Verffentlichungen des Instituts fur Europische Geschichte Mainz

Using the example of the Jesuit writings on life in America this volume discusses the meaning of the book market in Europe for the dissemination of impressions from the New World during the transition to the modern age. It supports the theory that the way in which Hispanic America came to be known in Europe cannot be seen only as a chapter in intellectual history, but is also connected to the material situation on the book market. The interrelationship of content, medium and persons responsible for the book market is discussed: How did the Jesuit reports from America come to be published, sold and read in Germany? How important were the reading habits and the financial means of the potential audience to the ways in which the volumes on America were published and sold? How did the physical makeup of the texts, their distribution channels and accessibility influence their success? How did the readers accept the content and intentions of these works? An analysis of Jesuit literature helps us to understand the power of the printed word to spread the impressions of a religious group that for nearly 200 years was active internationally, interculturally and transcontinentally; whose members belonged to the elite representatives in both religious and educational circles of the Modern Age. This volume demonstrates the continuity as well as the discontinuity and ellipses in the Jesuit reporting on America and its inhabitants. At the same time it discusses the interdependence of the material forms of transmission, the concrete nature of knowledge acquisition and the way in which the Jesuits ordered and interpreted what they experienced.