Manuel Salvat Dalmau

Manuel Salvat Dalmau (October 4, 1925 in Barcelona, Catalunya – September 11, 2012) was a Spanish publisher. From a family of important publishing tradition, he directed the Editorial Salvat and served as president of the International Publishers Association.

Private life Son of Santiago Salvat Espasa and Rosa Dalmau Vilá and grandson of Manuel Salvat Xivixell. He studied in the Col·legi Sant Ignasi - Sarrià of Barcelona where he was acknowledged as a brilliant student. Graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Barcelona and a degree in Business Management from IESE Business School. He was married to Blanca Vilá Reyes and had six sons and one daughter. He was also the joint co-founder of the Escuela Patmos of Barcelona in 1958 with five other couples (the Amor Sagués, Tornos, Poblet, Puche, Comas, and Latorre), Priest Joan Alemany i Esteve, and writer and pedagogue Emili Teixidor.

Professional life

Editorial Salvat Manuel Salvat Dalmau joined the family business, Salvat Editores S.A. (the publishing company known as Editorial Salvat), in the late 1940s, becoming manager, together with his brothers Santiago and Juan. The company was then leading the Spanish American market in dictionaries and medical works. From that position, it developed an important change in the Spanish publishing sector by intensifying the sales of encyclopedias through instalments. The Salvat Group associated with the Boroli family, owner of De Agostini, which had initiated the sale through fascicles in Italy. For that purpose, they created a new distribution company, Marco Ibérica S.A. (MIDESA), of which more than 300 thousand complete collections were sold.

Other outstanding achievements while he directed the publishing company were: Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente's ,

In the late 1980s the Salvat Group was purchased by the French multinational Hachette. Manuel Salvat had secured these credits without having knowledge of doing so because his brother-in-law had signed them, using his name fraudulently. Even though he was not charged in the Matesa Affair, Manuel Salvat took care of the debt with the Liquidation of Export Credit Commission (Spanish Ministry of Finance, ) which allowed him to carry on with his publishing tasks.