The infrastructure of globalisation. The printing press of the Southern netherlands and the creation of the Spanish colonial empire in Peru, 1535-1800.

Framework The contribution of prints to the European expansion and the globalisation of the Early Modern world can hardly be overestimated. Theknowledge of other continents circulated in Europe almost exclusively inthe shape of prints. Through books and engravings Europeans learned about civilisations at the other side of the world that had been visitedonly by a handful of conquerors, colonists and missionaries. Geographical and anthropological descriptions, travel accounts and botanical studies were very popular. On the other side, the printed bookwas the medium by excellence by which European knowledge and culture were taken to the most remote parts of the globe. In his influential essay, Serge Gruzinski rightly points out that the first processes of globalisation took place within the geographical boundaries of the combined Spanish and Portuguese Empires.[1] Prints were a powerful instrument in the hands of the King and the colonial administration when constructing the Empire in America, Africa and Asia.At the same time, it played an important role in what could be called the 'globalisation of the minds', the creation of one big in tellectual space in which knowledge, ideologies and ideas circulated between even the most remote parts of the empire. Not only did it contribute to the functioning of imperial institutions and procedures, it also spread the same educational model and political ideology among the upper and middleclasses. At universities and colleges from Mexico to Goa the colonial elites studied the same philosophical and juridical texts as the irpeersin Spain. The evangelisation of the New World was also carried out usingprinted bibles and catechisms. Devotional engravings brought a new religious iconography to the Indians. Moreover, the iconographical material played a fundamental role in the development of local artistic schools. On the other hand, native medical science influenced the European knowledge of plants and medicine, while descriptions of indigenous religions led to new visions on religion and religious (in)tolerance. Finally, prints contributed greatly to the development of a regional consciousness. Local historians read works on the history and institutions of the Roman Empire and compared the past of their own people to that of Greece and Rome. The Southern Netherlands played an important role in this process. On the one hand much information concerning the over seas territories of the Spanish monarchy was spread from the Netherlands through the storiesof the conquerors (Cortés, Cieza de León), history books (Las Casas, López de Gomara, Zarate, Dávila Padilla, Lopes de Castanheda, Fernández de Piedrahita, Herrera, Solís, Hennepin), geographical and anthropological treatises (Boemus, Fernández de Medrano, González de Mendoza) and religious histories (Echave y Assu, Palafox y Mendoza), andthis not only printed in Latin or French, but also in Spanish. On the other hand, Flemish printing offices delivered an important part of the instruments used by the Spanish authorities for the government and evangelisation of the colonies. Not only the 1572 monopoly of the Plantin press on the production of liturgical books for the Ibero-American world springs to mind, but also political and juridical treatises (Van Espen, Lipsius, Lessius, Molina, Lobkowitz), atlases (Mercator, Ortelius), scientific literature (Clusius, Do doens, Aguilon) and dictionaries of classical and biblical as well as modern languages. Finally, an important part of the Spanish literature that wasprinted in the Southern Netherlands was also thrown on the overseas market. For example, half of the edition of Cervantes' Don Quixote, printed in 1607 in Brussels (Velpius), was sold in America. This project aims to analyse the contribution of the Southern Netherlands to the production of prints for the viceroyalty of Peru - including the territory of the audiencia of Chili - and to highlight itscentral role in the formation of local elites and the elaboration of theinstruments of imperial policy at the service of the Spanish monarchy. In order to compare the period of Spanish Habsburg rule with the years of their Austrian counterparts, the project will cover the 16th, 17th and 18th century. Nevertheless, the projectc an at all times be limited to the 16th and 17th century if circumstances require it. Research subject The book trade to the Spanish and Latin American market gave birth to commercial networks that linked Antwerp with Seville and further on, with the viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru. In some cases the Flemish printers worked with local agents in order to establish relations with the Spanish and Latin American market. These networks did not cease to exist in 1700-1714, when the Southern Netherlands came under Austrian rule. Even after the War of the Spanish Succession there were Flemish firms that kept on trading books to Latin America, as the activities of the Forchoudt family in the first half of the 18th century demonstrate. Contacts between Flemish printing offices and Latin America were not limited to commercial issues. At the same time, Flemish printers maintained close relationships with printing houses in Spain and America. Several printers and typesetters that were schooled in the Netherlands, started their own printing office in Spain or America, as for example Matias Gast in Salamanca, Pablo Ascanio in Medina del Campo and Adriano César in Mexico City. Printers from Normandy and Lyon residing in Spain, some of which being trained in Antwerp, also maintained close contacts with printing houses in the Southern Netherlands. These printers often preferred Flemish personnel, and from the 16th century on Flemish typesetters, apprentices and engravers circulated in the different territories of the Spanish monarchy. These technological networks also survived the War of the Spanish Succession. In the 18th century there even operated several Imprentas plantinianas in Mexico and Puebla, following the model of the Officina Plantiniana. Elsewhere, Flemish models and expertise were imported and even copied. The Officina Plantiniana strongly influenced the evolution of typographyin America. The first printer in Cuba, at the beginning of the 18th century, was Carlos Habré, who was born in Ghent. At the same time, Flemish prints stimulated the creation of cultural networks. Several Spanish and Peruvian authors preferred to edit their work in Antwerp or, from the 17th century on, in Brussels. The Flemish translators of their work used it in their own writings. On the other hand, the work of authors from the Southern Netherlands was translated into Spanish in order to be distributed in Peru, as was the case with the miracle books of the Virgin of Montaigu, whose cult modelled for theVirgin of Copacabana. Flemish engravings reached America as part of Flemish books, but were later on used in American publications. Flemishprints also constituted an important means of communication in scientific and religious debates. Johannes Goropius Becanus, Benito Arias Montanus and Francisco de Echave y Assu discussed the exact location of the Garden of Eden through treatises that were printed in Antwerp. The beneficial effects of quinine and the origin of the Ten Jewish Tribes are other theories that were stimulated through prints from the Southern Netherlands. Research aims The present proyect consists of three research aims: - An analysis of the commercial networks that connected the printing offices with their markets in Peru (which printing offices produced for the Peruvian market; which merchants did they work with; who was responsible for the distribution of the merchandise in Peru and how was it organised; which alternative channels (religious orders , vice-royal courts, bureaucrats, diplomats) were used to get the books and engravings in Peru; did these networks change after 1714. - A study of the export of Flemish printing technology to Peru analysingthe networks of which the Flemish printers and typesetters made use whencirculating between the Netherlands, Spain and Peru (technological networks). - A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the production of books andengravings in the Southern Netherlands for the Peruvian 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 Peru (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 Peruvian schools and universities) (cultural networks). [1] S. Gruzinski, 'Les mondes mêlés de la Monarchie catholique et autres"connected histories"', Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 56/1 (2001) 85-117. Cfr. his book 'Les quatre parties du monde', Paris, 2005.

Keywords:Peru, Netherlands, Globalisation

Disciplines:History, Theory and methodology of philosophy