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Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 20 (2013)

Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis. Jaargang 20

(2013)– [tijdschrift] Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis–rechtenstatus Auteursrechtelijk beschermd

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César Manrique Figueroa
Studying the book in Hispanic America
The process of consolidation of national identities

Book history in Latin America, at least from a Western point of view (since the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica boasted their own codices, with their own writing systems), started strictly under the Spanish colonial regime that triggered the Europeanisation of Spanish America, or rather its Hispanicisation. This relatively peripheral position with respect to Europe during the ancien régime, together with the independence processes during the nineteenth century and the modernisation of most Latin American nations in the last hundred years, directly determined the lines of study regarding book historical activities.

Hence, the present text provides an overview of book history in Latin America from the colonial period to present day, with special attention to those authors that have produced the most important contributions in the field from Mexico to Argentina. Moreover, this review presents and discusses the most relevant topics and trends generated in this vast cultural and geographical region, as well as the professionalisation and modernisation of the current lines of research, to finally provide a general idea of the challenges expected for the future.

General historical frame

The Spanish occupation, conquest and colonisation of an enormous range of geographical areas all over the New World from the late fifteenth century, but especially after the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires during the sixteenth century, launched one of the most fascinating and complex developing processes of a new reality and society in human experience: the colonial or viceroyal Spanish America.1 This period became a real

human laboratory as expressed by Gruzinski and Bernard,2 in which Spain improvised a system of maritime commerce without precedent and ordered a transoceanic empire that included the emerging societies of the continent, bringing about the diffusion of European culture in the New World.3

This extended historical period came to an end (at least politically speaking) during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, when the wars of independence started simultaneously all over Spanish America, giving way to the formation of most of the current independent Hispanic American nations. The case of Brazil offers a different situation, because the country belonged to Portuguese and not to Spanish America, having its own historical development. Therefore, Brazilian book studies will not be reviewed in the present article. Regarding the nineteenth century, it was an agitated period for the whole Hispanic America. For decades the young nations had similar problems such as the consolidation of their national identities, the formation of their governing bodies and political parties, fights between conservatives and liberals as well as facing civil wars and foreign invasions. Finally, from the last decades of the nineteenth century onwards the liberal Republics in the region witnessed the modernisation and further development of their economies and institutions and the consolidation of the modern nation states. However, along with the incorporation of modernity, several military regimes and dictatorships hit the region throughout the twentieth century, exacerbating the deep social differences that have survived up to present day as one of the major challenges for the region.

An overview of the Spanish American presses during the ancien regime

Transference of European culture to the New World included the establishment of the first European type of printing press outside the Old Continent, which was set up in Mexico City on June 12, 1539 when a contract was signed between the German printer Johann Cromberger and his Italian press operator Giovanni Paoli (known in Spanish as Juan Pablos), both residents in Seville, in order to establish a printing office in Mexico City, capital of the newly established Viceroyalty of New Spain.4 The first of its type in the New World.5

After Mexico City, other urban centres throughout Spanish America boasted printing shops during the colonial period, being usually capitals of administrative units such as viceroyalties or audiences, as well as important ports or regional centres. The rich city of Lima, capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru hosted the second printing press in the New World (1584); in 1593 a printing press was established in Manila, and although

the Philippines are not part of Latin America, by that time they were under Spanish rule, and all the maritime communication was done through New Spain (with the famed Galleon of Manila). Therefore, Manila's press has been somehow considered as one of those printing shops established within the Spanish Empire.



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Figure 1. An example of a book printed in Mexico: Hernán Cortés, Historia de Nueva España. México 1770. Photo: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague


By the seventeenth century we find presses in two more places: Puebla de los Ángeles, the second most important urban centre in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1640) and Guatemala City, capital of the homonymous Royal Audience (1660).6 During the following century more towns or even remote Jesuit missions joined the exclusive list of places boasting a printing press in Spanish America. Thanks to the Jesuits' efforts, their Missions in Paraguay had their own self-made press (c.1703); followed by Havana, which was one of the most important maritime hubs of the whole Spanish Empire due to its

strategic position (1707); Antequera, (present Oaxaca, Mexico), which was an important regional centre in New Spain (1720); Santa Fe de Bogotá, capital of the viceroyalty of New Granada (1739); The village of Ambato, in the Royal Audience of Quito, where the Jesuits set up a printing press (1755); Córdoba, present day Argentina, which was the Jesuits' centre of operations in the vast region of Tucumán (1765); Santiago, capital of the Royal Audience of Chile (1776); the port of Buenos Aires, which was going to be the capital of the Viceroyalty of Río de La Plata (1780); Guadalajara, capital of the Royal Audience of New Galicia (1792); and Veracruz, the port of entrance to New Spain (c.1794). Finally, other printing presses were established during the first decades of the nineteenth century, still under Spanish rule. This happened in cities such as Caracas, capital of the homonymous Royal Audience (1808); the port of Cartagena in the viceroyalty of New Granada - present Colombia - (1809); and Mérida, capital of the Intendancy of Yucatán - present Mexico - (1813).7



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Figure 2. An example of a book printed in Lima: Nicolas Mastrilo Duran, Sermon en el otavario, que la ilustrissima religion de redemptores celebro a la canonizacion de su primero fundador, y patriarca San Pedro Nolasco. Lima 1632. Photo: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague


The first Spanish American bibliographic compilations

It should be noted that in Spanish America access to education - and therefore to higher European culture - was restricted to the dominant population of Hispanic origin, which was numerically a minority compared to the abundant Indian, black and ‘mixed’ population. As a result, the scholarly activity, the circulation of books, the formation of libraries and the cultivation of a taste for reading was, with some exceptions, reserved to the population of Hispanic origin. However, the criollos, those who were born to Spanish parents, were also socially excluded by the Spaniards by birth, since the highest government posts (such as that of viceroy, archbishops, or oidores of Royal Audiences),8 were exclusively reserved to Spaniards appointed by the Spanish king.

Hence, the criollos conceived themselves as inheritors of the European culture transmitted by their parents, but living in another continent and facing different human experiences, and in some way feeling isolated and resigned to play a marginal role in the cultural world emanated from Europe. These criollo elites, although a minority in numerical terms, had the intellectual and analytical European tools (language, religion, culture) to face, interpret, understand and assimilate a more complex human reality than that of the motherland. However, this dominant group was constantly confronted with the fact that despite being the owners of vast lands, they were subject to the policies of the Spanish Crown, which was not always well-informed of the American reality. Finally, the so-called criollismo, the cultural identity generated by this group, included symbolic and ideological representations derived from this tense reality within a hierarchical society constantly faced with delicately balanced situations.9

Within this context, the first bibliographic work that attempted to catalogue the Spanish-American authors or those books related to Spanish America, was written by a criollo from the city of Córdoba (present Argentina): Antonio León Pinelo's Epítome de una biblioteca oriental y occidental, náutica y geográfica (1629).10 Definitely, León Pinelo's great merit was to summarise for the first time the bibliographic production regarding the New World (the Philippines included), in what can be considered as the first bibliography related to the American continent.11 As Millares Carlo pointed out, León Pinelo may be deemed the father of the American bibliographic studies.12 The main purpose of Epítome de una biblioteca was to provide reliable studies to contemporary scholars about the American continent and, if possible, to stimulate the interest in American-related topics.13 León Pinelo's Epítome was the starting point of the Spanish-American bio-biblio-

graphic genre, mainly produced by American criollo scholars, which increasingly became a vindication of their own culture against the allegedly superiority of the Spaniards due to the misconception of the general backwardness of the American continent.14

Possibly the best example of these bio-bibliographies is the unfinished Bibliotheca Mexicana (1755) written in Latin by the cleric Juan José de Eguiara y Egurén, who wanted to highlight the abundance of remarkable scholars that were born in or that had been active in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (including also some references to the Viceroyalty of Peru) and their works (in print and manuscript). The work was essentially a refutation of the slanderous affirmation of the Spaniard Manuel Martí, dean of the cathedral of Alicante, who considered the intellectual and academic activity produced in the New World as backward and without any kind of academic merit. As a result, the Bibliotheca Mexicana is a repertory of the underestimated scientific, literary, philosophic and religious knowledge produced and printed in Hispanic America, specifically in New Spain.15 The work not only shows the vast erudition displayed by Eguiara but also his clear intention to vindicate the honour and letters of his fatherland, as illustrated by this beautiful quote:

Oh, if only the printing houses of Lyon in France, of Antwerp, Louvain, Venice and other such cities were as close to our lands as the sun! What an abundance of books would Europe enjoy - their ranks swollen with all manner of literature, notable for their variety, adorned to perfection, wonderfully finished and as if burnished to serve as a mirror reflecting the rays of that sun? The Holy Spirit did not pour forth his divine science with such lavish generosity over one part only of this world, but over all.16

In the same vein, some other eighteenth-century authors left bio-bibliographic catalogues, such as Antonio de Alcedo y Bejarano, historian from Quito with his Bibliotheca Americana (1791), which was only published in the twentieth century. In his work, Alcedo provided a repertory of works related to the American continent, written in different languages, as well as the biographies of the authors.17 The work has been considered a systematic, scientific bibliographic tool, which was in accordance with the Enlightenment's desire to systematise knowledge. Furthermore, directly inspired on Eguiara's unfinished Bibliotheca Mexicana, José Mariano Beristain y Souza, another cleric from New Spain, wrote his Biblioteca Hispanoamericana Septentrional, started in 1796 and published in three volumes between 1816 and 1821, also in the form of a modern bio-bibliography.18 Beristain's vast bibliography is the last one written during the colonial period as part of this series produced by criollos and intended to positively

strengthen the identity of the Hispanic American people highlighting the cultural output generated in the viceroyalties.

The creation of national bibliographic repositories

After the Independence from Spain and the foundation of the Republican system in most of the Latin American new countries (with occasionally brief monarchical attempts), it was mandatory to develop and consolidate the national identities and the power of the State. As part of this process, the new republican regimes favored the creation of national libraries, that not only secured the national bibliographic patrimonies, but were also in accordance with the modern nineteenth-century European standards of civilisation, being considered as symbols of cultural achievement.19 In November 1868, Manuel Payno, a Mexican writer and intellectual, published an article entitled ‘La gran biblioteca nacional’, in which he argued about the importance of such institutions in modern and civilised societies in these terms:

That such an institution [a national library] is indispensable in a civilised society, as necessary as food, no one doubts. Thus, what should be done is not to collect books without taste, with neither criterion nor discernment, in humble, dark quarters distant from the centre of the cities, but to erect a dignified grand monument to inspire the august ideas of scholarship and of scientific inquiry.20

Argentina was the first nation to officially establish a National Library in Buenos Aires (1810), which was founded by decree of the first governing board of the new Republic. It was followed by neighboring Chile (1813) and Uruguay (1815). Shortly after independence had been declared, the government of Peru signed a decree on the foundation of its National Library in 1821. The case of Peru's National Library offers a notable example of the impact of armed conflicts on bibliographic repositories. During the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), Chile confronted Peru and Bolivia for control of mineral rich areas. The Chilean troops occupied Lima in 1881 and looted the National Library, taking with them thousands of books to Santiago. Recently the Chilean government has returned some thousands of books to Peru.21

Other countries were to follow. In 1822 the Colombian government reorganised the Royal Library that had been created in 1777 with Jesuit collections, and which was reopened as the National Library of Colombia in 1823. In the following decade other countries also established their own national libraries. Such was the case of Venezuela

(1833). In the case of Mexico, the National Library was originally founded also in 1833, but it was only established definitely in 1867 after several unsuccessful attempts. The Central American nations followed the rest of the region in the second half of the century: Guatemala (1879) and Costa Rica (1888).

In order to provide collections to the newly created national libraries, the republican governments of several countries (Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico, for instance) assumed control over the rich Jesuit libraries (the Society of Jesus had been expelled from all Spanish possessions in 1767), incorporating them into the national collections and charging intellectuals with collecting and caring for the books.22 In Mexico, with the proclamation of the ‘Reform Laws’ (1859-1860), all church properties were nationalised in order to weaken the financial hold the church had on Mexico. Thus, virtually all the rich clerical libraries were integrated into the National Library and other State collections. Eventually, the Latin American national libraries became larger and richer thanks to private donations of intellectuals and book collectors. Finally the legal deposit of books was also implemented (e.g. in Chile in 1820 and in Mexico in 1846).

Nineteenth-century national bibliographies

Nineteenth-century Latin American intellectuals, who, to a great extent, were under the influence of the European currents of thought (specially from the second half of the century), were increasingly interested in the production of national historiographies, since these works laid the basis for the construction of a national past.23 Historical production was considered a decisive cohesive element in the formation of national identities. Multifaceted learned men, typical examples of nineteenth-century erudition, undertook this essential task by publishing corpora of historical documents and works on national history.

In line with this, the history of the domestic printing press and its output in Latin America was one of the relevant topics during the second half of the century all over the region, as proved by the works of several historians such as the Argentinian Juan María Gutiérrez's Bibliografia de la primera imprenta de Buenos Aires: desde su fundación hasta el año de 1810 (1866); the Colombian Pedro María Ibáñez's La imprenta en Bogotá: desde su introducción hasta 1810 (1898); the Ecuadorian cleric and historian Federico González Suárez's Bibliografía ecuatoriana (1892); and the Mexican historians, Joaquín García Icazbalceta's Bibliografía Mexicana del Siglo XVI (1886) and Vicente de Paula Andrade's Ensayo bibliográfico mexicano del siglo XVII (1899).24



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Figure 3. Joaquín García Icazbalceta, Bibliografia mexicana del siglo XVI. Mexico 1954. Photo: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague


However, the first scholar who provided a complete detailed overview of the output of Latin American printing presses during the whole colonial period was the Chilean historian and bibliographer José Toribio Medina. His copious bibliographic catalogues were printed from 1891 to 1908 and reprinted several times. Medina's extensive and exhaustive research is classified by cities or viceroyalties that hosted a printing press, covering the printing press history in Argentina, his native Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay and Uruguay, Peru, the Philippines, and Venezuela.25

It may therefore be affirmed that from the last quarter of the nineteenth century and through the first three decades of the twentieth century, Latin American bibliographic studies were focused on the study of the bibliographic patrimony printed by domestic presses, as well as on the history of those national printing presses. Nearly all these works were somehow inspired by Toribio Medina's research. See, for instance, the studies regarding Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Venezuela.26

Early twentieth century new approaches

In consonance with this positivist distinctive spirit of the turn of the century, new scientific approaches also aroused the interest of Latin American scholars, such as the classification of local editions according to modern scientific disciplines27 and the study and republication of manuscripts printed by Hispanic America's presses in the indigenous languages of the continent, mainly during the colonial period. These were normally liturgical or grammatical works written by monks (Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians) in order to perform the massive Christianisation of the Indians, a subject which still attracts much attention from modern scholars.28

Finally, the study of inquisitorial documents related to book history during the

viceroyal period, particularly the rich collection kept at the Archivo General de la Nación of Mexico (agn). These sources provide different kinds of documents, such as lists of private libraries confiscated by the Inquisition which belonged to people (including book printers) accused of heresy, Lutheranism, Judaism, heterodoxy or witchcraft. These documents also mention isolated books seized to be reviewed and the results of the inquisitorial inspections or visitas carried out by inquisitorial officers seeking prohibited books on board the Spanish fleets that yearly arrived at the port of Veracruz. The documentation available covers the period 1575-1600, the rest of the series is incomplete or not preserved in the archive. This pioneering and precious compilation of inquisitorial documents related to book history in New Spain was originally published by Francisco Fernández del Castillo in Mexico in 1914, under the name Libros y libreros en el siglo XVI.29 Since then, this book become a classic, as it has enhanced much of the literature on the topic, and it is still an obligatory reference for contemporary researchers interested in book history during the viceroyal period.



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Figure 4. José Toribio Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana, 1493-1810. Reprint Amsterdam 1962. Photo: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague


Following this trend, in 1939, with the celebration of the fourth centenary of the establishment of the printing press in Mexico, the Archivo General de la Nación published 40 inventories of books found among the Inquisition documents. Particularly interesting were the memorials of books presented by seventeenth-century booksellers of Mexico City, whose book lists were requested by the Inquisition in order to have control over the printed stock available in Mexico City book stores (from 1655 to 1661).30 Such records still provide material for current research.

During the following decades, scholars in Latin America continued to focus their attention on the study of the local printing presses, as well as on the history of Latin American journalism. In this respect, the work of the Argentinian historian José Torre Revello, El libro, la imprenta y el periodismo en América (Buenos Aires 1940) sparked new interest on the topic. Furthermore, the study of the works of the already mentioned criollo scholars such as León Pinelo, Eguiara y Egurén, Beristain y Souza increasingly became a subject of study, particularly in Mexico, where the Spanish exiled professor Agustín Millares Carlo developed a line of studies in local book history, focusing on the bio-bibliographies and compilations left by the criollo scholars and by nineteenth century historians.31

Recent research and professionalisation of bibliographic studies

The new Latin American book historiography has been produced during the last 15 years, and it has been strongly influenced by authors such as Roger Chartier and Robert Darnton, who have defined the field of study on book history.32 These two internationally well-known researchers have established a fruitful exchange of ideas with Latin American researchers interested in the history of the book, particularly in Mexico and Argentina, the two most important Latin American editorial centres, where several works by Chartier and Darnton have been translated into Spanish.33

As a result, new approaches have aroused scholars' interests, such as the complex relations established between readers and books - not only during the viceroyal or colonial period, but also during the nineteenth century -, as well as the circulation, reception and diffusion of written culture. In this vein, Mexico is the country where the largest amount of studies directly influenced by Chartier and Darnton have been produced, possibly due to the rich archives and libraries of the country available for

researchers.34 The study of private libraries as sources for historians has also been extensively researched since the 1970s in several countries of the region such as Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Venezuela.35

Moreover, Mexico was the first Latin American country that established an institute specifically devoted to book research, the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas (ibb), as one of the research institutes of the National University of Mexico (unam). The institute was created in 1967 and is directly linked to the National Library of Mexico. The main lines of investigation focus on bibliographical, bibliological, hemerographical and archival studies, as well as on librarianship. Thus, the institute is directly responsible for the study, preservation and administration of the collections stored at the National Library and the National Periodicals Library. In fact, the National Library in Mexico is related to the National University, and is not an independent institution like in most countries. The academic staff organise symposia, colloquia, exhibitions and activities related to bibliographical studies. The institute also boast a journal and publishes books on regular basis.36

In Argentina the Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas y Crítica Textual (iibcrit) was created in 1978. Its main purpose is the study of problems and methods related to text editions and textual criticism of all the Spanish-language works produced either in Spain or in Latin America from the Middle Ages until present day.37

Future perspectives

The recent commemoration of the bicentennial of the independences of most of the Spanish speaking countries of the region, which were mostly celebrated in 2010, sparked fresh interest in the study of the bibliographical production of the nineteenth century.

Thus, the studies of nineteenth-century written culture are expected to experience a steady growth within the following years.38

Moreover, the bibliographical studies and the journalistic production related to the social, artistic and political movements of the twentieth century such as the Mexican Revolution or the dictatorships in countries like Chile, Argentina and Uruguay, the Cuban Revolution, the guerrillas in Central America or Colombia are becoming increasingly popular within scholarly circles.

Regarding the preservation of national bibliographic patrimonies, Mexican institutions have recently made considerable progress in cataloguing the copious national bibliographic patrimony amassed throughout the colonial period and the nineteenth century. Thus, the foundation has been laid for Mexican institutions to perform professional cataloguing. Several Mexican libraries have done excellent works of cataloguing, such as the Library José María Lafragua of the Benemérita Universidad of Puebla (buap), the Franciscan Library of Cholula of the University of Las Américas (udla), the sixteenth-century collection of the Public Library ‘Juan José Arreola’ of Guadalajara, as well as the Library of the Universidad Michoacana of San Nicolás Hidalgo in Morelia (umich).

Moreover, the work done by adabi (Apoyo al desarrollo de archivos y bibliotecas de México) in the restoration, preservation, research and diffusion of Mexican archives and libraries had included the cataloguing of major collections such as the Palafoxiana of Puebla, the Library of the regional Museum of Querétaro, the Library of the National Museum of the Viceroyalty in Tepotzotlán, the Library of the Museum of Zinacantepec and the Library Armando Carrillo Olivares of the University of Guanajuato among many others.39

However, there is still a lot of work to do not only in Mexico, but also in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Peru. All of these countries boast rich bibliographic collections that ought to be properly catalogued. This is certainly one of the main challenges in the region: the improvement or creation of institutions focused on research, preservation and diffusion of their national bibliographic heritage. Currently, only Mexico and Argentina have made considerable efforts in modern bibliographic research.

Finally, the importance of Latin American collections is worth stressing, since they often contain rare and unique items which have been frequently overlooked by the scholarly community. For this reason, scholars interested in the European printing press must take into account the existence of rare copies, barely known, available in Latin American collections. To give just an example, eight sets (at least two of them complete) of Christophe Plantin's well-known Biblia Políglota are still available in Mexican libraries.40 Therefore, the preservation and study of the rich national bibliographic patrimony should become of prime importance for the cultural policies of the Latin American governments.


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