Antonio Ricciardi, better known as Antonio Ricardo (1532 – 1605/1606), was an Italian from Turin who became the first printer in South America and worked in Lima, Peru from 1584 until his death in 1605 or 1606.

Biography

Antonio Ricciardi was born in Turin in 1532. His father Sebastiano Ricciardi came from

Monticello d'Alba Monticello d'Alba is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located on the left bank of the Tanaro river, about southeast of Turin and about northeast of Cuneo Cuneo (; pms, Coni ; oc, Coni/Couni ...

, and his mother Gigliani Pallodi was a native of Turin. He had a brother Pietro who lived in Venice. Ricciardi worked with the printer Gerolamo Farina in Turin. Afterwards he went to Venice and Lyon, where he met Pedro Ocharte, one of the earliest printers in Mexico. Together they traveled to

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

and

Medina del Campo Medina del Campo is a town and municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Part of the Province of Valladolid, it is the centre of a farming area. History Medina del Campo grew in importance thanks to its fairs ...

, where they worked with the printers Del Canto. Ricardo emigrated to Mexico in presumably May 1570, where he worked in the shop of Pedro Ocharte. He also married Catalina Aguda in those years. He was a printer in Mexico City from 1577 to 1579, with his office in the San Pedro y San Pablo College of the

Jesuits , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

. In those three years, he printed at least twelve works, published in ten books. He moved to Acapulco in March 1580 and from there moved on to Callao, on the Peruvian coast, in January 1581. From there he travelled to Lima. He left his wife behind in Mexico City, presumably to deal with his creditors: one of those was Pedro Ocharte, who had supplied him with the necessary equipment to set up his own printing office. For three years, he tried to get the necessary royal approval to become a printer: finally, on 13 February 1584, the Jesuits gave him the permission to start printing texts for them, without having received the royal approval yet. The Third Council of Lima had ordered the production of a trilingual catechism in Spanish,

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

and

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

. Ricardo received the order, thereby becoming the first printer in South America, and he remained the only one until his death. He was granted official permission to set up a printing press in Lima from Philip II of Spain on 7 August 1584. The first publication ever printed in South America was a four-page leaflet with information about the new

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

of 1582, which was immediately adopted by Spain, but which hadn't yet been communicated to the colonies. The next publication by Ricardo, and the first book ever printed in South America, was the . Between 1584 and 1605, Ricardo would publish at least 40 works. In 1605, Ricardo was summoned to appear before the Inquisition. The same year or the next year, he died. His office was taken over by Francisco del Canto, a son of the Del Cantos from Medina del Campo, who had worked in Ricardo's workshop previously and who would hold the monopoly on printing in Peru until 1619.

Works published

In Mexico

*1577: ''

Emblemata Usually known simply as the ''Emblemata'', the first emblem book appeared in Augsburg (Germany) in 1531 under the title ''Viri Clarissimi D. Andreae Alciati Iurisconsultiss. Mediol. Ad D. Chonradum Peutingerum Augustanum, Iurisconsultum Emblemat ...

'' by Andreas Alciatus *1577: '' Tristes'' by

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

*1577: , together with by Juan de la Anunciacion *1577: , by Juan de Medina Plaza *1578: , by

Juan de Córdova Juan de Córdova (born 1503, at Cordova in Andalusia, Spain, of noble parents; d. 1595 at Oaxaca, Mexico) was a Spanish Dominican friar, known for his studies of the Zapotec languages. It is not certain whether Córdova was his family name, or ...

*1578: , by

Francisco de Toledo Francisco Álvarez de Toledo ( Oropesa, 10 July 1515 – Escalona, 21 April 1582), also known as ''The Viceroyal Solon'', was an aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the fifth Viceroy of Peru. Often regarded as the "best of P ...

: published together with and , by Francesco Maurolico *1578: , by Alonso Lopez de Hinojoso, the first text on surgery printed in the Americas *1579: , by Manuel Álvares *1579: , by Agustin Farfan *1579: , by Pedro de Morales

In Peru

*1584: , a four-page edict on the new Gregorian calendar, probably the first work printed in South America *1584: , the first book printed in South America, and the first printed book with text in

and

*1585: *1585: *1585: by

José de Acosta José de Acosta (1539 or 1540 in Medina del Campo, Spain – February 15, 1600 in Salamanca, Spain) was a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit missionary and naturalist in Latin America. His deductions regarding the ill effects of crossing over the ...

*1586: (reprinted 1603, 1604 and 1614) *1586: by Alonso de Barzana *1596: by

Pedro de Oña Pedro de Oña (1570–1643) is considered the first known poet born in Chile, and is best remembered for his verse epic poem ''Primera parte de Arauco domado'' (“First Part of the Araucan Conquest”). Born in Angol, he was the son of a milita ...

, first impression of the best known work of Chile's first poet *1597: , by Joan de Belveder *1598: , by Geronimo de Ore *1601: *1602: by Diego d'Avalos y Figueroa *1602: *1603: , by Juan de Hevia Bolaños *1604: , by Miguel de Agia *1606: by Jéronimo Valera

Biography

Works published

In Mexico

In Peru

Notes

Further reading