other a Manual de Adultos. Fully ten other books printed before 1550 are known to bibliographers,[1] and there are about 70 more with dates of the 16th century. A few others may have been brought out of convents. They were chiefly religious, partly in native tongues, and vocabularies and grammar of those tongues.[2] Printing was too much restricted to flourish, and only the leading towns had presses. It appears that there were six in Mexico in 1761, while at the beginning of the present century there were only three.
Periodicals were strictly watched, and were comparatively of little historical value.[3] After the country became independent, newspapers began to flourish; and notwithstanding restrictions established at different periods, they have become numerous throughout the republic, especially at the national and state capitals, many of them being conducted with marked ability. Not a few are noted for scurrility, fiery tone, or bombast. There are many political papers, and not a few of literary or scientific periodicals.
Collections of books were not numerous, during the Spanish rule, outside of the convents, where more or less extensive libraries were formed, almost wholly theologic. However, the few colleges accumulated large lots.[4] Foreign books were strictly excluded, and churchmen discountenanced light Spanish literature. The standard authors of Spain formed the
- ↑ My Library contains a remarkably well-preserved copy of Doctrina Cristiana of the imprint of 1546.
- ↑ The type is Gothic, Italic, and Roman, with frequent abbreviations and rare wood-cuts.
- ↑ The first regular periodical was the Mercurio Volante of Sigüenza, begun at Mexico in 1693. The Gaceta de Mexico appeared in 1722; for some reason it was stopped the same year, but it resumed in 1728. It continued till 1739, when the Mercurio succeeded for three years; then came a long interruption until 1784, when the Gaceta de México reappeared permanently, in semi-monthly, weekly, and semi-weekly numbers, the last in 1805. A few others were issued early this century in Vera Cruz and elsewhere. The Observador Americano was printed at Sultepec in 1810 with wooden types.
- ↑ The San Juan de Letran, Jesuit institute, and the university. The former Jesuit college had 4,300 in 1797, and the Letran had grown in modern times to more than 12,000.
