Private libraries in the colonial world: The diffusion of books and ideas in the viceroyalty of Peru

Abstract

Abstract In the early colonial period of Spanish America, one hundred years or so after Gutenberg's invention of movable type, books still maintained their reputation as infallible sources and testimonies of historical truth. Thus almost all kinds of texts, even fantastic narratives like chivalric romances, could make a firm impression in their readers' minds. Recognizing that influence, this essay attempts to make a contribution to the history of mentalites in the viceroyalty of Peru by analysing some twenty private book collections from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As we know, every private library reveals to a great extent the spirit of its owner; but this characteristic acquires an even greater significance in the context of early modem times, when the rarity of books and their high prices represented major inconveniences for the formation of any library.