3. Mateo Alemán, Ortografia castellana (En Mexico: En la emprenta de Ieronimo Balli. Año 1609. Por Cornelio Adriano Cesar, [1609]).
     

4. Pedro de Arenas, Vocabulario manual de las lenguas castellana, y mexicana (En Mexico: En la emprenta de Henrico Martinez, [1611]).

In 1599, Cornelio Adrian César began building a press in Mexico City, for which Enrico Martínez was cutting and casting type. César fell afoul of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and his press was seized and put on deposit with Martínez. The latter began printing in that year, and César was sentenced to work at the press of Diego López Dávalos in Tlatelolco, just outside of Mexico City.

 

 
 
Presses From the Low Countries

5. Gaspar de los Reyes Angel, Sermon al glorioso San Francisco de Borja, duque quarto de Gandia (En Mexico: Por los Herederos de la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon. Año de 1688. En la Imprenta de Antuerpia, [1688]).

With the exception of César's press, and that of the Jesuits in Paraguay, we have no notice of press-building in Latin America during the viceregal period, and ample evidence of their importation. Most were brought from Antwerp, frequently from the Plantin firm, one of the Continent's largest printing houses. In 1657, Antonio Calderón ordered a press and type from Antwerp, and presses from Mexico, Puebla, and Lima frequently sported Antuerpiana, or Plantiniana in their imprint lines.
 
 
 
Other Imported Presses

6. Catholic Church, Carta pastoral que el illmô. señor doctor D. Alonso Nuñez de Haro y Peralta del consejo de S.M. y arzobispo de Mexico, dirige a todos sus amados diocesanos sobre la doctrina sana en general (Mexico: En la Imprenta nueva Madrileña de D. Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros, calle de la Palma, 1777).


While Antwerp was the preferred source for presses (and type), at least one press came from Paris, operated by the Colegio de San Ignacio in Puebla (1758-1768). With the revival of typographic arts in Spain in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, printers began ordering their presses from Madrid.
 
 
 
7. [Inventario de los bienes de Juan Ruiz], Mexico, 17 August 1675. In: Francisco Pérez Salazar, Dos familias de impresores Mexicanos del siglo XVII, Puebla, 1987.

Inventories of printing houses, in one form or another, are not uncommon. We have a good general idea of the materials that traveled from Spain to Mexico with Juan Pablos, and a detailed inventory of Antonio Ricardo's Lima printing house was elaborated when it passed to Francisco del Canto. Juan Ruiz's testament details his materials, and it includes astronomical instruments likely inherited from Enrico Martinez, believed to be his stepfather. Though numerous, they have yet to be the object of systematic research.
 
 
 
The Printer at Work

8. José de Buendía, Parentacion real al soberano nombre e immortal memoria del Catolico Rey de las Espanas y emperador de las Indias el serenissimo senor don Carlos II (En Lima: Por Ioseph de Contreras, impressor real, del Santo Oficio, y de la Santa Cruzada, 1701).

This engraving of José de Contreras of Lima is the only image we have of a printer working his press during the viceregal period.
 
 
9. [Diagram of Puebla Printing House], Puebla,27 August 1788.

While shop inventories might provide some notion of the contents of a printing house, and there are some documentary descriptions that give an idea of layout, this plan of Pedro de la Rosa's printing house and bookstore in Puebla de los Angeles is apparently unique.

Images courtesy of the Archivo General de la Nacion, Mexico

 
                                       Top of page               
Next
  Exhibition prepared by Kenneth C. Ward.
on view in the reading room from november 2014 to February 2015.