One man’s bookshop: Juan de Treviño and the global book trade in the 16th century

Abstract

Leonard Irving’s article “One man’s library, Manila, 1583”, published in 1947, focused on the transcription and analysis of a list of books found in the Archivo General de la Nación, in Mexico. The list had been remitted by the Inquisition of Manila, where the books had arrived from America. Since the list included only one copy of most of the books inventoried, the great American Hispanist concluded that it made reference to a small library that had been shipped to the Philippines for personal use. This article offers a revision of this document, in light of the knowledge acquired during the last few decades regarding the book trade in the Hispanic Monarchy of the 16th century. The combination of documents from archives in different countries of Europe and America allows us to assess the book trade as a truly global and polycentric phenomenon, and study the role of agents such as the bookseller, Juan de Treviño (who we believe was responsible for shipping the books to the Philippines) in that trade.