawe and William MacCann, among others, that the foundations were laid for the important collection of travelers that is still today one of the greatest prides of the Club’s library.

From 1925 onwards, the library was under the direct supervision of Mr. Carlos Ibarguren, who held various management positions in the Club. His background made him the right person for the job, since in addition to having held high public positions, he was a professor in different universities and schools, and had already published remarkable historical essays. His efforts were responsible for the creation of the Argentine Section, which he enriched with books that had belonged to General San Martín and with the valuable manuscripts of Admiral 

Louis Leblanc, head of the French squadron blockading Buenos Aires during the years 1838-1840.

The year 1928 really marked a milestone in the history of the library, since it was then that a detailed catalog was published, in which a precise account was given of the 34,000 volumes owned at that time. The most outstanding section was that of Argentine History and Literature, but not far behind were those of American History, Fine Arts and Law. Numerous titles of Argentine and foreign periodicals were also collected, covering a wide range of subjects: history, literature, politics, economics, art, philosophy and current affairs.

The growing importance of the library, which transcended the walls of the Club, since it was open with prodigality to numerous guest researchers, induced the authorities to establish a literary award aimed at supporting the work of Argentine writers. Awarded from 1930 to 1933, the Jockey Club Library Prize served to highlight the work of creators such as González Carbalho, Luis Franco, José Bianco, Samuel Eichelbaum and Armando Tagle, who saw their books recognized with this distinction granted by juries made up of members of the Argentine Society of Writers.

Another form of cultural projection took place through successive cycles of conferences which, starting with the one given by Rojas in 1921, always found their propitious environment in the ample facilities of the library. It could be said that there was no foreign intellectual of worth who, arriving in our city, was not invited to prestige the Club’s tribune. Thus, in the period 1921-1953, figures of the stature of Américo Castro, Louis Hourticq, Alexandre Moret, Ernest Ansermet, Luigi Pirandello, Ramiro de Maeztu, Hermann Keyserling, Waldo Frank, Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, Jérome Carcopino, Claudio Sánchez Albornoz, Georges Duhamel, Jacques Maritain, Gregorio Marañón, René Huyghe and José María Pemán, among many others, passed through it; and in the use of the word did not follow in his footsteps renowned Argentinians such as Leopoldo Lugones, Carlos Ibarguren, Álvaro Melián Lafinur, Juan Pablo Echagüe, Arturo Capdevilla, Ricardo Sáenz Hayes, 

Enrique Ruiz Guiñazú, Mariano de Vedia y Mitre, Octavio Amadeo, Ricardo Levene, Monsignor Miguel de Andrea, Enrique Larreta, Emilio Ravignani and Monsignor Gustavo J. Franceschi. And among all of them, shining with a solitary light, a single female presence: Victoria Ocampo. The texts of the lectures were neatly published in yearbooks, preserving in them the living memory of a truly brilliant cultural work, which is still maintained today and continues to be a fundamental concern for the Club’s authorities.

The 1930’s were marked by outstanding publications that showed the progress achieved by the library and its constant enrichment. In January 1935 a bibliographic bulletin began to be published, with information on the books acquired. . The list of works donated by Argentine and foreign institutions was prolific, especially by foreign legations.

The other noteworthy undertaking consisted in the publication of the catalogs of the Argentina and Fine Arts sections. The first one, published in 1937, is still an important source of reference regarding Argentine bibliography. In it, the works are grouped into major areas – History, Geography, Natural Sciences, Literature, Travel – and the information is completed with references to the country’s old newspapers, pamphlets, albums and yearbooks, and magazines and bulletins. An alphabetical table of authors facilitates its use to make better use of the data recorded in its pages.

As for the art catalog, it was published in 1939 and the works were classified in sections devoted to painting, drawing and engraving, architecture, sculpture, decoration, music, scenic art, art history and criticism, industrial art, artists’ biographies and art teaching. A quick glance at this repertoire allows us to appreciate that the bibliography on these subjects that had been assembled up to that time was truly valuable. It included a variety of classic and older works, but those published during the period 1920-1935 prevailed in number, all of them signed by authoritative art critics and historians.

The catalogs soon became outdated in the face of a policy of permanent acquisitions which, although contemplating the incorporation of novelties above all, also sought works from the past, especially those produced by the Rio de la Plata printing presses of the 19th century or those printed outside our environment but related to our history. With this criterion, books were bought at the auctions of the libraries of Enrique Arana e Eizaguirre, which included curious works such as Biografía del General San Martín by Ricardo Gual y Jaen (Juan García del Río), the Bigrafía del Señor General Arenales y el Proyecto de Constitución para la República Argentina, by Pedro de Angelis, or Sarmienticidio, by Juan Martínez Villergas. This ponderable “antiquarian” taste also allowed the incorporation of regulations, constitutions, statutes and debate diaries from the time of the anarchy, as well as old newspapers published in Buenos Aires between 1810-1830.

Whether by resorting to auctions or accepting private offers, the Club’s authorities also enriched the library with the purchase of old works published in Europe. These included editions of La Florida del Inca, by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, and the Ensayo Cronológico para la Historia General de la Florida, by Gabriel de Cárdenas y Cano, both published in Madrid in 1723. But in this field, and by far the most important acquisition was undoubtedly that of the Dictionnaire Historique et Critique by Pierre Bayle, in its third Rotterdam edition of 1720 (4 volumes in folio), accompanied by the Oeuvres Diverses by the same author, published in The Hague in 1737, also in 4 volumes in folio.

Crowning this activity, in 1938 an important collection of 250 very rare printed documents was acquired in Chile, with edition dates ranging from 1804 to 1863. Composed of banners, proclamations, manifestos, circulars, communications, regulations and official documents, the collection is still an invaluable source of reference for scholars of our history.

Thus, between purchases and donations, the library continued along the path of growth that Pradère had begun to trace and that his epigones continued to follow. The fame of the repository grew with the rhythm of its patrimony and thus, by the fateful year of 1953, the Carlos Pellegrini Library of the Jockey Club already had 55,000 volumes and had become one of the most important centers of study and research in our city.

The fire that destroyed a large part of the Club’s headquarters on April 15, 1953 almost completely consumed the newspaper library, but miraculously saved most of the books that had been so carefully treasured for half a century. Some of the volumes were damaged by the water, so they were moved to the San Isidro premises and the help of specialists was requested to rescue and restore them. This urgent work was soon interrupted when the Club’s legal status was cancelled by a governmental decision. The assets of the institution were taken over by the State, and the books were transferred to the libraries of the Law School and the National Museum of Fine Arts, where they were deposited until the Jockey Club was able to rise from its ashes and restart its brilliant career, in which, as was to be expected, the library once again occupied a privileged place.