Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for James David Ramer

NAME:
- James David Ramer

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1969)

ADVISORS:
- Oliver L. Lilley

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Ambiguous

Title: Fifteenth-century Spanish Printing

Abstract:
Comprehensive studies of early Spanish printing have been almost entirely the

province of German and Spanish bibliographers, most notably Konrad Haebler and

Francisco Vindel. Each author, however, tends to emphasize the contributions of

his own compatriots. This thesis attempts to re-evaluate the typographic history

of fifteeth-century Spain and to provide an impartial assessment of the roles of

both emigrant and native printers.

Of the twenty-five sites in Spain for which there are extant incunabula,

emigrants dominated the presses at Tortosa, Lerida, Tarragona, Montserrat,

Valencia, and Saragossa in the Kingdoms of Aragon, as well as at Pamplona in

Navarre. In the kingdoms of Castile, emigrants out-produced the native printers

at Murcia, Seville, Segovia, Burgos, Toldeo, and Coria, as well as at Granada.

Native presses were dominant at Barcelona, Gerona, Mallorca, and Hijar in

Aragon, and at Monterey, Guadalajara, Huete, Salamanca, Valladolid, and Zamora

in Castille. The nationality of the anonymous printer at Mondonedo is unknown.

Collectively some thirty-four emigrant printers are credited with 524 works

(48,933 leaves) compared to 320 works (22,205 leaves) assigned t; some twenty-

nine printers. Thirty four works (2,359 leaves) were produced by an

emigrant/native partnership or can not be definitively assigned to either an

emigrant or native press. The most productive shops were those of the anonymous

native printer at Salamanca (7,482 leaves), of Meinardus Ungut and Stanislaus

Polonus at Seville (7,406 leaves), and of Paul Hurus at Saragossa (6,861

leaves). These three were followed by a cluster of emigrant printers.

Primacy is awarded to emigrant printers at seven of teh Aragonese and Navarrese

sites and to native printers at four. In Castile and Granada, emigrants were

first at five sites, natives at eight, possibly nine. Valencia, Barcelona, and

Segovia vie for the honor of being the first Spanish city in which the art of

printing was practiced, but evidence is too circumstantial to settle the

question conclusively.

The most productive printers were also the best. Emigrant printers,

consequently, were superior craftsmen in comparison to most of their native

coleagues. Paul Hurus desereves special recognition. Woodcuts, often derived

from German models, were used extensively by both emigrants and natives. Types

were quickly adapted to local tastes; less than one-tenth of the books are in

roman letter.

The Church and the Crown were the most frquent sources of outside financial

support for the early presses. Indulgences, litugrical works, laws, ordinances,

and the like account for almost one-fifth of all Spanish incunabula. An

unusually high number of texts are in the vernacular; 345 are in Spanish, 121 in

Catalan, 1 in Portugese, while 402 are in Latin and 9 in Hebrew. The early

Spanish printers did not devote most of the energies to resurrecting classical

literature, as was the case in so many European countries. A majority of the

late medieval and early Renaissance Spanish writers who are today considered of

primary literary importance were brought into print before the fifteenth century

ended. Translations of the contemporary literature of other countries are also

numerous among the imprints of the early Spanish presses.

MPACT Scores for James David Ramer

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:41

Advisors and Advisees Graph

generating graph, please reload

Students under James David Ramer

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None