Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/230

206 206 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART I. Printing in- troduced. The queen encourages history ; and an office of public archives, like that , now existing at Simancas, was established at Bur- gos, and placed under the care of Alonso de Mota, as keeper, with a liberal salary. ^^ Nothing could have been more opportune for the enlightened purposes of Isabella, than the introduc- tion of the art of printing into Spain, at the com- mencement, indeed in the very first year, of her reign. She saw, from the first moment, all the ad- vantages which it promised for diffusing and perpet- uating the discoveries of science. She encouraged its establishment, by large privileges to those who exercised it, whether natives or foreigners, and by causing many of the works, composed by her sub- jects, to be printed at her own charge. ^^ Among the earlier printers we frequently find the names of Germans ; a people, who to the original merits of the discovery may justly add that of its propagation among every nation of Europe. We meet with a pragmdtica, or royal ordinance, dated in 1477, exempting a German, named Theodoric, from taxation, on the ground of being " one of the principal persons in the discovery and practice of the art of printing books, which he had brought with him into Spain at great risk and expense, with the design of ennobling the libraries of the king- 34 This collection, with the ill torn. vii. p. 18. — Informe de Rioi, luck which has too often hefallcn who particularly notices the solici- Buch repositories in Spain, was tuile of Ferdinand and Isabella for burnt in the war of the Communi- preserving the public documents, ties, in the time of Charles V. 35 Mendez, Typographia Espa- Mem. de la Acad, de llist., torn, iiola, p. 51. vi. Hust. 16. — Morales, Obras,