2 - Colonial and Viceregal Literature

Summary

The second generation of settlers in the New World used print where their predecessors had used military exploits for, as one commentator points out, the ‘sword was yielding to the quill as an instrument of material advancement, and a familiarity with letters and learning was becoming a surer guarantee of social preferance than military skill’ (Leonard, Books 198). From its inception, printing in Latin America was associated with royal privilege and, throughout the colonial era, permission in the form of a licence from the sovereign was necessary before a printing press could be set up. During the early days of the colony in Brazil, indeed, a printing industry proved to be neither administratively necessary nor economically viable. As a result of Pope Alexander VI's recommendation in 1501 that a system be devised whereby printed works could be regulated by the state, the Portuguese authorities in 1508 required that all works dealing with matters of religion be submitted for royal approval, and this decree was re-affirmed in 1537 soon after the re-establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal, and then spectacularly enforced by a royal decree of 4 December 1576 which prohibited the publication of any work without royal sanction (Hallewell 77–8). This was a prohibition that had teeth; Antonil's Cultura e Opulência do Brasil was banned for fear that the description therein of Brazil's material wealth would lead to unwelcome interest on the part of rival European nations (Hallewell 78). As a result of a combination of factors the development of a printing industry was forestalled in Brazil.

The situation was somewhat different in the Spanish colonies where printing was allowed, though only under certain conditions. The connection between the crown and print was, however, a constant one; the establishment of printing in New Spain coincided almost exactly with the establishment of the first viceroyalty.