Juan Horozco Covarrubias e la prima tipografia di Agrigento

The first writer of emblem books in Spain ( Juan de Horozco Covarrubias), after his first editions of a book called Emblemas morales in Segovia (1589 and 1591), decided to set up a private printing press in Agrigento, Sicily, where no such officine had existed before. Appointed as bishop in 1594, Horozco had two emblem books printed for him, this time in Latin: Emblemata moralia (being a translated and enlarged version of Emblemas morales) and Sacra symbola (a new book, with distinct content from Emblemata moralia). Both works were printed in 1601, along with a small philosophical book, Consuelo de los afligidos. The paper focuses on three specific points. The first is Horozco’s early initiative to start up the printing press, as some archival documents kept in Palermo would prove how between 1595 and 1596 Covarrubias was about to print his emblem books in Agrigento. Secondly, we suggest the existence of a sort of pre-print version of Sacra symbola, already bearing a dedication to Pope Clemens VIII, printed in Rome during the Jubilee of year 1600. Lastly, we seek to identify the printer of the Agrigento editions, that is Giovanni Antonio De Franceschi, although his name does not appear anywhere in the printed copies of both Emblemata moralia and Sacra symbola.