Pablos, Juan, d. 1561?

Juan Pablos (Giovanni Paoli, Ioanes Paulus Bressensis, Ioā. Pau. Brissē) was a native of Brescia (Lombardia, Italy) and married to Jerónima Gutiérrez. There is evidence that suggests he frequented university classrooms in Italy and that he wrote Latin very well. Pablos was probably employed at the Cromberger printing press when he signed the contract to work in New Spain. In the fall of 1539, Pablos arrived in Mexico and worked at the Cromberger print shop.

After Cromberger's death in 1540, Pablos asked royal authorities to end the trade monopoly the Cromberger family had in New Spain. In 1548, Pablos was finally able to put his name on imprints, an act that suggests that Cromberger's printing press became his property. Like his former employer, Pablos also sought a trade monopoly in the colony. In July 1548, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza granted him such a monopoly for six years, but it still needed the monarch’s confirmation. The concession was renewed for four more years in 1554. However, the Spanish Crown revoked this privilege thanks to the efforts of Antonio de Espinosa, a former employee of Juan Pablos who was now his main competitor.

Juan Pablos died in August 1561, leaving his print shop to his wife and children. Eventually, in 1563, Jerónima Gutiérrez rented the shop to Pedro Ocharte after he married Maria de Figueroa, daughter of Pablos, circa 1561-1562.

Sources

Medina, José Toribio, Guillermo Feliú Cruz, and José Zamudio Zamora. Historia de la imprenta en los antiguos dominios españoles de América y Oceanía, v. 1. Santiago de Chile: Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribio Medina, 1958. pp. 93-100.