6052B
Decorated Initials
Decorated Initials
- 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 letters with black striations over black floral decorations over white 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 [Letters D, V] — Fray Juan de Córdoba O.P. Vocabulario en lengua zapoteca. Ciudad de México: Pedro Ocharte (impreso por Antonio Ricardo), 1578 [Letter L] — Fray Bartolomé Roldán O.P. Cartilla y doctrina cristiana breve[.] Ciudad de México: Pedro Ocharte, 1580 [Letter V (shown here)] — Ioan de Belveder, Libro General de las Reducciones de Plata y Oro[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1597 [Letters C, D (both shown here)] — Bartholome Lobo Guerrero, Constituciones Synodales[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1614 [Letter L (shown here)] — Ioan de Hevia Volaño, Labyrintho de comercio terrestre y naval[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1617 [Letter D].
- 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 || Biblioteca Complutense / Proyecto de Digitalización || Mori 2013a || Mori 2013b. Not reproduced at scale vis-à-vis the images of the impressions in 6052A.
- Correspondence Credit
- Almerindo Ojeda
- Note
- Line-by-line similarities between the images of 6052A and 6052B suggest that all of these letters were printed from one and the same set of types. Said types were printed in Seville by Martín de Montesdoca between 1553 and 1558. In 1559 Montesdoca decided to end his publishing career, and sold some of his typographic wares to Juan Gutiérrez, a fellow printer in Seville. The types in question must have been part of this sale, as Gutiérrez printed them 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.
- Item
- 6052B
