Archaeologist Eduard Ripoll i Perelló's personal collection can now be consulted at the Humanities Library

It includes nearly 18,000 personal and professional documents, including many distinctive letters, in addition to an important photographic collection.

The collection of archaeologist Eduard Ripoll i Perelló which can now be consulted at the Humanities library includes almost 18,000 personal and professional documents, allowing visitors to follow in detail his entire career, both in the heritage and university fields, as well as his participation in associations and cultural entities. The collection preserves drafts and different versions of communications, articles and speeches, both published and unpublished, as well as research documentation, teaching syllabi and heritage reports.

A particularly relevant part of the collection is made up of letters, which demonstrates his extensive network of relationships with scholars and institutions around the world. Also noteworthy is an important photographic collection, with a special value for the study of prehistoric art.

An important figure from the Barcelona School of Film

Eduard Ripoll (Tarragona, 1923 – Barcelona, 2006) was an important member of the Barcelona School of Film movement in the field of prehistory and archaeology. Throughout his career he held many prominent positions, such as director of the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, the archaeological digs in Empúries, and the National Archaeology Museum.

He graduated from the University of Barcelona and extended his training at the Institute of Human Palaeontology in Paris between 1950 and 1951, under the tutelage of the abbot Henri Breuil, one of the world's leading authorities on the study of rock art. Ripoll specialised in prehistoric art, a field to which he dedicated his doctoral thesis, and maintained close relations with leading international specialists, as well as forming part of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences.

His university career was particularly intense. He began as an assistant at the University of Barcelona and later joined the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ​​with a lecturing stay also at the University of Oviedo. In 1981 he behind the cration of the Chair of Prehistory at the UNED, where he continued to be associated as an emeritus professor after his retirement. He was also a member of the CSIC's Milà i Fontanals Institute.

In the cultural heritage field, he served as delegate, commissioner and provincial councillor for Fine Arts, and participated in the UNESCO-promoted campaigns to safeguard Nubia. In the last years of his life, he developed a notable activity at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Barcelona, ​​an institution he presided over from 1996 until his death in 2006.