library: John Carter Brown Library

Bible, Massachuset, 1663 (A1r)

Though not credited, several Indigenous people were involved in the translation and production of the book, including James Printer, the first Indigenous American to work in a print shop. Eliot believed the Masschusett people would be more receptive to conversion if it was presented in their own language. In this way, the Eliot Bible was a physical tool of colonialism: a way to overcome the language barrier so that Indigenous people could receive the colonizer’s values, but not vice versa. On this page, one of the fleurons in the lower right section of the headpiece is upside-down, perhaps an error made in haste.

Febrés, Arte de lengua de Chile, 1765 (2A4r)

This page is from a textbook teaching Spanish speakers the Mapuche language, spoken by the Mapuche people of present-day Chile and Argentina. It showcases how type works to transliterate phonemes from a non-Romance language into a Latin alphabet. It is interesting to compare the tildes on the Ñs in the text to the contemporary variety. The book seems to be tightly bound, based on the close cropping on the left side of the image.

Febrés, Arte lengua Chile, 1765 ([*]1r)

This title page comes from a book that documents the linguistic complexities of 18th-century Chile, including the language of the Mapuche, Chile’s indigenous inhabitants, combined with Spanish-speaking colonizers. Both red and black ink are used to add emphasis on areas of the book’s contents, such as advertising that in addition to its main contents, it also includes a “very curious ‘Chilean-Hispanic’ dialogue.” The somewhat misaligned nature of the lines indicates that the two-color inking friskets were not precisely lined up during printing.

Molina, Vocabulario, 1571 (V10r)

The colophon being printed in both Spanish and Nahuatl suggests that the book was meant to be accessible equally to Spanish colonial and Indigenous audiences.