New World News, Ancient Echoes: A Cortés Letter and a Vernacular Livy for a New King and His Wary Subjects (1520–23)

Empire building converges with print innovations in the rare Zaragoza edition (1523) of the landmark “Second Letter from Mexico” of Hernán Cortés. The Aragonese print shop owned by German immigrant George Coçi advertised what, to its first interpreters, was stunning news from a still mysterious plac...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inRenaissance quarterly Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 711 - 749
Main Author Wright, Elizabeth
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge The Renaissance Society of America 22.09.2008
Renaissance Society of America
Cambridge University Press
Subjects
Advertisements
Aragonese
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500-1558)
Colloquial language
Colonialism
Cortes, Hernan
Cortes, Hernando (1485-1547)
Emperors
Frontispieces
German language
Historic documents
Illustration
Image editing
Immigrants
Interpreters
Kings
Letters
Mexican history
Politics
Printing
Recycling
Retail stores
Sieges
Spanish language
Studies
Woodcuts
Mexico
Spain
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Empire building converges with print innovations in the rare Zaragoza edition (1523) of the landmark “Second Letter from Mexico” of Hernán Cortés. The Aragonese print shop owned by German immigrant George Coçi advertised what, to its first interpreters, was stunning news from a still mysterious place overseas with woodblocks drawn from their 1520 edition of Livy's History of Rome. An examination of the political, social, and editorial contexts that informed these two books addressed to Charles V casts light on concerns about how the new Spanish king would communicate with his subjects in an age of imperial expansion.
ISSN:0034-4338
1935-0236
DOI:10.1353/ren.0.0240