Spain and Arabic culture share a long history. One of the early scholars eager to preserve that heritage was Miguel Casiri. The task for which Casiri is mostly remembered is his cataloguing of the Arabic manuscripts in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo El Real, known generally by the title El Escorial. This monastery held a collection of over 1800 Arabic manuscripts, upon which Casiri set out to catalogue. The resulting work was a monument of scholarship in the eighteenth century. Containing a number of quotes from Arabic sources on history, his catalogue is divided into subjects and is indexed for ease of use. The second volume of his massive undertaking comprises many geographical and historical manuscripts. Not only are the texts of inherent interest, they also contain valuable information on the Christian-Moorish wars in Spain. This grand undertaking in an early attempt at cultural history remains useful as well as retaining the status of a period piece. The original two volumes are bound together in this Gorgias Historical Catalogues edition. Containing the full text of both volumes, this catalogue may serve as a history and a linguistic study as well as a reference work.

Miguel Casiri (1710-1791) was an Orientalist and a Maronite scholar. Born in Tripoli (in Syria at the time), he studied and lectured in Rome before going to the Royal Library at Madrid. He became the interpreter of Oriental languages to the king of Spain and principal librarian at the Escorial.