1) The books in which early modern missionaries recorded linguistic knowledge are understudied in research. A book historical approach offers an essential contribution to help interpret the linguistic contents in these books by studying them as material objects in their own right. This monograph will allow researchers to gain a better understanding of all the different actors involved in the making of missionary indigenous-language tools in one way or another. In doing so, it reflects on and nuances existing notions, by moving beyond the paradigm of individual authorship: it demonstrates in several chapters that social and material conditions determined the content, meaning and form of missionary indigenous-language material. Although we should not play down the intellectual contribution of missionary authors to their contents, the current work shows how much both printed texts and manuscripts were the result of the interventions of different actors: authors, (mostly unmentioned) native collaborators, licensing authorities and reviewers, master-printers (and their workmen) and readers engaging with these texts. 2) The systematic and in-depth assessment of missionaries manuscript documents reassesses the notion of manuscripts being static texts, which only allowed distribution among a limited circle of readers by drawing a more complete picture of their production. By introducing a manuscript typology, the book proves the worth of studying manuscripts to trace early modern missionary linguistics in action. The distinction between different types of manuscripts based on their material features advances our understanding of the variety of ways their contents functioned among creators and users. 3) Instead of zooming in on documents written in or on particular languages or areas, or on specific genres (grammars, vocabularies, or indigenous translations of devotional texts ) this book adopts a panoramic view: it looks at two different regions under Spanish colonial rule and takes into account a diverse set of genres produced by missionaries to record linguistic knowledge. How do the social, material, and spatial processes underlying the making of early modern missionary grammars, vocabularies, and devotional translations deepen our understanding of their contents? The handwritten and printed missionary books produced in the Spanish viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru were key instruments designed to help study Indigenous languages in order to efficiently teach religious doctrine to local communities unfamiliar with European culture and religion. This volume considers these missionary books as physical and social objects and illuminates how a variety of factors determines their physical appearance, structure, and form, which in turn shape and guide the interpretation of their contents: people involved in its making; geographical and social circumstances and conditions of production; technologies, materials, and tools; genre and function(s) of the books; and intended readership, modes of distribution, and readerly responses.
