6059B

Decorated Initial E

Artist: Workshop of Antonio Ricardo (but only as printer?)
Title: Decorated Initial E
Date: 1584
Medium: Woodcut or woodcut printing. Measurements? Printed in Pragmatica de los diez dias del año. Lima: Antonio Ricardo, 1584.
Location: Antigua Imprenta de Antonio Ricardo, Lima, Perú.
Photo Source: John Carter Brown Library. Not reproduced at scale vis-à-vis the image of the impression in 6059A.
Correspondence Credit: Almerindo Ojeda
Note: Line-by-line similarities between the images of 6059A and 6059B suggests that both letters were printed from one and the same type. Said type was 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 type in question must have been part of this sale, as Gutiérrez printed it 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 type in Seville —the required point of departure for the Indies— and brought it along in his transatlantic journey. Ricardo could then print this type in Lima, where he relocated in 1580. Ricardo printed this type through his death in 1606. Then the type must have passed on to his successor, Francisco del Canto, who printed it in Lima through his demise ca. 1620.
Item: 6059B

Correspondences: Archive: 6059A/6059B; Archive: 6059A/6059B; 6059A/6059B