This volume presents research on the antecedents, the genesis and the development of Barcelona's art museums up to the year 1915, which was when the Museum of Ancient and Modern Fine Arts was established in the halls adjoining the former arsenal in the Ciutadella. All of the parameters that go to form the concept of 'museum' are kept before the reader, in all of their complexity: recovering and preserving patrimony, education, museography and museology, all as the fruit of the historical and ideological framework prevailing during a certain epoch. And other factors are taken into account which indicate the topic's complexity: the artistic teachings of the time, the role of collectors, exhibits and the taste that generates them, acquisition policy and the economic resources allocated to museums, the museological exposition and the different museographical practices