Ricardo J. Vicent Museros

He retired from working at his printing businesses in 1995 due to illness.

His contact with the "Gutenberg Museum" in Mainz (Germany), created by the "International Gutenberg Society", led him to found the "National Printing and Graphic Works Museum" in Valencia in 1987. Thanks to the collaboration of the Order of Mercy, owners of the Monastery of Santa María del Puig, the museum was housed in this building. He received help from the printing sector in Valencia and Spain, particularly: José Huguet («Archivo Huguet», Valencia) and Gonzalo Sales («Farinetti», Valencia). The museum consisted of old printing machines and elements related to publishing, engraving and books kept by his family of printers for decades, with contributions from all over Spain and acquisitions to cover relevant gaps. In 2000, he donated the museum to the Generalitat Valenciana (Regional Government of Valencia).

As a result of his cultural contacts with Germany and his professional activity, in 1977 he promoted the twinning of the cities of Mainz (Germany) and Valencia (Spain), using the birth of printing as a reference: Mainz, where the Gutenberg Bible or The 42-line Bible was printed, a key book in movable font printing (Gutenberg Workshop, Mainz, 1454); and Valencia, which saw the first literary work printed in Spain, Obres o trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria (written in Catalan language, by Bernat Fenollar and others, at the Lambert Palmart workshop, Valencia, 1474).

He created Vicent García Editores in 1974. The firm published several limited edition, numbered facsimiles of manuscripts, incunabula and old books, as well as encyclopaedias on Valencian culture.

Son of Ricardo Vicent Carbonell and Concepción Museros Rodes, he studied at the "Alliance Française" and "Colegio de los PP. Dominicos" (Dominican Fathers School) of Valencia. He studied Commercial Evaluation at the "School of Commerce" in Valencia. Between 1956 and 1959 he studied in Germany, where he graduated as a technician in photomechanical reproduction ("Klimsch-Repro-Studio", Frankfurt) with work experience in different printing industry factories in the country.

Following the family tradition, his father Ricardo Vicent Carbonell founded a printers in Valencia, at Calle Salamanca 62, in 1941 ("Gráficas Vicent"). Ricardo J. Vicent inherited the workshop and later founded several companies: «Vicent García Editores», «DFC Publicidad», «Asociación de Coleccionistas de Arte», «Publicaciones Gráficas» and «Gravisa».

Ricardo J. Vicent Museros (Turís, Valencia, 22 August 1938 – 23 February 2019) was a Spanish printer and publisher. After studying in Germany he returned to Valencia with new methods of work, advertising and graphic marketing. He founded the "Museo Nacional de la Imprenta y la Obra Gráfica" (National Printing and Graphic Works Museum) in El Puig de Santa María (Valencia, Spain). He promoted the twinning of the cities of Valencia and Mainz (Germany). In 1992, the International Gutenberg Society [de] granted him the "Gutenberg Prize" and in 2003 he received the "Cross of Civil Merit" from the German government for his work in favour of cultural relations between Spain and Germany.

He was the fourth generation of a family of printers that began working around 1860 in Castellón (Spain), where he trained in all printing techniques with his uncles Francisco and José Segarra ("Imprenta Segarra", Calle del Medio, 53).