CULTURAL READINGS: Colonization & Print in the Americas

Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania Library

François du Creux, Historiae Canadensis, sev Novae-Franciae libri decem... Paris: Sebastien Cramoisy, 1664.

While the Jesuit Relations achieved popularity among francophones, their publication in Latin was a prerequisite to true respectability in the Catholic world. Just as du Creux's Historiae is a digest of multiple Relations, this engraving is a composite of missionary "martyrdoms" in New France. Its depiction of Indians as murderous savages resembles contemporary European representations. Jesuit deaths were in fact more complex affairs: some were casualties of war, while others were put to death by Indians who suspected them of witchcraft after hitherto-unknown diseases spread through native communities.

Other engravings from this edition

Religion and Print

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• Missionaries and Indian Languages

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