Reading the First Books
This project takes as its premise the idea that a book's cultural significance is shaped by the context of its production and use. Bibliographic methods - examining catch phrases, watermarks, typefaces, and bindings - can give insight into the processes of production. Marginalia and ephemera reveal histories of use that can tell stories about shifting trends in reading practices. Archival contexts provide a history of the book as artifact and help to reveal its importance in modern life. Digital transformations reveal shifting relationships between book as object and book as text.
"Reading the First Books" showcases these multiple transformations by highlighting a single book from the Primeros Libros collection. The Advertencias para los Confessores de los Naturales was printed at the Franciscan convent at Tlatelolco, Mexico, around the year 1601. Like many confessional manuals, it was to be used as a field guide for new Spanish missionaries; for this reason, it is a trilingual text written in English, Spanish, and the indigenous Mexican language Nahuatl.
In many respects, the Advertencias does not stand out among sixteenth century American books. As a theological work, it leans heavily on the ideas (occasionally plagiarized) of other authors. As a historical document, it is less revelatory than the shining works of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún and others. Interestingly, despite its lack of appeal as a textual work, more copies of the book are held in archives and popular collections than any other work from the same era. This suggests that the cultural force of the book rests not just in its words, but also in its role as artifact. Our work in this project explores that claim by moving between words, books, and contexts.
"Reading the First Books" offers four pathways for exploring the Advertencias.
With the Production pathway, we explore the scene of production of the Advertencias, considering who, where, why, and how the volume was printed. We then dive into the books to uncover mysteries of its production, from censored language to unmatched catchwords.
In Provenance, we consider how the printed book of the early colonial period have moved through the private and public collections of libraries across Europe and the Americas. Focusing on a few specific case studies, we consider the national, intellectual, religious, and financial forces that drive the movement of these books as sources of information and as heritage items.
In Context, we explore the present-day context of these books, reading collections closely to examine how context shapes the meaning of the Advertencias.
In Digitization, we focus on the Primeros Libros project and our efforts to digitize and transcribe these collections for public use. We consider how this new digital context impacts what it means to access, discover, and read this book.
