The Printing Press in Spanish America, 1500–1830

Course Description

The course will start with the European invasion of the Americas in 1492, analyzing the Spanish Crown’s deployment of the press as a tool to establish sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and their lands during the sixteenth century. It will close with the proliferation of the printed word and image in the wars of independence throughout Latin America (1808–1833).

Through secondary readings, lectures, and group/individual analysis of primary sources—most of which are preserved at the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin—and the presentation of a final case study of their choosing, participants will explore a broad variety of topics related to the printing press in colonial Latin America. These will include the:

• establishment of the technology throughout the American hemisphere and the Philippines;
• diversity of literary genres the colonies produced and consumed, with a particular focus on Indigenous-language acculturation texts;
• pre-publication censorship and licensing of manuscripts destined for the press;
• trade practices and the financing of the colonial press, with a special focus on women-run print shops;
• materiality of books, including the supply and demand of paper and book binding;
• use of printed visuals;
• Inquisition’s censorship of circulating manuscripts and printed texts;
• transoceanic and local circulation of books;
• development of private and institutional libraries;
• individual reading practices and the surveillance of readers;
• rise of periodic literature, their coverage, and audiences; and
• wars for independence in print.

Throughout the course, special attention will be given to the roles, contributions, and representation of women, Indigenous, Black, and Asian people in Spanish colonial written and printed culture. No prior knowledge of the region, the time period, or the Spanish language is required for this course. This course is intended for participants of any background or discipline.

Course Meeting Times

This course will meet online 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET on Monday through Friday, 20–24 July. Each course day will follow the schedule below:

• 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. ET — First Class Session  
• 12:15 p.m.–12:30 p.m. ET — Morning Break  
• 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m. ET — Second Class Session  
• 1:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. ET — Lunch Break  
• 2:30 p.m.–3:45 p.m. ET — Third Class Session  
• 3:45 p.m.–4:00 p.m. ET — Afternoon Break  
• 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. ET — Fourth Class Session 

 

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Advance Reading List

Required Reading

Calvo, Hortensia. “The Politics of Print: The Historiography of the Book in Early Spanish America.” Book History 6, no. 1 (2003): 277–305. https://doi.org/10.1353/bh.2004.0003.

Gehbald, Agnes. A Colonial Book Market: Peruvian Print Culture in the Age of Enlightenment / Agnes Gehbald. Cambridge Latin American Studies 129. Cambridge, United Kingdom ; Cambridge University Press, 2024.

González Sánchez, Carlos Alberto. New World Literacy: Writing and Culture across the Atlantic, 1500-1700. Translated by Tristan Platt; revised by Bethany Aram. The Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2011.

Guibovich Pérez, Pedro. Imprimir en Lima Durante la Colonia: Historia y Documentos, 1584-1750 / Pedro Guibovich Perez. Parecos y australes. Ensayos de cultura de la Colonia 26. Madrid: Iberoamericana Editorial Vervuert, 2019. https://doi.org/10.31819/9783964568625.

Hill, Matthew. “The Book Trade in the Colonial Philippines.” Book History 20, no. 1 (2017): 40–82.

Pérez, Pedro M. Guibovich. “9 Books, Readers and Reading Experiences in the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” In The Edinburgh History of Reading: Early Readers, 182–205. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781474446099-012.

For further optional readings, please see the Zotero library at: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5804798/rbs_printing_press_in_spanish_america/library.

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Course Evaluations

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Course History