"Odyssey of a Sixteenth-Century Document-Fray Pedro de Aguado's "Recopilacion Historial

THE PUBLICATION of a book in Spain during the sixteenth century practically had all the characteristics of the heroic. A keen process of competition among would-be authors, censors, and printers seems to have taken place, while little tangible encouragement was found in official circles. Only those authors succeeded who were able to endure the many trials of the publishing process, and to overcome the physical, intellectual, financial, and bureaucratic hurdles placed in their way by the social institutions of the time. These obstacles to publication were not due entirely to the inability of the few publishing houses to cope with the demand. It was due in a great degree to the mesh of red tape involved in the publication of books. Manuscripts migrated from office to office in search of necessary signatures and printing licenses. Apart from the religious authorities who were censors ex officio, cosmographers were to approve or disapprove the contents of books. Certain interested parties interfered in the publication of historical works.1 Acting as intellectual supervisors, chroniclers of the Indies sometimes suppressed manuscripts.2 Authors had to promote personally the publication of their

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• A Legacy of Strife

  Ignacio Gallup-Díaz•Colonial Latin American Review•2010

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