The Diffusion of Books and Ideas in Colonial Peru: A Study of Private Libraries in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

T H E histoire du livre, a field of interdisciplinary study of role and impact of printed book in development of society and culture, lhas scarcely engaged historians dealing with viceroyalty of Peru. Until recent times, image of colonial society as an obscure and culturally backward world prevailed.' Such deficiency might be partially explained by intense dedication and vast knowledge that research on history of books and ideas requires. This investigation indeed calls for multidisciplinary teamwork to analyze influx of authors, ideological currents, literary models, technological patterns, and other influences. As Guillermo Lohmann Villena has correctly pointed out for case of colonial Peru, the immensity of a task that requires inexhaustible patience and understanding in all branches of knowledge has discouraged researchers from making an exact evaluation of influx of books and their diffusion.2