6057B

Decorated Initials

Artist: Workshops of Antonio Ricardo and Francisco del Canto (but only as printers?)
Title: Decorated Initials (White Roman initials over fantastic-creature decorations)
Date: 1584-1617
Medium: Woodcut or woodcut printing. Measurements? Printed in the following works: Doctrina Christiana[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1584 [Letter O (shown here)] — Tercero Cathecismo[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1585 [Letter C] — Confessionario para los curas de indios[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1585 [Letter C (shown here)] — Fray Luis de Oré, Symbolo Catholico Indiano[.] Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1598 [Letter O] — Arte y Vocabulario […] Quichua. Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1614 [Letter O] — Ioan de Hevia Volaño, Labyrintho de comercio terrestre y naval[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1617 [Letters C, F (shown here)].
Location: Antiguas Imprentas de Antonio Ricardo (Lima) and Francisco del Canto (Lima).
Photo Source: Mori 2013a || Mori 2013b. Not reproduced at scale vis-à-vis the images of the impressions in 6057A.
Correspondence Credit: Almerindo Ojeda
Note: Line-by-line similarities between the images of 6057A and 6057B 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 in Lima, where he opened a printing workshop 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: 6057B

Correspondences: Archive: 6057A/6057B; Archive: 6057A/6057B; Archive: 6057A/6057B; 6057A/6057B