Broadsheet

Contenido

1 First Distinction of the Texts

Broadsheets are folios generally printed on both sides, accompanied by at least one engraving that illustrates the central topic. The typical size of broadsheets, given their recurrence in printing presses like those of Vanegas Arroyo and Eduardo Guerrero, is 1/8 of a sheet, that is, approximately 20 x 30 cm. In former printing presses, it was very common to print broadsheets of 1/16 and it is not uncommon to find religious contents printed in small formats, such as 1/32 or even 1/64 of the sheet.
The broadsheet was the most common popular print format, as discussed by Rubén M. Campos:

These printed copies were, for many years, for nearly the entire 19th century, the attraction for the lowly people of populous cities, before the appearance of popular journals that in Mexico were the cheapest of the world. They costed a cent and had as much text as any North American or European diary of world renown small presses. Popular sheets were of shabby appearance, printed in dingy presses that produced copies so imperfect that they seemed to have been printed with wooden types on extremely low-quality paper. (1929: 272).

First Distinction of the Texts

The popularity of broadsheets is such that they have earned a negative reputation, that stresses the neglected appearance stemming from their modest crafting: “imperfect as if printed with wooden types in extremely low-quality paper”, “attraction for the lowly people” that were sold “before the appearance of popular journals”.1 Broadsheets nonetheless required some care on the part of the publishers. For instance, narrative broadsheets developed a common topic, generally, by means of one composition in prose and one in verse; the lyrical broadsheet, in turn, contained texts which were not necessarily linked thematically.

As such, the description of the fact in prose was accompanied by a text in verse with moralising intents, or sometimes it recreated the anecdote but in a way that was easier to memorise. Moreover, this “combination of narrative poetic texts and popular lyrics for musical accompaniment on the same broadsheet […] allowed to cover a broader commercial demand”. (González, 2001: 460). In other occasions, the content of the sheet was solely musical, like a small collection of songs; there are in fact sheets specifically about corridos, decasyllabic songs (décimas), and other genres. Sheets that only feature prose are the exception. (Castro, 2015: 34).

Approximation for a possible classification

Given the number of broadsheets contained in the Vanegas Arroyo archive, we have opted for a classification that integrates both functional and thematic criteria. The first distinguishes printing material featuring news from prints with other content; the second distinguishes topics contained in the prints, listed as follows:

NEWS-RELATED BROADSHEETS

Natural disasters: floods, rain, frost.
Non-natural disasters: derailments, fires, epidemics.
Historical-political: commemorative events, battles, triumphant entries, electoral outcomes, executions, international political events.
Public events: bullfights, social events.
Suicides.
Crimes: parricides, infanticides, passion crimes.
Supernatural events: witches, exemplary punishments, apparitions.
Religious: miracles, religious festivities and events.

NON NEWS-RELATED BROADSHEETS

Calaveras: literary calaveras.
Entertainment: forecasts, dialogues, rows, nonsense.
Song collections: songs, corridos.
Religious: prayers, stamps, loas.

Regarding the inner structure of broadsheets, it is possible to distinguish the presence of texts in prose, in verse, or mixed. The repository offers a search tool by the literary categorization of the printed texts, be it in broadsheets, pliegos de cordel, chapbooks, booklets, or books; this allows to explore the material through the thematic labels of the exposed classification.

Inventory of Broadsheets

We list here the first hundred results of a search in the database. If the user wishes to access the entire inventory, they must click on next results at the bottom of the list, or they can access the bibliographical search or literary search pages to look for printing material listed under those criteria.

INDEX	INCIPIT	YEAR	PAGES
ANGuadalupe.djvu	A Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe		2
ANGuadalupe B.djvu	A Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe	1913	2
CSL-BN-ADCandidato.tiff	A don Ignacio Bonillas, el impuesto candidato	1920	1
PEChihuahua B.djvu	A la Santísima Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos		2
PEChihuahua C.djvu	A la Santísima Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos		2
ALLagos.djvu	A la Santísima Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos	1901	2
ALLagos B.djvu	A la Santísima Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos		2
GB-ALQueretaro.tiff	A la llegada del ilustrísimo señor doctor don José Ramón Camacho, dignísimo segundo obispo de Querétaro	1869	1
ALMaderista.djvu	A la noble valentía de Esperanza Chavarría, corneta del ejército maderista	1911	2
ALDios.djvu	A las excelsas potestades de Dios	1925	2
ALDolor.djvu	A las infortunadas hijas del señor don Venustiano Carranza, extinto presidente de la República, ante su acerbo dolor		1
AAColon.djvu	A los amantes de tauro les traigo un gran notición, que un beneficio verán en la plaza de Colón		2
ANGuadalupe A.djvu	A nuestra señora de Guadalupe		1
AAPatria.djvu	A Álvaro Obregón. Canto a la Patria	1920	1
ADLagos.djvu	Acción de gracias a la santísima Virgen María de San Juan de los Lagos		2
BN-ADMi.tif	Acuérdate de mí		1
Adelita B.djvu	Adelita		1
Adelita.djvu	Adelita	1918	1
ACTapatia.djvu	Adelita	1920	1
BN-AAUruapan.tif	Adiós a Uruapan		1
ADMarino.djvu	Adiós del marino	1918	1
GB-AVHermoso.tiff	Adiós, Veracruz hermoso		1
AdmirabilisimoMilagro.djvu	Admirabilísimo milagro jamás visto efectuado en la Ciudad de San Cristóbal de las Casas el día 28 del mes pasado por la imagen del Señor del Calvario de Santa Cruz Tlacotepec, estado de Puebla en la persona de Macario Gómez	1909	2
AiresVeracruzanos.djvu	Aires veracruzanos		1
AiresVeracruzanos A.djvu	Aires veracuzanos		1
ASRio.djvu	Al Santo Cristo Renovado que se venera en el pueblo de San Miguel Almoloya del Río	1924	2
ACRoma 1.djvu	Al católico; importante carta pastoral llegada últimamente del Vaticano de Roma A		2
ACRoma 2.djvu	Al católico; importante carta pastoral llegada últimamente del Vaticano de Roma B		2
AEGalvan.djvu	Al ex-alcalde de México Fernando Saldaña Galván	1920	1
AEGalvan B.djvu	Al ex-alcalde de México Fernando Saldaña Galván	1920	1
AEGalvan A.djvu	Al ex-alcalde de México Fernardo Saldaña Galván	1920	1
AGHonor.djvu	Al general Pablo González. Canto al honor	1920	1
AGBarra.tiff	Al gran presidente modelo señor abogado don Francisco León de la Barra		2
AHDluiscabrera.djvu	Al hacendista (?) don Luis Cabrera, azote de la nación	1920	1
AHNacion.djvu	Al hacendista (?) don Luis Cabrera, azote de la nación	1920	1
ASChalma B.djvu	Alabado salutación y tierno despedimento al milagroso Señor de Chalma		2
ASChalma.djvu	Alabado, salutación y tierno despedimento al milagroso Señor de Chalma ""A""	1906	4
ASChalma C.djvu	Alabado, salutación y tierno despedimiento al milagroso Señor de Chalma		2
ASChalma D.djvu	Alabado, salutación y tierno despedimiento al milagroso Señor de Chalma		2
AYPadua.djvu	Alabanzas y tierno despedimento dedicado al esclarecido taumaturgo San Antonio de Padua		2
AYPadua C.djvu	Alabanzas y tierno despedimiento dedicado al esclarecido taumaturgo San Antonio de Padua	1918	2
AYPadua B.djvu	Alabanzas y tierno despedimiento dedicado al esclarecido taumaturgo San Antonio de Padua	1903	2
ANMexico.djvu	Alarmante noticia. Acontecimiento fatal. Derrumbe del puente de la plaza de la Merced en México;		2
ASCelaya.djvu	Alarmantes sucesos en Celaya		1
AYSoldaderas.tiff	Alegre y divertido corridito dedicado a las valientes soldaderas		1
Alejandrab.djvu	Alejandra	1918	1
Alejandrac.djvu	Alejandra		1
BN-AmorConsentido.tif	Amor consentido		1
ADApache.djvu	Amor de apache	1914	2
BN-ADAna.tif	Amoríos de Ana		1
… siguientes resultados

About the Search by Broadsheets

The catalog presented above results from a database query for all items labeled as broadsheet for the Is type of print property, but requires that only the following labels appear for these records: Is print incipit, Is year and Is number of pages.
The INDEX column features links to the bibliographical data of each print, which include other data of interest for each broadsheet. It is possible to make more detailed searches to refine the results and find the prints that are most relevant to the user. To this end, the semantic search tool is more useful than the table with the labels arranged like an inventory, but searches must be carried out according to the norms described by Semantic MediaWiki.

References

CAMPOS, Rubén M., 1929. El folklore literario en México. México: SEP.
CASTRO PÉREZ, Verónica Briseida, 2015. De crímenes, demonios y literatura: la hoja volante en el México de entre siglos. Tesis de licenciatura. México: UNAM, FFyL.
GONZÁLEZ, Aurelio, 2001. “Literatura popular publicada por Vanegas Arroyo. Textos que conservó la memoria” en Literatura mexicana del otro fin de siglo, ed. Rafael Olea Franco. México: El Colegio de México, 449-468 .