Nowadays, we are used to writing less than 140 characters
and sending photos and videos in just a few seconds,
handwritten letters seem to be turning into valuable museum objects.
"Five Centuries of Letters"
The National Library
wants to rescue and analyze 16th-to-19th-century missives
through the use of e-mail
a journey that
according to the coordinator of the exhibition
shows the evolution of the private and intimate writing of many great authors and anonymous people.
"This exhibition wants to show the history of letters from the 16th century
up to the second half of the 20th century, before the arrival of the e-mail
So, it's been assembled around two main ideas:
on one hand, it shows the evolution of epistolary traditions through different letters
and, on the other hand, it shows the evolution of books
used to teach how to write letters."
The name chosen for this collection is
"By the time you receive this letter, I will be glad to..."
which is a common expression in the history of these conversations among people far away
Madrid's Central Post Office opened,
the Royal Post Office Board was created in 1776,
and a regular maritime mail service to America was established.
Also,
many regulations were passed,
in particular, regulations affecting the Post Office, couriers and other related departments.
famous writers, such as Quevedo, Santa Teresa,
Valle-Inclán or Pablo Iglesias,
are shown in this collection of letters and postcards.
"Through the materials we are showing, we can see the evolution of the writing itself,
from the most peculiar of its forms, such as Santa Teresa's handwriting at the end of the 16th century,
up to the current writings from the 20th century.
Also, we can see the evolution of the media used for letters
ranging from the folds used in the modern era
to the postcards or paper used for letters
used from the second half of the 19th century, onwards.
Also, the different testimonies we've gathered
allow us to see, throughout history, the different uses
given to epistolary communication,
related to wars or diplomatic conflicts,
letters to family or love letters.
that is, we are trying to show all those sides of letters through the exhibited materials."
"If we are talking about The Golden Age
we can see how Lope de Vega's letters
both to the Duke of Sessa and to his protectors,
Góngora's letters...
Quevedo's letters...
we'll be able to see the kind of problems of that time
and the kind of problems that authors had to face regarding their own writing styles,
their resources, their interests...and it is all important,
and on many occasions, like in the case of Góngora,
there's complete silence about all that in his poetry,
because it's just like raw, cold poetry.
And we have all the information there, though.
We have some other cases, like Lope de Vega's, whose biography can be found in his life's work,
his letters show us a more serious aspect of his life
and his own history in his biography, which is certainly essential."
The digital transformation has resulted in letters being used for certain bureaucratic practices or for romantic purposes
however, this means of communication was, back then, the most widely used one, especially during the 19th century
when literacy became possible due to the public schooling system.
Nowadays, digital immediacy seems to be in control.
"They wouldn't miss any of this.
Some would enjoy this, a Valle-Inclán would highly enjoy seeing his Twitter photos multiply
and chatting with everyone else, and causing problems online
instead of at the Castellana."