Printing was introduced into Spain at Segovia by Johannes Parix of Heidelberg as early as 1472, two years after printing had arrived in France and four years before William Caxton established the first press in England. The new technology spread rapidly to the major ecclesiastical centers of Valencia, Zaragoza, Barcelona, and Seville. By the end of the fifteenth century, more than sixty printers were active in twenty Spanish towns, which produced more than nine hundred editions, including a significant number in the vernacular Iberian languages of Castilian, Catalan, and Hebrew. The exhibited Spanish items include two that are the only surviving copies of their kind.

 

← Click on the thumbnails at left to see larger images and descriptions of the items in the exhibition.