LOS CROMBERGER: LA HISTORIA DE UNA IMPRENTA

“Este libro es el primer estudio extenso de una imprenta importante en la España del XVI,” reads the first sentence of the volume Los Cromberger: la historia de una imprenta del siglo XVI en Sevilla y Méjico by Clive Griffin. Its main focus consists of contextualizing the impact of the Cromberger’s workshop in the circuit of the printing press in Sevilla, the most populated center of Castilla, and the greatest Spanish place where spiritual reformation occurred. The editorial production of the Cromberger family during the first half of the XVI century has been considered very influential as it contained renowned literary texts of the so-called Siglo de Oro.

The book is structured as follows: a three-page prologue with allusions to the importance of archival materials; five chapters form the first part of the volume; three more chapters appear in the second half; a conclusion; and three illustrated appendices. Griffin makes a special emphasis on the importance of notary archives that served as testimony to “primitive Spanish printers.” He mentions, for instance, the Archivo de Protocolos de Sevilla, which was very useful in the study of the Cromberger family as well as in providing authentic information on many aspects of the city life linked to commerce, industry, political problems, institutions, and arts, among others (14). The Cromberger family, says the author, stopped by a notary public at least three times a week, including Sundays and Christmas day. They left a notable variety of documents, including testaments, letters, business contracts, and inventories of goods and properties. The author also found valuable information about the Cromberger family in the Archivo General de Indias and the Archivo de la Catedral, in Sevilla; the Archivo Histórico Nacional de Madrid; and the Archivo General de la Nación de la Ciudad de México.

The first part of the book presents an ample history of the Cromberger family, supported by a substantial overview of the printing press in Spain during the XV and XVI centuries. In this regard, Griffin highlights the fact that in contrary to common understanding, the introduction of the printing press in Spain did not generate a simultaneous demand for books. Spanish printers were forced to be business men to survive. Here Griffin introduces the Cromberger family’s activities as successful printers in a business world. Sevilla, affirms the author, offered the family good possibilities, for the city was a great commercial center with potential to become a printing market place. A diversity of books came out of the Cromberger’s press –“from simple certificates to complex liturgical volumes, the edition of the classics, to plain ‘pliegos sueltos’” (102). Subsequent generations would take the family business into a more consolidated monetary stage.

The second part of the volume is dedicated to the 560 editions made by the Cromberger family, books that have been spread out throughout England, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and Cuba. According to Griffin, the Crombergers were considered the main specialists of editions in vernacular languages and helped to disseminate spiritual ideas (188). A crucial part of their spiritual production was supported by the idea of translating works largely popularized within the Christian faith such as Imitatio Christi by Tomás de Kempis, which was edited at least six times by the Cromberger family. Among the historical books published was the famous Historia destructionis Troiae de Guido delle Colonne that had been known in Europe during the Middle Ages. After Griffin’s concluding thoughts in which he reaffirms the meaning and value of the Cromberger’s printing enterprise during the XVI century, he adds appendices containing specific information about the font styles used and a chronology of all of the Cromberger family’s editions creatively illustrated.