SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

[lludwig]

SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

2. What is the most valuable printed book?

Answer in invisible ink: 2. Was The Gutenberg Bible; now it is the Caxton Canterbury Tales

Note: I think a complete Gutenberg would beat the Canterbury if offered up to auction. However, the Caxton Canterbury is currently the most expensive printed book ever to change hands. 13 million? I forget.....

[rockmaple]

The printer was Stephen Day Press.

[emmbook]

Semi-trick question!

750. Breve y Mas Compendiosa Doctrina Christina. Printed in Mexico in 1539.

Hundreds of books were printed in the Americas before the Bay Pslam Book.

[lludwig]

rockmaple - As emmbook mentioned, there were many books published in the Americas before the Bay Pslam Book.

emmbook - Correct on where but not the book or the year and you missed by whom.

Hint: No copies of the book still exist.

[emmbook]

Hmm. Tough one.

Publisher = Juan Cromberger?

[lludwig]

emmbooks - Nope on the publisher. The book wasn't published by what we would consider as a traditional commerical printer/publisher such as Ben Franklin.

BTW Not sure how your book given the date fits in with what is said to be the second printing project in the Americas. The book you gave was printed one year earlier than the date of the book that I have as the second printing project.

Second Hint: The book was pubished by the order of Spanish Viceroy Mendoza.

[emmbook]

I might still be barking up the wrong tree, but:

Manual de Adultos (1540) ?

LOC says my title was one year before:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/frontiers/folio.html

[oldbookshopnj]

Are we looking at a distinction between the first book printed by a press, and the first book of which there is a known surviving copy?

The Bay Psalm Book was not the first book printed in Massachusetts, but there are no known surviving copies of the earlier almanacs.  Their existence is known from manuscript records.

[lludwig]

emmbook - Manual de Adultos (1540) is what my information says was the second printing project and that is why I am became confused that you came up with a Breve y Mas Compendiosa Doctrina Christina, printed in Mexico in 1539 except to say that my information must be incorrect on the second book.

oldbookshopnj - We are looking for the first book printed in the Americas but there are no surviving copies. Interestingly the book was what someone gave as an incorrect answer to one of your questions a long time ago.  At the time you were very gracious in saying that maybe you had not worded the question clearly which may be the case with my question!  

I had run a seach on the thread because I thought for sure the question would have been asked before, but no,  it was only that the book was mentioned previously.  

[emmbook]

I found older references to Manual de Adultos being the first book (in fragmentary form) printed in the Americas. Not sure when the date got pushed back a year earlier to 1539, or whether any complete copies of that book exist.

Printer was Italian and may have been trained in the same school as Aldus Manutius, according to Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Pablos

[lludwig]

emmbook - The information that I have is that only 4 single leaves of Manual de Adultos (1540) survived but that later editions survived in larger quantities.

[emmbook]

Here's a facsimile:

https://archive.org/details/manualdeadultos00cabr

[lludwig]

emmbook - Thanks! Interesting. 

Time to move on so here is the answer to 750. This is the snippet that I came across when searching for the answer to oldbookshopnj's previous question of 749 and it then resulted in me asking question 750. As emmbook previously stated, the LOC has a book listed with an earlier date than what this says was the second project. Also as I said earlier, someone had given this title as the incorrect answer to one of oldbookshopnj's earlier quiz questions but now I can't find it again to reference the question or number!

#750 Answer:

"Thus the first American-printed book was issued in Mexico in 1536: By order of the Spanish Viceroy Mendoza, Jesuit missionaries printed the "Escala espiritual de San Juan Climaco". We have no tangible evidence of this little volume, no copies appear to have survived the tides of time. The second printing project fared only slightly better: Just four single leaves of the "Manual de Adultos" from 1540 have come down to us. Later editions survive in greater quantities, showing us that the printing industry in the Spanish colonies flourished after those early years."

Source: On Printing in America

https://www.waldenfont.com/content.asp?contentpageID=7

[oldbookshopnj]

I had forgottenabout the 1536 title.

There is a 1539 title printed in Mexico whose colophon and physical description was transcribed in the nineteenth century, but no one at present can locate a copy.  It is assigned the number "Mexicana 1" in Mexican printing bibliographies:

Breve y mas Compendiosa Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Mexicana y Castellana

Colophon:

A honra y gloria de Nuestra Senor Juesu-Christo y de la Virgen Santissima su madre fue impresa esta Doctrina Christiana por mandada del senor don Fray Juan de Sumarrage, primer obispo desta gran ciudad de Tenuchtitlan, Mexico desta Nueva Espana, y a su costa en casa de Juan Cromberger, ano de mill y quientos y treinta y nueve.

Description:

Doce folio in cuarto

[oldbookshopnj]

751. When and where did the first printed description of the game of basketball appear?

[jeanpaulbooks]

751. The Springfield Republican, March 12, 1892, Springfield, Massachusetts?