Books from the Low Countries in Colonial Colombia and Bolivia

The contribution of prints to the European expansion and the globalisation of the Early Modern world can hardly be overestimated. The knowledge of other continents circulated in Europe almost exclusively in the shape of printed books and engravings. On the other side, the printed book was the medium by excellence by which European knowledge was taken to the most remote parts of the earth. Printing houses in the Southern Netherlands played an important role in this process of ‘globalisation of the minds’ (the creation of one big intellectual space in which knowledge, ideologies and ideas circulated between even the most remote parts of the empire) and in the creation of a ‘paper infrastructure’ at the service of the Spanish monarchy. On the one hand much information concerning the overseas territories of the Spanish monarchy was spread from the Netherlands. On the other hand, Flemish printing offices delivered an important part of the instruments of imperial policy used by the Spanish authorities for the government and evange­li­sa­tion of the colo­nies.

This project aims to analyse the contribution of the Southern Netherlands to the production of prints for the viceroyalties of New Granada and Río de la Plata (1535-1800), and to high­light its central role in the education of local elites and in the government of both entities. It consists of three research aims:

-    An analysis of the commercial networks that connected the printing offices with their markets in New Granada and Río de la Plata (which printing offices produced for the local market; which merchants did they work with; who was responsible for the distribution of the merchandise and how was it organised; which alternative channels – religious orders, vice-royal courts, bureau­crats, diplomats – were used; did the networks change after 1714);

-    A study of the export of Flemish printing technology to New Granada and Río de la Plata analys­ing the networks of which the Flemish printers and typesetters made use when circul­at­ing between the Netherlands, Spain and New Granada/Río de la Plata (techno­log­ic­al networks);

-    A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the production of books and engravings in the Southern Netherlands for the South American market (Spanish printings as well as pub­lic­at­ions in other languages), with special attention to the commissioners and the nature of this production (authors, subjects, material aspects, number of editions); an analysis of the role of Flemish prints in the construction of the juridical and religious tools of which the Spanish monarchy made use while constructing its colonial empire in New Granada and Río de la Plata (nature of the iconographical material produced in the Southern Nether­lands, that was used during the evangelisation of the continent and the development of a religious infrastructure and of the local artistic schools; analysis of the contribution of the educational and normative printing material – juridical tract and reference books, humanist writings, and political, religious and philosophical essays – to the education of local elites at local schools and universities) (cultural networks).