UB Editions: science, culture and history come together at the Madrid Book Fair
More than 350 publishers, bookshops, distributors and institutions will be present at the 83rd edition of the Madrid Book Fair, which takes place in the Parque del Retiro from Friday 31 May to Sunday 16 June. With the slogan “We are moved by science, culture and current affairs”, UB Editions will be present with its stand — number 11 —, and in a collective one, that of the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE), in the Plaza de la Ciencia y de las Universidades. On Saturday 8 at 12.00 noon, at stand 11, Jordina Sales-Carbonell and Marta Sancho i Planas (ed.) will be signing Monacato primitivo, paisajes eternos. Capítulos de espiritualidad en Occidente (siglos IV-VII), and in the shared space Jordi Casanova i Roca will sign ¿Mujeres? ¿Hombres? Sexo y género, biología y cultura. On Saturday 15 at 12:00, in this second space, Patricia Almarcegui will sign copies of the fourth edition of Una viajera por Asia Central. Lo que queda de mundo.
More than 350 publishers, bookshops, distributors and institutions will be present at the 83rd edition of the Madrid Book Fair, which takes place in the Parque del Retiro from Friday 31 May to Sunday 16 June. With the slogan “We are moved by science, culture and current affairs”, UB Editions will be present with its stand — number 11 —, and in a collective one, that of the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE), in the Plaza de la Ciencia y de las Universidades. On Saturday 8 at 12.00 noon, at stand 11, Jordina Sales-Carbonell and Marta Sancho i Planas (ed.) will be signing Monacato primitivo, paisajes eternos. Capítulos de espiritualidad en Occidente (siglos IV-VII), and in the shared space Jordi Casanova i Roca will sign ¿Mujeres? ¿Hombres? Sexo y género, biología y cultura. On Saturday 15 at 12:00, in this second space, Patricia Almarcegui will sign copies of the fourth edition of Una viajera por Asia Central. Lo que queda de mundo.
For this occasion, the popular science collection Catàlisi has brought the translation into Spanish of three titles. The first one, Deporte y salud. ¿Qué dice la ciencia? by Manuel Suárez, is a nod to the central theme of this year’s fair: sports. The book presents the keys to improving physical condition in a profitable and healthy way according to scientific knowledge. The second, Herédate. Cómo influyen en nuestro comportamiento los genes y la biología, by David Bueno i Torrens, explains how the environment in which we grow up and the experiences we live condition our genes through epigenetics. The Catalan edition received the Joan Lluís Vives Award for the best science and technology book 2022. The third copy is es ¿Mujeres? ¿Hombres? Sexo y género, biología y cultura, by Jordi Casanova i Roca, which from a scientific perspective tackles a burning current issue: the relationship between sex and gender.
One of the most celebrated novelties is the 21st book in the collection Periodismo Activo: Periodismo y democracia en la era de las emociones, by Josep Carles Rius. The book reviews some of the most controversial events of the last decade — the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump’s electoral victory, Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, etc. —, which have generated real emotional waves, and have put journalists to the test in their duty to get closer to the truth. These events are analysed with the aim of vindicating journalism that is responsible, honest and committed to human rights, because, according to the author, journalism and democracy are two sides of the same coin.
The setting of the Fair could not be more appropriate if reference is made to the Manual práctico de botánica, which Jaume Llistosella and Mercè Bernal published in Catalan a few months ago. This translation joins the other illustrated works on botany by Jaume Llistosella and Antoni Sànchez-Cuixart: Guía ilustrada para conocer los árboles (third edition), Guía ilustrada para conocer los arbustos y las lianas and El herbario: matas, hierbas y helechos (second edition).
In the field of art history, there are also two outstanding new works. On the one hand, Tarrés. La industria cerámica de una arquitectura singular, by Salvador García Fortes, which tells the unpublished story of a ceramic and terracotta workshop, that of the Tarrés saga, which played a key role in the transformation of the urban landscape of the mid-19th century Barcelona thanks to the use of new materials in the construction and decoration of façades and buildings. On the other hand, Fotografiar el patrimonio artístico. Génesis e historia del Arxiu Mas (Memoria Artium collection), by Carmen Perrotta, is the first book devoted entirely to describing the beginnings, functioning and evolution of this extraordinary archive that Adolf Mas and his son, Pelai Mas, brought forward with exceptional commercial vision.
Finally, the Filologia UB - Biblioteca Càmar collection debuts at the Fair with a particularly relevant title: Cartas (1949-1955). La filología románica en la posguerra. Edited and studied by Isabel de Riquer, it presents the correspondence between two great Romanist philologists: Martí de Riquer and István Frank. After the Second World War, the work of the medievalists who, despite difficult personal circumstances, had not ceased their research, came to light. The more than one hundred and fifty letters that Riquer and Frank sent to each other — as well as the evolution of the tone of their writings and the relationship between the two philologists — are a good testimony to this.