ABSTRACT Print culture is allegedly the cornerstone of modernity, responsible for the rise of the ‘public sphere’. The Spanish Empire throws these tenets into question. Print culture never became a major force as it would in Northern Europe. A world of manuscript production was fertile nonetheless. It was within reach for every subject to write, petition, and debate with officials and the Crown. This did not produce a public sphere in which printed books traded hands in cafés. Indeed, this epistolary culture was highly secretive. There was widespread literacy in encrypting. This vertical, secretive system of petitioning nonetheless produced immense amounts of new knowledge on nature, politics, ethnography, and political economy, upending the pervasive theory of openness-as-knowledge.

中文翻译：

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Bartolomé Inga 的采矿技术：新世界中的印第安人、科学、加密保密和现代性

摘要 印刷文化据称是现代性的基石，是“公共领域”兴起的原因。西班牙帝国对这些原则提出了质疑。印刷文化从未像在北欧那样成为主要力量。尽管如此，手稿制作的世界还是肥沃的。每个主体都可以写信、请愿并与官员和王室辩论。这并没有产生一个公共领域，在这个领域，印刷书籍在咖啡馆里进行交易。事实上，这种书信文化是高度隐秘的。人们普遍识字加密。尽管如此，这种垂直的、秘密的请愿系统产生了大量关于自然、政治、民族志和政治经济学的新知识，颠覆了普遍存在的知识开放理论。