Cuesta de Moyano

A book market operates every day on the short sloping street along the southern fence of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid. Identical gray stalls stand along the slope, and books of lesser value lie on tables outside; sellers keep rare copies inside. At the lower end of the street stands a bronze Claudio Moyano with the text of the Moyano Law on public education in his hands, while higher up the slope books from broken-up home libraries find buyers again. The current stalls replaced the dilapidated wooden structures, preserving their size and overall appearance.

In nineteen nineteen, secondhand-book dealers left the market near Atocha and set up temporary counters in front of the fence of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, on the Prado Boulevard side. They earned their living from chance buyers: they bought up home libraries, sorted them into volumes, and put the books back on sale. Many had no premises of their own.

For several years, the garden’s directors demanded that the dealers be removed from the main entrance. They were concerned about the makeshift awnings, rubbish, and the condition of the site. For the sellers, losing a high-traffic location meant losing their livelihood. The municipality found them a site around the corner—on a short sloping street along the garden’s southern fence. In nineteen twenty-four, a temporary book fair was held here, and in May nineteen twenty-five a permanent market was approved.

Thirty dealers received individual municipal pitches. The architect Luis Bellido designed identical gray stalls for them, each measuring about fifteen square meters. Inside, there was neither electricity nor heating. The rules prohibited them from adding extra awnings, setting out goods beyond the designated line, or renting a pitch to another seller. In exchange for these restrictions, the booksellers received what they had not had before: a permanent address and the right to trade here every day.

The current stalls are no longer those wooden boxes. By nineteen eighty-six, the old structures had become dilapidated; they were dismantled and replaced with new ones, preserving their former size and appearance. Water and electricity were installed inside. The trading arrangement has also remained: books of lesser value are laid out on tables outside, rare editions are kept in the stalls, and under the terms of modern permits, at least half the stock must be secondhand.

Cuesta de Moyano is the everyday name for Claudio Moyano Street. It is named after the minister who, in eighteen fifty-seven, enacted the Moyano Law on public education and made primary school compulsory. Spanish teachers raised money for his monument; the bronze figure was installed at the lower end of the street in nineteen hundred. The book market appeared nearby a quarter of a century later. Moyano is depicted reading his law, while higher up the slope stand thirty stalls into which books from broken-up home libraries find their way.