Museum of Montserrat - EN

Plate XXV. Drawing by Dutailly (Lyon, doc. 1790-1803...), etching by Jean Desaulx (ca. 1750-1819) and finished by Lienard.

Laborde comments this stamp saying that the true garden of the Monastery is “the mountain itself, as there is nothing more beautiful that what nature wanted to embellish.” The image allows us to see the surface of Montserrat church before the 19^th century apses were added. Laborde call it "garden", but it was actually a vegetable orchard.

Plate XXIV. Drawing by François Ligier (ca. 1755-1803...), etching by Jean Baptiste Réville (Paris, 1767-1825) and finished by M.-A. Benoist (1768-1826).

This is another engraving of great importance for the history of Montserrat, since it presents a view of how it was inside the church before it was burned by Napoleon's troops in 1811. Laborde explains that the drawing has dispensed the large grille separating the altar so we can see well the whole church with its Renaissance altarpiece by Esteban Jordan, 1593. And above all, it allows us to see the 1669 decoration with "golden arabesque" that covered the interior of the church and caused the admiration of Laborde.

Plate XXII. Drawing by François Ligier (c. 1755-1803...), etching by Emilien Desmaisons (Paris, doc. 1770-1834) and finished by M.-A. Benoist (1768-1826).

This stamp is the only graphic testimony of the old Gothic cloister, in 1476, joined by the east side to the big porches of reduced arches that were built by prior Ramon de Vilaragut (1334-1348). In the middle, at background, we can see an entrance to the monastery and on the left the communication with the atrium of the church, which was a recent work of the late eighteenth century. But the most curious thing in this stamp are the votive offerings hanging in this area: small altarpieces, shrouds, ship models and Amazon alligators.

Plate XXII. Drawing by François Ligier (ca. 1755-1803...), engraved by FB Lorieux.

Laborde describes the distribution of Montserrat buildings: the church with the bell tower in the background, the convent and other rooms of the monastery, the door leading to the steep stairs that climb on a channel of the mountain and leads to different hermitages and, to the left, leaning against the rock, the buildings intended to house the pilgrims. The one in the first term is the hospital of the poor at the time of distributing the noon soup.

Plate XXI. Engraving by Adrien Vicq.

The map is not made to scale and seems rather a scheme made without instruments that an orographic work. It’s useful to provide an idea of the location of the monastery overlooking to Llobregat River and leaving the village of Monistrol back. It indicates the two access roads and the branch to visit the hermitages, with the churches of Sant Miquel and the Cave of the Virgin.

Plate XX. Drawing by Jacques Moulinier (Montpellier, 1753-1828), engraved by Louis Garreau.

The road of Sant Miquel, which left from Collbató and joined Montserrat with the royal road Lleida-Barcelona, has always been a bridlepath; it was the shortest one but also the most rugged, so that when the monastery grew and bustle carriage was required, they had to enable the northern one that linked Montserrat with the royal road by Can Massana’s way. The arrival at Montserrat by this side is not as spectacular as the one offered by Sant Miquel road. We only see the back of the church with the bridge linking the monastery and the garden. Laborde presents the scene of some monks who have left for a walk and they assist a devotee who has made the indiscreet promise of visiting the Virgin kneeling.

Plate XIX. Drawing by Jacques Moulinier (Montpellier, 1753-1828), engraved by Claude-François Fortier (1775-1836).

Laborde describes the bridlepath from Collbató to Montserrat. He explains how the procession stopped at the chapel of Sant Miquel and the overview of the monastery that he watched from there. Laborde took note surprisingly accurate of that vision: the monastery buildings, with the garden and the hermitage of Sant Iscle; the nearest lofty mountain chapels, the path of the Cave and the Plain of the Witches; in the background, farming fields in Llobregat Valley.

Plate XVI. Drawing by Jacques Moulinier (Montpellier, 1753-1828), engraved by François-Nicolas Dequevauviller (1745-1807).

Martorell was often the place where travellers stayed overnight before taking the way up to Montserrat, which started in Collbató. Laborde explains how to get to Montserrat from Barcelona and the which was his experience when he saw the silhouette of the mountain from the Roman Bridge, with its triumphal arch.

It contains the Introduction and historical notes on the first eighty-eight plates. Edited with Bodoni typeface in the workshops of Pierre Didot l'Aine in Paris between 1806 and 1820.