First Printing Press in the Americas

1539

A printer named Juan Pablos, sent from Seville by an Italian printshop, opened the first European-style press in the New World in Mexico City. The earliest book he produced, now lost, was a catechism in Nahuatl and Spanish. Ink and movable type had crossed the Atlantic. The press produced catechisms in both Spanish and indigenous languages, making Mexico City the New World's publishing center.