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6053B

Decorated Initials

Decorated Initials

6053B
Artist
Workshops of Pedro Ocharte, Antonio Ricardo (Ciudad de México and Lima) and Francisco del Canto (but only as printers?)
Title
Decorated Initials (White Roman intitials over tesellated floral backgrounds).
Date
1578 - 1617.
Medium
Woodcut or woodcut printing. Measurements? Printed in the following works:  Alonso de Molina, Doctrina Christiana, en lengua mexicana[.] Ciudad de México: Pedro Ocharte, 1578 [Letter A] — Fray Juan de Córdoba O.P. Vocabulario en lengua zapoteca. Ciudad de México: Pedro Ocharte (impreso por Antonio Ricardo), 1578 [Letters P, V] — Doctrina Cristiana y Catecismo […] Compuesto por Auctoridad del Concilio Prouincial, que se celebro en la Ciudad de los Reyes el año 1583. Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1584 [Letter V] — Tercero Cathecismo[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1585 [Letters A, N, V (all three shown here)] — Confessionario para los curas de indios[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1585 [Letter V] — Iulianus Martellus, Praecepta Grammatices[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1594 [Letter O (shown here)] — Ioan de Belveder, Libro General de las Reducciones de Plata y Oro[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1597 [Letter P (shown here)] — Fray Luis Jerónimo de Oré, Symbolo Catholico Indiano[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1598 [Letter P] — Diego Gonçalez Holguin S.J. Gramatica y arte nueva de la […] lengua Qquichua[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1607 [Letter A] — Diego Flores, Preciosa Margarita de la […] Virgen María[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1611 [Letter A] — Ioan de Hevia Volaño, Labyrintho de comercio terrestre y naval[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1617 [Letters A, P]
Location
Antiguas imprentas de Pedro Ocharte, Antonio Ricardo (Ciudad de México), Antonio Ricardo (Ciudad de Lima), and Francisco del Canto.
Photo Source
John Carter Brown Library || Mori 2013a || Mori 2013b. Not reproduced at scale vis-à-vis the images of the impressions in 6053A.
Correspondence Credit
Rodríguez-Buckingham 1977, 117-118 noted that Letter N appeared in Luis Mexia Ponce de León, Laconismus[.] Sevilla: Apud Ioanem Gotherrium Typographum, in via Genuensi, 1569.
Note 1
Line-by-line similarities between the images of 6053A and 6053B suggest that all of these letters were printed from one and the same set of types. Said types were printed in Seville by Juan Gutiérrez between 1559 and 1570. Antonio Ricardo was an Italian typographer who worked in Venice, Lyon, Valladolid, and Medina del Campo. In 1570, Ricardo left Europe and traveled to Mexico to become one of the first publishers of the New World. It follows that Ricardo could have acquired our types in Seville —the required point of departure for the Indies— and brought them along in his transatlantic journey. Ricardo could then print these types, first in Mexico City with his associate, Pedro Ocharte, and then in Lima, where he relocated in 1580. Ricardo printed these types through his death in 1606. Then the types must have passed on to his successor, Francisco del Canto, who printed them in Lima through his demise ca. 1620.
Note 2
Letters M and Q of the source alphabet have been documented in works edited by Juan de León II, a publisher active in Seville between 1585 and 1617 (see 6053A). This means that Ricardo could not have brought these letters to America in 1570, even though Juan de León II was the son of Juan de León I, a publisher who contributed typographical material to Antonio Ricardo.
Item
6053B
Correspondences
Archive: 6053A/6053B
Archive: 6053A/6053B
Archive: 6053A/6053B
Archive: 6053A/6053B
Archive: 6053A/6053B
6053A/6053B