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NEW DIRECTIONS IN BOOK HISTORY
Book Markets in
Mediterranean Europe
and Latin America
Institutions and Strategies
(15th–18th Centuries)
Edited by Montserrat Cachero
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
New Directions in Book History
Series Editors
Shafquat Towheed
Faculty of Arts
Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
Jonathan Rose
Department of History
Drew University
Madison, NJ, USA
As a vital field of scholarship, book history has now reached a stage of
maturity where its early work can be reassessed and built upon. That is the
goal of New Directions in Book History. This series will publish mono-
graphs in English that employ advanced methods and open up new fron-
tiers in research, written by younger, mid-career, and senior scholars. Its
scope is global, extending to the Western and non-Western worlds and to
all historical periods from antiquity to the twenty-first century, including
studies of script, print, and post-print cultures. New Directions in Book
History, then, will be broadly inclusive but always in the vanguard. It will
experiment with inventive methodologies, explore unexplored archives,
debate overlooked issues, challenge prevailing theories, study neglected
subjects, and demonstrate the relevance of book history to other academic
fields. Every title in this series will address the evolution of the historiog-
raphy of the book, and every one will point to new directions in book
scholarship. New Directions in Book History will be published in three
formats: single-author monographs; edited collections of essays in single
or multiple volumes; and shorter works produced through Palgrave’s
e-book (EPUB2) ‘Pivot’ stream. Book proposals should emphasize the
innovative aspects of the work, and should be sent to either of the two
series editors.
* * *
Editorial board:
Marcia Abreu, University of Campinas, Brazil
Cynthia Brokaw, Brown University, USA
Matt Cohen, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Archie Dick, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Martyn Lyons, University of New South Wales, Australia
Montserrat Cachero
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
Editors
Book Markets in
Mediterranean Europe
and Latin America
Institutions and Strategies (15th–18th Centuries)
Editors
Montserrat Cachero Natalia Maillard-Álvarez
Department of Economics, Department of Geography, History
Quantitative Methods and and Philosophy
Economic History Pablo de Olavide University
Pablo de Olavide University Seville, Spain
Seville, Spain
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
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publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
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Cover illustration: © Printing mark, Juan Varela de Salamanca, 1504–1539 CRAI Biblioteca
de Fons Antic, Universitat de Barcelona
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
1 Introduction:
The Circulation of Books During the Early
Modern Period: Contexts and Perspectives 1
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez and Montserrat Cachero
2 Book
Privileges in the Early Modern Age: From Trade
Protection and Promotion to Content Regulation 21
Angela Nuovo
3 A
Pious Privilege: Printing for Hospitals and Orphanages
Across the Spanish Empire 35
Agnes Gehbald
4 Antonio
Sanz and the Distribution of the Festivals and
Vigils Calendar 65
Natàlia Vilà-Urriza
v
vi CONTENTS
5 Serving
the Church, Feeding the Academia: The Giunta
and Their Market-Oriented Approach to European
Institutions 91
Andrea Ottone
6 Global
Networks in the Atlantic Book Market
(Booksellers and Inquisitors in the Spanish Empire)119
Natalia Maillard-Álvarez and Montserrat Cachero
7 A
Pluricontinental Book Market: The Role of Booksellers
in the Circulation of Knowledge Within the Portuguese
Empire (c. 1790–1820)147
Airton Ribeiro da Silva Jr.
8 Publication
and Distribution of the Pre-Tridentine
Liturgical Book in Spain Through Notarial Documentation173
Manuel José Pedraza-Gracia
9 From
Rome to Constantinople. The Greek Printers and
the Struggles for Influence Between the Roman Catholic
Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the
Christian Populations in the Eastern Mediterranean
(Seventeenth Century)211
Alexandra Laliberté de Gagné
10 The
Territorial Component of Inquisitorial Book Control
in the Eighteenth-Century Indias’ Trade to New Granada229
Alberto José Campillo Pardo
Name Index251
Subject Index255
Notes on Contributors
vii
viii Notes on Contributors
Fig. 5.1 Average output of the Giunta of Venice between 1489 and 1601 109
Fig. 6.1 The Inquisitorial network. Elaborated by the authors using Gephi 137
Fig. 6.2 Size distribution in the communities 139
Fig. 6.3 Network at the market. Elaborated by the authors using Gephi 141
Fig. 6.4 Size distribution of communities 143
Fig. 7.1 Number of titles sent to Africa per category 163
Fig. 7.2 Number of titles sent to China (Macao) per category 165
Fig. 7.3 Number of titles sent to India (Goa) per category 167
Fig. 8.1 Guido de Monterroterio, Manipulus Curatorum, Cesaraugusta,
Mathei Fland[ri], 15 October 1475. Colophon (Consortium of
European Research Libraries. Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
(ISTC). London, 2010. https://data.cerl.org/istc/_search,
ig00569000)176
Fig. 8.2 Publishers in liturgical book contracts 191
Fig. 8.3 Print runs grouped by hundreds 200
ix
List of Tables
Table 4.1 Estimated product costs per 550 reams from the budget
prepared by Manuel Martín in 1758. Source: AHN, Consejos,
50,69072
Table 4.2 Annual remuneration of assignees for each territory 77
Table 6.1 Triads in the network 140
Table 6.2 Ranking of triads 145
Table 6.3 Comparing networks 145
Table 7.1 Number of requests per bookseller 159
Table 8.1 Contracts analysed 192
Table 8.2 Print run of the liturgical books according to the contracts
structured in hundreds of copies 199
Table 10.1 List of books 242
xi
CHAPTER 1
Over the course of history, books have been considered a vehicle for the
transmission of ideas. Nevertheless, books are also commodities produced
to satisfy demand and supply markets. As Richard Kirwan pointed out,
‘early modern book markets were subject to myriad pressures, forces and
interests acting in concert or competition’.1 This book seeks to contribute
to our knowledge about Early Modern book markets in two geographical
areas: Mediterranean Europe and Latin America. Nevertheless, prior to
1
This book has been funded by the research projects International Book Trade Networks
in the Hispanic Monarchy. 1501–1648 (HAR2017-82362-P), and Credit Market and the
Price Revolution in Spain, A 16th Century Bubble? (FEDER UPO-1261964).
R. Kirman, ‘Introduction: The Risks, Rewards and Perils of Specialisation’, in Specialist
Markets in the Early Modern Book World, ed. R. Kirwan and S. Mullins (Leiden, 2015), 1.
2
As Chaudhuri states, ‛the systematic organisation of multifaceted forms of long-distance
trade was aimed at reducing transaction costs’, K. N. Chaudhuri, K. N., ‛Reflections on the
organising of pre-modern trade’ in The Political Economy of Merchant Empires, ed. J. Tracy
(Cambridge, 1991), 421–442.
3
See, for instance, R. S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950–1350
(New Jersey, 1971) or some of the works by R. de Roover in J. Kishner (ed.) Business,
Banking and Economic Thought in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Selected Studies
of Raymond de Roover, (Chicago, 1974), and J. D. Tracy, The Rise of Merchant Empires:
Long-distance Trade in the Early Modern World, 1350–1750 (Cambridge, 1993).
4
The consignment system was used most heavily in the Baltic area, where the organisation
passed through individual merchants with professional independent agents. On the contrary,
in the Mediterranean, the large company system was preferred.
5
Among these alternative organisational forms, we find the merchant coalitions studied by
Avner Greif. In Greif’s opinion, market-institutions that encourage cooperation produce
growth in investments and trade flows. The reduction of uncertainty is the consequence of
rules of behaviour observed by all members. Merchant members of these coalitions trusted
each other and thus engaged in contracting between them to preserve their reputation as
future profits depended on it. For more information, see A. Greif, Institutions and the Path
to the Modern Economy (Cambridge, 2006).
1 INTRODUCTION: THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS DURING THE EARLY… 3
exchange but also the proliferation of all sorts of different credit contracts
and partnership agreements reduced the risk assumed by traders.6 These
instruments were constantly used by book merchants, as some of the fol-
lowing chapters will demonstrate.
Regarding distribution networks and financial instruments, books per-
formed the same as the rest of the commodities. Nevertheless, following
the invention of the printing press, a major shift took place in the European
book market during the fifteenth century. This technical innovation did
not only alter the books production process but also meant that the strate-
gies and mechanisms deployed for the trade in manuscripts became inad-
equate for distributing an increasing number of printed books.7 The
imbalance between supply and demand caused many new businesses to
fail.8 Higher investment required by the printing industry and the neces-
sity to reach customers beyond the local scope favoured the internationali-
sation of the European book market from an early stage.9 The spread of
the printing press also provoked a hierarchical organisation of the new
industry through Europe, in which a large quantity of the books con-
sumed by readers was printed in only a few centres.10 At the same time, the
integration of different book markets was facilitated by networks of print-
ers and booksellers who were responsible for connecting distant places in
Europe and beyond. In addition to this, local producers and merchants
6
These contracts could be enforced before the Court but also at the notary office. The
notarial institution was responsible for the dynamism of Early Modern trade, providing flex-
ibility and innovative solutions to commercial conflicts. This circumstance allowed merchants
to carry out multiple economic and financial transactions at the notary office. See
P. T. Hoffman, G. Postel-Vinay y J. L. Rosenthal, Dark Matter Credit: The Development of
Peer-to-Peer Lending and Banking in France (Princeton, 2019); Montserrat Cachero, ‛El
poder para cobrar en las Indias y el control remoto de los deudores’ in La Globalización
escrita: Usos hispanos en la América Colonial, ed. E. López Gómez, M. Salamanca, and
B. M. Tanodi de Chiapero (Madrid, 2015), 47–56; G. Jiménez-Montes, A Dissimulated
Trade Northern European Timber Merchants in Seville (1574–1598) (Leiden, 2022).
7
J. L. Flood, ‛Volentes sibi comparare infrascriptos libros impresos… Printed books as a
commercial commodity in the fifteenth century’, in Incunabula and their readers. Printing,
selling and using books in the fifteenth century, ed. K. Jensen (London, 2003), 139–151.
8
In those early years, as Andrew Pettegree conveyed, ‛many who put their hopes in print
found only ruin’, A. Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2010), 44. See also
P. Nieto, ‛Geographie des Impressions Europèennes du XVe siècle’, in Revue Française
d’histoire du livre (118–121), 2004, 125–173.
9
L. Febvre and H-J.Martin, La Aparición del Libro (Mexico City, 2005), 262–264.
10
A. Pettegree, ‛Centre and Periphery in the European Book World’, in Transactions of the
Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series (18), 2008,101–128.
4 N. MAILLARD-ÁLVAREZ AND M. CACHERO
coexisted and played a significant role,11 along with the second-hand mar-
ket.12 In general terms, we can detect a higher degree of specialisation in
consolidated markets and more flexibility in emerging ones.
During this time, traders had to deal with political and religious institu-
tions. Institutions have played a central role in the explanation of eco-
nomic growth in the long run, especially since Douglass North was
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. They can be defined as the set of rules
governing transactions and consequently influencing how the economy
works.13 The relevance of institutions lies in their ability to influence
behaviour and incentives, thereby explaining failure or success.14 Efficient
institutions can decrease the costs of transacting, increasing commercial
exchange and economic growth.15
For instance, privileges are crucial institutions in understanding early
modern transactions. Privileges had their origin in Roman law; the system is
inspired by the idea of control and authority. Only the ruler had the right to
decide who could access the market of a certain commodity. We can find
examples in the exploitation of salt mines in America, and the distribution
11
B. Rial Costas (ed.), Print Culture and Peripheries in Early Modern Europe. A
Contribution to the History of Printing and the Book Trade in Small European and Spanish
Cities (Leiden, 2013).
12
C. Palmiste, ‘La compra de libros usados y de bibliotecas privadas en algunas librerías
sevillanas en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII’, La Memoria de los Libros. Estudios sobre la
Historia del Escrito y de la Lectura en Europa y América, II, P. Cátedra and M.L. López-Vidriero,
eds. (Salamanca, 2004). For the case of Latin America, this topic has been addressed by
I. García Aguilar, ‘Saberes compartidos entre generaciones: Circulación de libros usados en
Nueva España durante los siglos XVII y XVIII’, in Fronteras de la Historia (24–2), 2019,
196–220.
13
North distinguishes between politically determined formal institutions and informal
institutions which emerged because of individual decisions in the market. D. C. North,
‛Institutions, Transaction Costs, and the Rise of Merchant Empires’ in The Political Economy
of Merchant Empires, ed. J. Tracy (Cambridge, 1991), 22–40.
14
D. Acemoglu and J. A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail. The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and
Poverty (London, 2012).
15
Daaron Acemoglu affirms that efficient institutions produce economic growth since the
right institutional framework can transform individual talent into success. D. Acemoglu,
S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson, ‛Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the
Making of the Modern World Income Distribution’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117
(4), 2002, 1231–1294. D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson, ‛The Rise of Europe:
Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth’, The American Economic
Review, 95 (3), 2005, 546–579.
1 INTRODUCTION: THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS DURING THE EARLY… 5
of dye materials, spices or medicinal herbs.16 Privileges were applied for the
first time at the book market by mid-fifteenth century in Venice and Milan
limiting the print of a book for a certain period of time.17 The idea underly-
ing those privileges was to avoid falsification of books, however, very soon,
privilege holders enjoyed the advantage of supplying the market in exclusiv-
ity. The organisational model, carried out in accordance with the mercantil-
ist ideas of the time, became very popular and, not only the Italian States
but also the Portuguese monarchy or the Spanish crown applied privileges
to the production or distribution of multiple commodities.18
Alongside the different chapters of this book, economic and cultural his-
torians contributed to this volume, analysing crucial aspects related to the
production, distribution and control of books in a historical context charac-
terised by the permanent negotiation with political and religious institu-
tions.19 It is well known that books were protected and, at the same time,
were closely monitored by the authorities in Early Modern times because
they were aware of the dangers associated with their distribution and
16
The geographical dimensions of America prompted a change in the regulation of the
new territories. The direct exploitation of such a huge territory was a cost that the monarchy
could simply not afford, and this lack of economic resources forced the Spanish monarchy to
design a more complex system of economic extraction. The new system was also inspired by
the royal monopoly, but direct exploitation was put into private hands. The Crown received
benefits in the form of taxes, but the risk was assumed by economic agents. Indeed, the big-
gest journeys and expeditions—including Cortés in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru—were
financed by merchants and bankers, not by the Crown. See J. M. Oliva Melgar, El Monopolio
de Indias en el siglo XVII y la Economía Andaluza: La Oportunidad que Nunca Existió
(Huelva, 2004).
17
F. Ammannati, ‘I privilegi come strumento di politica economica nell’Italia della prima
età moderna’, in Privilegi librari nell’Italia del Rinascimento, ed. E. Squassina and A. Ottone
(Milano, 2019), 17–38.
18
For the Spanish case see F. de Los Reyes Gómez, ‘Con Privilegio: La Exclusiva de Edición
del Libro Antiguo Español’, in Revista General de Información y Documentación, 11–2
(2001), 163–200. In Portugal see A. Moreira de Sá (ed.), Indice do livros proibidos en
Portugal no século XVI (Lisboa, 1983); for trade in general C. Rei, ‛The Organization of
Merchant Empires: Portugal, England and the Netherlands’, Working Paper, Department of
Economics, Boston, 2009, Rei explains differences in trading organisation in different terms,
she affirms that ‛if the king is flush with capital, he chooses to maintain control, but if not, he
franchises out the organisation delegating control to the merchants’.
19
The collection of essays gathered here is a selection of those presented at the International
Conference Institutions and Book Markets during the Early Modern Period: Between Regulation
and Promotion, held in February 2020 at the University Pablo de Olavide. The aim of the
conference was to analyse the interaction between those who produced and commercialised
books and the authorities, national or local, civil, or religious.
6 N. MAILLARD-ÁLVAREZ AND M. CACHERO
20
A few examples of this can be found in C. Griffin, Journeymen-Printers, Heresy, and the
Inquisition in Sixteenth Century Spain (Oxford, 2005).
21
The works on Early Modern Italian book markets are countless. Nevertheless, the
English-speaking audience might find an updated and thorough study of this topic in
A. Nuovo, The Book Trade in the Italian Renaissance (Leiden, 2013). The project Early
Modern Book Trade offers open access to database and publications regarding the economic
and juridical framework of European book markets, with a particular emphasis on Italy and
Venice (https://emobooktrade.unimi.it). For the incunabula period, we can count on the
crucial research deployed by the fifteenth-century Book Trade Project (http://15cbooktrade.
ox.ac.uk/project/).
22
The Giunti are studied in this book by Andrea Ottone. For the different branches of this
Venetian family, see the works by William Pettas, A History and Bibliography of the Giunti
(Junta) Printing Family in Spain. 1514–1628 (New Castle, 2004); The Giunti of Florence: A
Renaissance Printing and Publishing Family (New Castle, 2013). Regarding the Portonariis,
who from Trino (Piedmont) expanded their networks to Venice, Lyon, Castile, and Mexico,
see M.C. Misiti, ‘Una porta aperta sull’Europa: i de Portonariis tra Trino, Venezia e Lione.
Ricerche premiliminari per l’avvio degli annali’, Il Bibliotecario, III, 1–2 (2008), 55–91.
1 INTRODUCTION: THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS DURING THE EARLY… 7
23
A. Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2011), 66–67.
24
N. Maillard-Álvarez, ‘Venecia y Holanda en los Circuitos del Comercio Español del
Libro. Siglos XVI-XVII’, Repúblicas y Republicanismo en la Europa Moderna. Siglos XVI-
XVIII (Madrid, 2017), 485–506 (490–491).
25
Besides the already mentioned Giunti and Portonariis, we find numerous Italian printers
and booksellers in Iberia and Latin America. For this second territory, we can highlight the
case of the first printer to work in Mexico City, the Italian Giovanni Paoli (known as Juan
Pablos). A. Millares Carlo and J. Calvo, Juan Pablos. Primer Impresor que a esta Tierra Vino
(Mexico City, 1953).
26
M. Infelise, ‘La Crise de la Librairie Vénetiénne. 1620–1650’, Le Livre et l’Historien:
Études Offertes en l’Honneur du Professeur Henri-Jean Martin (Geneva, 1997), 343–352.
27
P. Rueda, ‘La venta de libros italianos en Madrid en tiempos de Felipe II: el catálogo de
Simone Vassalini (1597)’, JLIS.it, 9, 2 (2018). For the eighteenth century see, P. Cátedra,
Tace il Testo, Parla il Tipografo. Tre Stvdi Bodoniani (Salamanca, 2017).
28
An analysis of the academic literature on this topic might be found in the chapter by
Alexandra Laliberté de Gagné in this book.
8 N. MAILLARD-ÁLVAREZ AND M. CACHERO
29
K. Haebler, Impresores primitivos de España y Portugal (Madrid, 2005). The first English
edition was published in 1897.
30
J. García Icazbalceta, Bibliografía Mexicana del Siglo XVI (Mexico City: FCE, 1981).
The work was originally published in 1886.
31
F. Escudero y Perosso, Tipografía Hispalense. Anales Bibliográficos de la Ciudad de
Sevilla (Madrid, 1894). There is a facsimile edition (Seville, 1999).
32
C. Pérez Pastor, La Imprenta en Toledo (Madrid, 1887); C. Pérez Pastor, La Imprenta
en Medina del Campo (Madrid, 1895).
33
S. Viterbo, O Movimento Tipográfico em Portugal no Século XVI: Apontamentos para a
sua história (Coimbra, 1924).
34
The relentless pursuit of documentation about colonial Latin America in different librar-
ies and archives (including the General Archive of Indies in Sevilla) was the base for the
famous works on the printing press that José Toribio Medina published in his own workshop
in Santiago de Chile: La Imprenta en la Habana. 1707–1810 (1904); La Imprenta en Lima.
1584–1824 (1904); La Imprenta en Cartagena de las Indias. 1809–1820 (1904); La Imprenta
en Manila desde sus orígenes hasta 1810 (1904); La Imprenta en Guatemala. 1660–1821
(1906); Historia de la Imprenta en los Antiguos Dominios Españoles de América y
Oceanía (1958).
35
The 35 volumes published between 1923 and 1945 offer an alphabetically ordered
account of the printed production in Spain and Spanish America during early modern and
modern times. A. Palau i Dulcet, Manual del Librero Hispano-americano: Bibliografía
General Española desde la Invención de la Imprenta hasta nuestros tiempos con el valor comer-
cial de los impresos (Barcelona, 1923–1945).
1 INTRODUCTION: THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS DURING THE EARLY… 9
although their perspective was mainly descriptive and erudite. They were
focused on discussing the first city to host a printing press in the Iberian
Peninsula, rather than its social context. Modern digital means might have
replaced those early studies; however, despite their obvious faults and
errors, imputable to the scarcity of resources and the somehow narrow
perspective, they have been and still are useful tools for present-day book
historians.
It was not until the second half of the twentieth century, under the
influence of French historiography,36 and quite often with the lead of
French historians,37 when we witnessed a gradual renovation of book his-
tory in Iberia and Latin America, which is particularly clear since the
1980s. A new generation of scholars, working in different university
departments (bibliography, social and cultural history, literature), helped
to widen the scope of book history studies in Spanish and Portuguese.
Many new publications, especially in the 1990s and early twenty-first cen-
tury, addressed the study of literacy and readers. Countless journal articles,
book chapters and monographs about individual readers or communities
of readers were often based on the systematic analysis of inventories.38 In
these works, the local or national scope has usually prevailed, although
some studies have chosen a more comparative and qualitative
perspective.39
Likewise, the early works on the printing press gave way to more
resourceful and exhaustive studies, and usually focused on the detailed
36
As such, the influence of L’Aparition du Livre by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin
in 1958 was crucial, first translated to Spanish in 1962 in Mexico.
37
Christian Peligry, director of the Mazarine Library in Paris, studied the book market in
Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the diffusion of Spanish books in
France; François López focused his works on eighteenth-century Spanish publishing indus-
try. Although the prestigious Hispanist Bartolomé Bennassar was not a specialist in book
history, his works on readership has enlightened the discipline in the Spanish-speaking world.
More recently, Roger Chartier has also made great contributions to the advance of the disci-
pline in Spain and Latin America.
38
Good examples of this are offered by M. Peña, El Laberinto de los Libros. Historia
Cultural de la Barcelona del Quinientos (Madrid, 1997), or P. Cátedra and A. Rojo,
Bibliotecas y Lecturas de Mujeres Siglo XVI (Salamanca, 2004). For Italy, see T. Plebani, Il
Genere dei Libri. Storie e Rappresentazioni della Lettura al Femmenile e al Maschile tra
Medioevo e Età Moderna (Milan, 2001).
39
In this sense, we can highlight the work on the use of manuscripts in Spain during the
Early Modern period by F. Bouza, Corre Manuscrito. Una Historia Cultural del Siglo de Oro
(Madrid, 2001); or the studies on popular readeres, such as A. Castillo (ed.), Cultura Escrita
y Clases Subalternas: Una Mirada Española (Oiartzun, 2001).
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CHAPTER XVII.
I. Equatorial Zone.
Roughly speaking, the borders of this zoological zone coincide
with the geographical limits of the tropical zone, the tropics of the
Cancer and Capricorn; its characteristic forms, however, extend in
undulating lines several degrees north and southwards.
Commencing from the west coast of Africa the desert of the Sahara
forms a well-marked boundary between the equatorial and northern
zones; as the boundary approaches the Nile it makes a sudden
sweep towards the north as far as Northern Syria (Mastacembelus,
near Aleppo, and in the Tigris; Clarias and Chromides, in the lake of
Galilee); crosses through Persia and Afghanistan (Ophiocephalus),
to the southern ranges of the Himalayas, and follows the course of
the Yang-tse-Kiang, which receives its contingent of equatorial fishes
through its southern tributaries. Its continuation through the North
Pacific may be considered to be indicated by the tropic which strikes
the coast of Mexico at the southern end of the Gulf of California.
Equatorial types of South America are known to extend so far
northwards; and by following the same line the West India Islands
are naturally included in this zone.
Towards the south the equatorial zone embraces the whole of
Africa and Madagascar, and seems to extend still farther south in
Australia, its boundary probably following the southern coast of that
continent; the detailed distribution of the freshwater fishes of South-
Western Australia has been but little studied, but the few facts which
we know show that the tropical fishes of Queensland follow the
principal water-course of that country, the Murray River, far towards
the south and probably to its mouth. The boundary-line then
stretches northwards of Tasmania and New Zealand, coinciding with
the tropic until it strikes the western slope of the Andes, on the South
American Continent, where it again bends southwards to embrace
the system of the Rio de la Plata.
The equatorial zone is divided into four regions:—
A. The Indian region.
B. The African region.
C. The Tropical American region.
D. The Tropical Pacific region.
Siluridæ—
Clariina [Africa] 12 „
Chacina 3 „
Silurina [Africa, Palæarct.] 72 „
Bagrina [Africa] 50 „
Ariina [Africa, Australia, South America] 40 „
Bagariina 20 „
Rhinoglanina [Africa] 1 „
Hypostomatina [South America] 5 „
Cyprinodontidæ—
Carnivoræ [Palæarct., North America, Africa, South America]
Haplochilus [Africa, South America, North America, Japan] 4 „
Tropical Australia.
Ceratodus forsteri. Osteoglossum leichardti.
Ceratodus miolepis.
Tropical Africa.
Protopterus annectens. Heterotis niloticus.
Not only are the corresponding species found within the same
region, but also in the same river systems; and although such a
connection may and must be partly due to a similarity of habit, yet
the identity of this singular distribution is so striking that it can only
be accounted for by assuming that the Osteoglossidæ are one of the
earliest Teleosteous types which have been contemporaries of and
have accompanied the present Dipnoi since or even before the
beginning of the tertiary epoch.
Of the autochthont freshwater fishes of the Indian region, some
are still limited to it, viz., the Nandina, the Luciocephalidæ (of which
one species only exists in the Archipelago), of Siluroids the Chacina
and Bagariina, of Cyprinoids the Semiplotina and Homalopterina;
others very nearly so, like the Labyrinthici, Ophiocephalidæ,
Mastacembelidæ, of Siluroids the Silurina, of Cyprinoids the
Rasborina and Danionina, and Symbranchidæ.
The regions with which the Indian has least similarity are the
North American and Antarctic, as they are the most distant. Its
affinity to the other regions is of a very different degree:—
1. Its affinity to the Europo-Asiatic region is indicated almost
solely by three groups of Cyprinoids, viz., the Cyprinina, Abramidina,
and Cobitidina. The development of these groups north and south of
the Himalayas is due to their common origin in the highlands of Asia;
but the forms which descended into the tropical climate of the south
are now so distinct from their northern brethren that most of them are
referred to distinct genera. The genera which are still common to
both regions are only the true Barbels (Barbus), a genus which, of all
Cyprinoids, has the largest range over the old world, and of which
some 160 species have been described; and, secondly, the
Mountain Barbels (Schizothorax, etc.), which, peculiar to the Alpine
waters of Central Asia, descend a short distance only towards the
tropical plains, but extend farther into rivers within the northern
temperate districts. The origin and the laws of the distribution of the
Cobitidina appear to have been identical with those of Barbus, but
they have not spread into Africa.
If, in determining the degree of affinity between two regions, we
take into consideration the extent in which an exchange has taken
place of the faunæ originally peculiar to each, we must estimate that
obtaining between the freshwater fishes of the Europo-Asiatic and
Indian regions as very slight indeed.
2. There exists a great affinity between the Indian and African
regions; seventeen out of the twenty-six families or groups found in
the former are represented by one or more species in Africa, and
many of the African species are not even generically different from
the Indian. As the majority of these groups have many more
representatives in India than in Africa, we may reasonably assume
that the African species have been derived from the Indian stock; but
this is probably not the case with the Siluroid group of Clariina, which
with regard to species is nearly equally distributed between the two
regions, the African species being referable to three genera (Clarias,
Heterobranchus, Gymnallabes, with the subgenus Channallabes),
whilst the Indian species belong to two genera only, viz. Clarias and
Heterobranchus. On the other hand, the Indian region has derived
from Africa one freshwater form only, viz. Etroplus, a member of the
family of Chromides, so well represented in tropical Africa and South
America. Etroplus inhabits Southern and Western India and Ceylon,
and has its nearest ally in a Madegasse Freshwater fish,
Paretroplus. Considering that other African Chromides have
acclimatised themselves at the present day in saline water, we think
it more probable that Etroplus should have found its way to India
through the ocean than over the connecting land area; where,
besides, it does not occur.
3. A closer affinity between the Indian and Tropical American
regions than is indicated by the character of the equatorial zone
generally, does not exist. No genus of Freshwater fishes occurs in
India and South America without being found in the intermediate
African region, with two exceptions. Four small Indian Siluroids
(Sisor, Erethistes, Pseudecheneis, and Exostoma) have been
referred to the South American Hypostomatina; but it remains to be
seen whether this combination is based upon a sufficient agreement
of their internal structure, or whether it is not rather artificial. On the
other hand, the occurrence and wide distribution in tropical America
of a fish of the Indian family Symbranchidæ (Symbranchus
marmoratus), which is not only congeneric with, but also most
closely allied to, the Indian Symbranchus bengalensis, offers one of
those extraordinary anomalies in the distribution of animals of which
no satisfactory explanation can be given at present.
4. The relation of the Indian region to the Tropical Pacific region
consists only in its having contributed a few species to the poor
fauna of the latter. This immigration must have taken place within a
recent period, because some species now inhabit fresh waters of
tropical Australia and the South Sea Islands without having in any
way changed their specific characters, as Lates calcarifer, species of
Dules, Plotosus anguillaris; others (species of Arius) are but little
different from Indian congeners. All these fishes must have migrated
by the sea; a supposition which is supported by what we know of
their habits. We need not add that India has not received a single
addition to its freshwater fish-fauna from the Pacific region.
Before concluding these remarks on the Indian region, we must
mention that peculiar genera of Cyprinoids and Siluroids inhabit the
streams and lakes of its alpine ranges in the north. Some of them,
like the Siluroid genera Glyptosternum, Euglyptosternum,
Pseudecheneis, have a folded disk on the thorax between their
horizontally spread pectoral fins; by means of this they adhere to
stones at the bottom of the mountain torrents, and without it they
would be swept away into the lower courses of the rivers. The
Cyprinoid genera inhabiting similar localities, and the lakes into
which the alpine rivers pass, such as Oreinus, Schizothorax,
Ptychobarbus, Schizopygopsis, Diptychus, Gymnocypris, are
distinguished by peculiarly enlarged scales near the vent, the
physiological use of which has not yet been ascertained. These
alpine genera extend far into the Europo-Asiatic region, where the
climate is similar to that of their southern home. No observations
have been made by which the altitudinal limits of fish life in the
Himalayas can be fixed, but it is probable that it reaches the line of
perpetual snow, as in the European Alps which are inhabited by
Salmonoids. Griffith found an Oreinus and a Loach, the former in
abundance, in the Helmund at Gridun Dewar, altitude 10,500 feet;
and another Loach at Kaloo at 11,000 feet.
B. The African Region comprises the whole of the African
continent south of the Atlas and the Sahara. It might have been
conjectured that the more temperate climate of its southern extremity
would have been accompanied by a conspicuous difference of the
fish-fauna. But this is not the case; the difference between the
tropical and southern parts of Africa consists simply in the gradual
disappearance of specifically tropical forms, whilst Siluroids,
Cyprinoids, and even Labyrinthici penetrate to its southern coast; no
new form has entered to impart to South Africa a character distinct
from the central portion of the continent. In the north-east the African
fauna passes the Isthmus of Suez and penetrates into Syria; the
system of the Jordan presenting so many African types that it has to
be included in a description of the African region as well as of the
Europo-Asiatic. This river is inhabited by three species of Chromis,
one of Hemichromis, and Clarias macracanthus, a common fish of
the Upper Nile. This infusion of African forms cannot be accounted
for by any one of those accidental means of dispersal, as
Hemichromis is not represented in the north-eastern parts of Africa
proper, but chiefly on the west coast and in the Central African lakes.
Madagascar clearly belongs to this region. Besides some Gobies
and Dules, which are not true freshwater fishes, four Chromides are
known. To judge from general accounts, its Freshwater fauna is
poorer than might be expected; but, singular as it may appear,
collectors have hitherto paid but little attention to the Freshwater
fishes of this island. The fishes found in the freshwaters of the
Seychelles and Mascarenes are brackish-water fishes, such as
Fundulus, Haplochilus, Elops, Mugil, etc.
The following is the list of the forms of Freshwater fishes
inhabiting this region:—
Dipnoi [Australia, Neotrop.]—
Lepidosiren annectens 1 species.
Polypteridæ 2 „
Percina (Cosmopol.)—
Lates [India, Australia] 1 „
Labyrinthici [India] 5 „
Ophiocephalidæ [India] 1 „
Mastacembelidæ [India] 3 „
Siluridæ—
Clariina [India] 14 „
Silurina [India, Palæarct.] 11 „
Bagrina [India] 10 „
Pimelodina [South America] 2 „
Ariina[23] [India, Australia, S. Amer., Patagonia] 4 „
Doradina [South America]—
Synodontis 15 „
Rhinoglanina [India] 2 „
Malapterurina 3 „
Cyprinodontidæ—
Carnivoræ [Palæarct., India, S. America—
Haplochilus [India, South America] 7 „
Fundulus [Palæarct., Nearct.] 1 „