6063B

Decorated Initial A

Artist: Workshops of Antonio Ricardo and Francisco del Canto (but only as printers?)
Title: Decorated Initial (White Roman A over botanical decorations)
Date: 1596-1611
Medium: Woodcut or woodcut printing. Measurements? Printed in the following works: Pedro de Oña, Primera parte de Arauco Domado. Lima: Antonio Ricardo: 1596 — Relacion de la [j]ornada del Excelentissimo Condestable de Castilla[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1605 (shown here) — Diego Flores, Preciosa Margarita de la […] Virgen María[.] Lima: Francisco del Canto, 1611.
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 imagesof the impression in 6063A.
Correspondence Credit: Almerindo Ojeda
Note: Line-by-line similarities between the images of 6063A and 6063B 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: 6063B

Correspondences: Archive: 6063A/6063B; Archive: 6063A/6063B; Archive: 6063A/6063B; 6063A/6063B