A Peek to 16th Century Print Houses

When details of Columbus' voyage reached the royal houses of Europe, there was this frantic desire to know more. Insatiable curiosities would not only die down. Bitin sila!

Of course, the uhs and ahhs were centered first to the gory tales of strange creatures, monsters or animals beyond description, giant trees, walking plants, cannibals, and also treasures. In the end, what was also proven was this hidden human desire to retell, to know what's new.

Cartographers battle it out to get the exact details, location, or a thing to measure depicting the newfound terraform in their maps. Often consultations to those who knew were simply lacking that several maps and illustrations turned out to be hilarious, close to a caricature- with beasts and strange humans occupying much of the curiosities.

The language was a problem? In the beginning, not so much so, since the demand for information came mostly from those who speak Latin. But when commodities and more curiosities from the New World started to enter European markets and caught up with the attention of the ordinary people, the need for a "vulgate" was hugely demanded.

The print houses had to employ people of varied talents: artists, cartographers, translators. And those who simply had the nose for "what's up" and "what's new," producing books, journals, maps, and even anecdotes. People were simply asking and searching. Print houses were selling these stories, illustrations, etc., the new in thing: Mass communication-- the "Ur grandfather" of your internet connection.

Fake news? Jesus..it was already there! For example, There was this never-ending claim about syphilis when it first reached Europe. It was first termed as the "French disease. The Dutch meanwhile labeled it as "the Spanish disease," the Russian called it, "the Polish disease" and the Turks- "the Christian disease. Each pointing an accusing finger to an enemy, more prejudicial than cerebral or an honest to goodness scientific investigation, etc.

And the cannibals? Europe was not really surprised, for they knew things like that happened in their own backyard. But what shocked them was this gourmet talent of some natives in the New World. One account tells how they smoke the meat first. How's that for a "tinapa" breakfast?