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Documentation Center
The VINSEUM Documentation Center (VDC) is an information resource center open to all citizens to support learning, teaching and research in the field of vine and wine cultures.
Its mission is to be a documentary and informative reference in the vine and wine cultures in Catalonia. The VDC manages a bibliographic and newspaper collection specializing in vine and wine cultures, both modern and ancient. It also manages the archive, made up of the museum’s collections, external archives and documentary collections.
In addition, the VDC houses local books, pamphlets, magazines and archival collections – including the music archive – the legacy of a local collection begun at the time of the museum’s founding.
Information
Services
- On-site consultation
- Bibliographic information
- Lending service and interlibrary loan
- Reprography
Schedule
Tuesday and Thursday
9:30 am to 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm to 7:00 pm
Wednesday and Friday
9:30 am to 1:30 pm
Closed
Monday, Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays
Contact
Palma 24, baixos
08720 Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona)
Phone 938 923 204
cdv@vinseum.cat
Explore the Archives
Bibliographic catalog
The VDC Library is made up of more than 20,000 copies. Among others, it includes the library of historian Emili Giralt i Raventós and those of the Viticulture and Oenology Stations of Vilafranca del Penedès and Reus.
The catalogued copies can be consulted in the bibliographic catalog of the RVU’s CRAI, of which the CDV is a linked center.
Vine and wine magazines
Consult the nearly 230 titles of magazines specializing in vineyards and wine, and the issues that you can find in the VDC. If any of them are digitized, we provide you with the link.
Local magazines
Consult the almost 200 titles of magazines published in Vilafranca or Penedès, and the issues that you can find in the VDC. If any of them have been digitized, we provide you with the link.
Archive collections
Archives and collections you can find in the VDC. It includes the VINSEUM’s own collection, as well as the collections of companies, such as Gráficas Varias, or personal collections, such as the label collection of Àngel Escudé.
Music archive
Currently, you can consult works by more than two thousand different authors, ranging from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. There is also a documentary collection, a sound library and a library focused on the Catalan area, which includes works received through donations and edited books.
Most Festival documentaries
File of the documents screened at the different editions of the Most Festival.
Awards and Grants
The VINSEUM Documentation Center (VDC) is an information resource center open to all citizens to support learning, teaching and research in the field of vine and wine cultures.
Museum Publications
Privilegis, patents i marques de fàbrica de vins, licors i destil·lats a Catalunya i les Illes Balears (1820-1939)
Cacics i rabassaires
De Re Vinaria
Història de les varietats de vinya autòctones i tradicionals de Catalunya
Vins, aiguardents i caves: la comercialització de la producció vinícola catalana
Viticultura, desigualtat i conflicte agrari
Vitis Catalana
Vitis Catalana is a search tool specializing in the grapevine varieties present in the territories of Catalan language and culture over the centuries. It offers historical, terminological and/or descriptive information on these varieties, based on information extracted from bibliographic and archival documents.
The origin of this tool is the approximately 15,000 handwritten cards prepared by historian Emili Giralt i Raventós -and deposited in the VINSEUM Documentation Center-, in which Dr. Giralt collected the names of varieties found in all sorts of documents, and which were associated with a certain period and a certain territory. At present, Vitis Catalana offers approximately 4,000 references, corresponding to some 260 varieties and extracted from around 200 documents.
The Vitis Catalana project is promoted by the Viticulture and Oenology Section of the Catalan Institution of Agrarian Studies (ICEA) and the VINSEUM, and headed by the VINSEUM Documentation Center. Its objective is the study and dissemination of traditional Catalan grapevine varieties.
Research Projects
Wine Production and Consumption: a Journey Between Chemistry and Archaeology in the Western Mediterranean
A project focused on an analysis to detect the presence of wine in ceramic vessels and stone elements dated between the Bronze Age and the Middle Ages from the sites of Mas d’En Boixos 1 (Pacs del Penedès) and Olèrdola.
The project includes the participation of Alessandra Pecci as principal investigator, Simona Mileto and Gisela Ripoll (ERAAUB, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Barcelona), Núria Molist (Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia), Jordi Farré (VINSEUM) and Xavier Esteve (ERAAUB) as associate researchers, and is funded by the Palarq Foundation, through the University of Barcelona.
The paper “Wine Production and Consumption in the Alt Penedès Region Between the End of Prehistory and the Early Middle Ages. Analysis of residues in ceramic vessels” is presented as part of the III International Colloquium on Wine in Antiquity, organized by the Museum of Badalona, held on 19, 20 and 21 October 2022.
Archaeological Sites
At the VINSEUM, as the official repository of archaeological materials designated by the Generalitat de Catalunya, we manage deposits, research and conservation work and contribute to the dissemination of the immense Catalan archaeological heritage.
Specifically, we conserve archaeological materials from more than 700 sites located mainly in the Alt Penedès region, but also in Garraf, Anoia and Baix Penedès regions. These materials come both from previous arrivals and archaeological interventions that are being carried out in the region.
Certain archaeological objects located in the Penedès region were among the first pieces to form part of the collections of the founding museum, in the 1930s. Following this historical legacy, archeology is one of this institution’s main pillars of conservation, consultation and support for research.