Gruzinski has written an enjoyable study that traces the development of what he calls the deférlament alphabétique (alphabetic surge). For him, writing, particularly alphabetic writing, was central to the colonization of the Americas. He focuses on the written aspects of the discovery and colonization: capitulaciones, bulls, licenses, written accounts, chronicles, and other writing-based aspects of the process. Central, also, was the export of European paper to the New World since it was an essential aspect of European civilization. He begins his study by focusing on Sahagún’s Psalmodia christiana as a representation of the Iberian worldwide expansion. While it was written in Nahuatl, it reflects a peninsular image. It is an example of cultural mixing—mestizaje. The piece is, for Gruzinski, the embodiment of the trends that he presents in the book.

The book is divided into four roughly chronological sections. Gruzinski begins with the origins of liberal education in Italy and Spain, where reading was an essential element. The conquest of Granada, the colonization of the Caribbean islands, and the education of the local Natives went apace with the spread of Spanish culture, particularly aimed at the children (sons) of the local elite.

The fundamentals outlined by Gruzinski include reading, writing, and singing, as developed in the second section. The focus moves to Texcoco, where the lay brother known as Peter of Ghent established his school for the Native elite. He developed the first rudimentary reader, the Cartilla. He and his fellow friars were Flemish and brought with them important influences from that region: ranging from the devotio moderna tradition to the writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Their educational plan was based on the trivium and the quadrivium, the classical liberal arts disciplines, based on a solid knowledge of Latin, using music and recitation as key tools in their educational system. The system was extended to San Joseph de los Naturales in Mexico, Tlaxcala, and eventually Tlatelolco, the twin city to Tenochtitlan. Faced with their own ignorance of Nahuatl, the Natives’ ignorance of Spanish, the friars undertook to use Latin as their intermediary, and the language became the basis for the friars’ understanding of Nahuatl as they undertook its scientific analysis. As this endeavor was beginning, the main contingent of Franciscans, known as The Twelve, under the leadership of Fr. Martin de Valencia, arrived in 1524. Ghent and the friars noted the Natives’ musical abilities and recruited them for holy celebrations, such as Christmas.

In the next section, Gruzinski focuses on the development of the College of the Holy Cross, based in Tlatelolco. Ordered by the first viceroy, don Antonio de Mendoza, Gruzinski sees a link to the school in Granada since the viceroy had been a child in that city, where his father was captain general. The choice of Latin as a medium of instruction for Gruzinski was part and parcel of the larger project of literacy and acculturation. Indeed, Latin was the touchstone for much investigation of the period, launched by the studies of Antonio de Nebrija, who wrote the groundbreaking study of Latin grammar that would become the basis for the study not just of Spanish but of Native languages as well. A Native from Azcapotzalco, Pedro Juan Antonio, went on to publish his own analysis of Latin grammar, in Spain in 1574. The students at Tlatelolco were surrounded by noted scholars, such as Juan de Gaona, Andres de Olmos, and Bernardino de Sahagun, who are briefly considered. Based on European models, the students would copy established texts from Latin, as well as study others in Spanish. The college housed the first library in the Americas, which included important works in Latin and Spanish.

In the fourth section, Gruzinski begins to look at the alumni of the Franciscan education program, both the successes and the failures, from don Carlos Ometochtzin of Texcoco, who was executed by the primitive Inquisition for backsliding, to don Antonio Valeriano and don Pablo Nazareo, well-known intellectuals of the period. The Latinist Natives took on important roles in their polities and became a force for humanism in the colony, while also being political leaders. This, in turn, led to an extension of the Iberian intellectual tradition not simply to the lands but to new peoples. A new analysis of the Native culture emerged, sometimes directed by the Native intellectuals themselves, yet through a Latin humanist lens.

Guzinski brings his argument back to the Psalmodia cristiana in the final section. He analyzes all aspects of the work, which he envisions as the prime example of Latin humanism, the spread of European alphabétisme (literacy) to the New World, and the creation of a new mestizaje, which also drew on Native poetic creation, music, and dance to express the lessons of Christianity.

This is a fascinating and well-written work. It is an important addition to the literature of the early missionary endeavor and is one of several recent books to look at the Nahua’s embrace of Latin and liberal education. One hopes that it is soon translated into English.