Latin American Imprints before 1800, Selected from Bibliographies of Jose Toribio Medina, Microfilmed by Brown University

A collection of 2,339 titles on 250 microfilm reels.

The idea of acquiring film copies of selected titles in the collections of the Biblioteca Nacional de Santiago de Chile, the Biblioteca Nacional de Peru, and other South American libraries was developed during 1939 by Lawrence C. Wroth and Henry B. Van Hoesen. In 1940 a grant was obtained from the Rockefeller Foundation to carry out the program. Originally scheduled for three years, it was extended to five. That part of the plan calling for the filming of books in the Chilean library was accomplished. The filming of books in the Biblioteca Nacional de Peru had to be given up because of the unfortunate destruction of that library by fire. Preliminary arrangements had been made for carrying on the work in Mexico, but due to the scarcity of film and the difficulties of transportation brought about by World War II, this part of the project was finally given up in 1943. Cataloging of individual titles by the Library of Congress, in exchange for a positive copy of the films, was completed in 1945.

Format(s): Microform
Library: Rock, John Hay
Contact(s): patricia_figueroa@brown.edu

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Access to the collection:

Online Catalog (BruKnow):
Individual records for most printed materials available on BruKnow

In-house Access to the Collection:
List
Printed list available at the John Hay Library

Notes:
Positive microfilm located at the Rock; Master negatives at the Hay.