Contesting the Word: The Crown and the Printing Press in Colonial Spanish America

Abstract

This article has two principal objectives. Firstly, it seeks to offer an overview of printed works in sixteenth-century Mexico, including a discussion of a variety of religious and didactic texts, as well as an account of the intellectual vigour reflected in the publication of scientific, juridical, philosophical, and historical writings, and even printed ephemera. Secondly, it seeks to identify the socio-political factors that shaped the history of the Western book in Spanish America, paying particular attention to the Crown's conflicts with the Franciscan order and the Spanish settlers. The article argues that while the printing press was instrumental for the Spanish Crown's governance of its Spanish and Amerindian subjects, this new information technology also presented potential challenges to Royal sovereignty, which elicited censorship.