International networks and the shaping of nineteenth-century Spanish collections: A glance at the correspondence of Juan Facundo Riaño

In this essay we discuss two examples of the influence exerted by the advice of scholars from the United Kingdom on the shaping and management of Spanish collections - those at the Museo de Reproducciones Artísticas de Madrid and the Real Academia de la Historia. We take as the starting point for our study two letters sent by Juan Facundo Riaño to scholars from the UK, both of which provide valuable information on the international networks in operation at a time when some collections - including those dealt with here - were being created or expanded. The first of the letters was sent by Riaño to Austen Henry Layard in 1881; the second was addressed in 1895 to Archibald Henry Sayce.