# Carlos Manuel de Trelles Govín

**Date of birth:** February 15, 1866

**Date of death:** June 1, 1951

**Categories:** Science, Society

Distinguished Cuban bibliographer and librarian, who dedicated himself particularly to the systematization of medical literature. He founded a delegation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in Matanzas, his native city.

He was born in Matanzas. He completed his primary education at the Matanzas schools Los Normales and La Unión, and obtained the degree of bachelor of letters and sciences from the Institute of Secondary Education in La Habana in 1880, always with outstanding grades.

He completed up to the fourth year of the Medical Career at the University of La Habana. He then returned to Matanzas to dedicate himself to commerce. He collaborated in the publications Aurora del Yumurí, Correo de Matanzas, Arte y Letras, and Diario de Matanzas.

Together with Federico Maza, Alberto Lamar, Nicolás Heredia and others, he founded in 1886 the Circle of Liberal Youth of Matanzas, which, before being dissolved by the military governor, opened its doors to speakers of the caliber of Fermín Valdés Domínguez, Antonio Zambrana and Manuel Sanguily, among others.

Together with Emilio Domínguez, he created in Matanzas a delegation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party—which José Martí had founded in 1892. Persecuted for his revolutionary activities, Carlos Manuel Trelles emigrated to Tampa, where he founded, in order to raise funds for the revolution, the Pedro Betancourt Revolutionary Club.

With the war over in 1898, he returned to Cuba and settled in Matanzas, where he became involved in businesses related to the sugar industry. At the end of 1898 he was appointed director of the Public Library of Matanzas, which had been the second founded on the Island in 1835. Trelles contributed notably to the development of this institution and managed, mainly through donations, to increase the library's collection to 12,400 volumes, which it already possessed by the end of 1899.

In 1907 he became known as a publicist with Indices of Cuban Medical-Pharmaceutical Bibliography, for which he has been considered the most eminent Cuban bibliographer of all time. His work is required reading for all scholars of the history of sciences.

Although from Trelles' appointment as director in 1898 until 1912 the growth of the Matanzas library's collections achieved advances, the institution never became an effective support for popular education. Its "economic revitalization" was achieved in the period 1906-1907, when it received official government backing for the first time, being included in the country's budget for that year.

In 1940, the Association of Friends of Cuban Culture promoted naming the Matanzas library the Public Library Gener y Del Monte in order to settle a historical debt with the creators of that institution, among whom was the Matanzas intellectual, Dr. Medardo Vitier, former secretary of education.

Trelles Govín was a councilman of the municipality of Matanzas. In 1900, Gonzalo de Quesada proposed him to represent Cuba at the Paris Exposition. He was a contributor to Patria, Revista Cubana, Cuba y América, La Bandera Cubana, La Discusión, Pro Patria, Revista de medicina y cirujía [sic] de La Habana, Revista Habanera, Cuba Contemporánea, El Fígaro, El Curioso Americano, Letras, and Boletín del Archivo Nacional.

In 1923 he was appointed librarian of the Chamber of Representatives, a position he held until his retirement, shortly before his death.

He was Cuba's delegate to the First International Congress of Social Economy (Buenos Aires, 1924) and to the Congress of History and Geography of America (Buenos Aires, 1925).

He was a corresponding member of the National Academy of Art and Literature; full member of the Academy of History of Cuba, the Cuban Academy of the Language and the Cultural Bibliographic Association; member of the Cuban Society of International Law; Honorary Member of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, since 1917; of the Association of the Medical Press of Cuba and the Geographic Society of Cuba. He was also a corresponding member of The Hispanic Society of America (New York), the American Academy of History (Buenos Aires), the Chilean Society of History and Geography, the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics, and honorary vice president of the Inter-American Association of Bibliographers and Librarians (Washington).

Among the recognitions he received as an intellectual and patriot, the Gold Medal of the Ibero-American Exposition of Seville (1930), the Enrique José Varona Medal, the status of Honorary Member of the Cultural Bibliographic Association of Cuba (1937) stand out; the ranks of lieutenant and commander of the Liberation Army (1938) and the National Order of Merit Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in 1950.

After retiring he returned to Matanzas, where he died on June 1, 1951.

Bibliography
Active Bibliography
Indices of Cuban Medical-Pharmaceutical Bibliography, Imprenta Avisador Comercial, La Habana, 1907.

Essay of Cuban Bibliography of the Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries. Followed by some Notes for Dominican and Puerto Rican Bibliographies, Imprenta El Escritorio, Matanzas, 1908.

Essay of Cuban Bibliography of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Supplement, Imprenta El Escritorio, Matanzas, 1908.

Cuban Bibliography of the Nineteenth Century, 8 vols., Imprenta Quirós y Estrada, Matanzas, 1911-1915.

Cuban Bibliography of the Twentieth Century, Imprenta de la Vda. de Quirós y Estrada, 2 vols., Matanzas, 1916-1917.

Cuban Scientific Library. Prologue by Carlos de la Torre Huerta and Diego Tamayo, Imprenta de Juan F. Oliver, 2 vols., Matanzas, 1918-1919.

Cuban Geographic Library, Imprenta de Juan F. Oliver, 2 vols., Matanzas, 1918-1919.

Cuban Geographic Library, Imprenta de Juan F. Oliver, Matanzas, 1920.

Cuban Historical Library. Prologue by Dr. Enrique José Varona, Imprenta de Juan F. Oliver, 3 vols., Matanzas, 1922-1926.

Bibliography of Cuba of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 2nd edition, Imprenta del Ejército, La Habana, 1927.

Bibliography of the University of La Habana, Editorial Rambla Bouza, La Habana, 1938.

The 150 Most Notable Books Written by Cubans, Imprenta El Siglo XX, La Habana, 1941.

Cuban Social Bibliography, Editorial Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, La Habana, 1969.

Passive Bibliography
Delgado García, Gregorio: "Prologue," Notebooks of the History of Public Health, 73: 3-10, Editorial de Ciencias Médicas, La Habana, 1988.

Dihigo Mestre, J. M.: Bibliography of the University of La Habana, Imprenta La Propagandista, La Habana, 1926.

Le Roy Cassá, Jorge: "Bibliography of Mr. Carlos M. Trelles. Relation of some writings and judgments about his works," Association of the Medical Press of Cuba. Tribute to Mr. Carlos M. Trelles y Govín, Imprenta de Juan F. Oliver, Matanzas, 1919.

Moliner, I. M.: "Bibliographic Index of Carlos Manuel Trelles," Revista Cubana, 28: 2002-2014, La Habana, 1951.

Rodríguez Rivero, Luis: "Laborious and Heroic Life of Bibliographer Carlos M. Trelles," Revista Universidad de La Habana, 178: 149-178, La Habana, 1966.

Source: At Caribe.org