Funeral Sermons and Widowed Printers in Madrid, from 1629 to 1645, in the Lafragua Collection of the National Library of Mexico

Abstract

The Lafragua Collection of the National Library of Mexico preserves three funeral sermons published in the years 1629, 1634 and 1645 by three widowed printers settled in Madrid. The aim of this article is to identify the networks woven between the agents of printed culture and the monarchical power of the time, in order to strengthen their positions, through the bibliographic analysis of three publications and to observe the fundamental role of the printers in this framework, because, around them, a group of actors emerged who wrote, sanctioned the texts and published during the long government of Philip IV, the second of the minor Austrias, who reigned from 1621 to 1665. Between texts, preliminaries and paratexts, an elite literate culture intertwined with royal power can be seen.