«Ad usum discipulorum». Justo Florian Lobeck and the Latin bibliographic market in Chile during the 1860s

Abstract

This article examines the participation of Justo Florian Lobeck in the Chilean typographic space in the mid-nineteenth century; in particular, it explores his forms of intervention in the configuration of a structured and functional bibliographic corpus to the requirements of Chilean secondary education for Latin studies. In this respect, it is proposed that Lobeck developed a multifaceted role as author, editor and reader of materials on this language, which allowed him to actively participate in the production, circulation and legitimisation of new texts in the bibliographic market and the educational sphere. In order to demonstrate this, it is intended to examine the reformist context of the 1860s as a conjuncture that allowed Lobeck's irruption by influencing the increase in the demand for Latin textbooks and thus favouring the articulation of a dynamic publishing circuit of an educational nature. It also analyses how this German professor acted in this space in his triple role as author, publisher and reader, and, at the same time, it identifies and studies the forms of interaction (personal and institutional) that he developed in this context in order to impose his works on the bibliographic/educational market. Through the paratextual analysis of the works and other archival and press sources, we reveal his figure as an active agent in the educational typographic space of Latin texts and a key actor in the definition of a bibliographic canon for secondary education in the country.