Abstract
Abstract: The study of printing equipment is at the heart of book history, revealing much about the daily challenges faced by printers in the past. While comparatively little is known about printers’ supplies in colonial contexts, the scandal surrounding Tadeo López’ claim in 1813 to have invented type casting offers a unique insight into the craft in late colonial Lima—a major printing hub on the South American continent—during a historic moment of upheaval in the final decade of Spanish rule. Against the backdrop of the freedom of the press, proclaimed in Lima in 1811, print production increased significantly in the following years, even though it would still take a decade to achieve independence for Peru. By reconstructing the alleged invention of punch-cutting and type casting in Lima, the article argues that colonial printers and editors, once legally permitted, acted as reformists. First, the article characterizes the situation of printers in late colonial Lima, focusing on the legal and material restrictions on workshop supplies. The discussion then shifts to the collaboration between the printer Tadeo López and the engraver Marcelo Cabello, who worked as punch-cutter on López’ behalf. To assess the novelty of their experiment, this article examines the history of punch-cutting and the casting of type in Spanish America. For global book history, the Lima incident of 1813 serves as a revealing example of material restrictions, individual inventiveness, and political rivalries that shaped the operation of printing workshops in different parts of the world under imperial conditions.
Published Version
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