F. J. Norton, librarian at the University Library, Cambridge, has produced a thorough, scholarly survey of the Spanish press during the early years of the sixteenth century. The book, clearly the work of a skilled, professional bibliographer, provides within its narrow chronological limits complete coverage of the Spanish printing firms, their location, and the editions they produced. There is also a useful note on the early editions of La Celestina.
During the period which Norton has chosen to study, Seville was the undisputed printing capital of Spain, producing, among 195 other works, 2000 “cartyllas de enseñar a leer” (p. 13) for a 1512 Franciscan expedition to the New World. Other printing centers were Salamanca, home of Spain’s largest university, the busy commercial cities of Burgos and Valladolid, Toledo with its rich archdiocese, Zaragoza, and the administrative capitals of Barcelona and Valencia.
It is interesting to note that the Spanish press at this time was run largely by foreign printers; Jacobo Cromberger, a German working in Seville, was probably Spain’s greatest early printer. In 1490 Ferdinand and Isabel had imported two companies of German printers in order to stimulate that city’s book trade. In most cases the foreign printers were either of French or German extraction, although Italians were represented in one or two cities. Of the native printers, the most famous was Arnao Guillén de Brocar, a veritable printing entrepreneur with presses in several cities. Brocar is noted for the remarkable “Complutensian” Bible which he completed in 1521.
But in spite of the varied backgrounds of Spain’s printers, their output was geared almost entirely to the home market. The small Spanish firms could not compete with the mass-production methods of Lyons, Paris, and Venice, whose printers supplied the international market with standard textbooks in the laws and theology, as well as literary works in several languages. However, the Spanish press, as Norton has carefully indicated in his appendix, did provide its readers with a rich and varied selection. Out of 1307 editions produced in the 1501-20 period, official Crown and Church publications accounted for 21 percent, theological works 19 percent, vernacular literature 23 percent, classical literary texts 18 percent, history and geography 4 percent, and miscellaneous 13 percent. The high proportion of literary works undoubtedly reflects the interests of Spain’s upper classes, which at this time were hurriedly seeking to groom themselves with a Renaissance education.
By itself Norton’s work represents only the beginning of serious scholarship in the printing history of Spain. Perhaps he and others will continue with this task, while historians apply the fruits of this bibliographical research to a study of the cultural currents among Spain’s literate classes.
