Latin American History and Culture: An Archival Record: Series 6: Jose Toribio Medina Collection of Latin American Imprints, 1500-1800
From the holdings of the John Hay Library at Brown University
The José Toribio Medina Collection of Latin American Imprints, 1500-1800 is one of the rarest collections of Latin American and European imprints about Latin America. Itcomprises Latin American printed material published before 1800 selected from the great bibliographies of colonial Hispanic-American printing and European Americana compiled by José Toribio Medina. When the Brown University filmed these publications from the Biblioteca Nacional de Santiago de Chile and other South American libraries, it sought to capture only those publications that were absent from their extensive holdings.
The bulk of the collection includes imprints from colonial presses in Spanish America: it is particularly strong in those areas that represent the earliest centers of publishing in Latin America: Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala. Imprints from the City of Mexico, the earliest center of printing in the Western Hemisphere (1539), occupy the nucleus of the collection with over 900 titles dating from 1554 through 1800. Peru, the second Spanish colony to acquire a printing press, is represented by roughly 240 imprints that date from 1592, while the140 imprints from Guatemala start in 1663.
This collection is organized into 7 parts. With the exception of part 7, titles within each part are in chronological order of publication:
Part 1: Mexican Imprints, 1554-175030 reels
Part 2: Mexican Imprints, 1750-180035 reels
Part 3: Spanish Imprints, 1530-164634 reels
Part 4: Spanish Imprints, 1647-169231 reels
Part 5: Spanish Imprints, 1692-178848 reels
Part 6: Guatemalan Imprints: 1663-18009 reels
Part 7: Imprints from Peru, and Los Angeles with Additional Titles from Mexico, Spain, and Other Regions61 reelsComplete Collection: 248 reels