Portugal

The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal  is the Portuguese national library, fulfilling the function of legal deposit and copyright.

The library was created by Decree of 29 February 1796, under the name of Royal Public Library of the Court. The library’s objective was to allow the general public access to the court’s collections, thus bucking the trend of the time only available to scholars and sages could access the treasures, manuscripts, paintings, and books of the royal court.