‘A Woman of Great Courage’: Women in the Printing Trades in Early Modern Europe

Spain

In Spain, as elsewhere in Europe, the most common way women became involved in the print trades was as the widow of a printer. However, there is some evidence that at least two women started printing businesses entirely on their own initiative. There are also instances of women printing as widows without any evidence of the activities of their husbands, who presumably set up the business. But these instances are not the norm; most women who operated printing businesses did so in transitory fashion--after the death of their husband, and before remarriage or until a son could take over. The most common identification of women was as the widow of, or the widow and heirs of, and in this regard, women's role in printing in Spain was no different than the rest of the continent.

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