Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros

Who was Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros?

Felipe de Zúniga y Ontiveros was a scientist, cartographer and publisher in New Spain during the Spanish colonial period. He was also royal land surveyor and hydraulic and mining engineer.

Together with his brother Cristóbal, he took over the Imprenta Antuerpiana in 1752. They remained as sole proprietors until late 1764. By 1767 this was the largest printing establishment in the Americas. In that year Manuel Antonio Valdés y Munguía joined the business. After Zúniga's death in 1793, Valdés took on Luis Abadiano as a partner. At the time of Valdés's death in 1831, the firm was the oldest publisher in Mexico.

From 1762 to 1780 Zúniga y Ontiveros published Efemérides calculadas y pronosticadas según el meridiano de México. These octavo volumes contained information on eclipses and other astronomical phenomena. In 1767 he began publishing Guía de Forasteros, a kind of almanac, which was published each year through 1792, although the name was changed to Calendario mensual. He also published an updated version of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora's map of the valley of Mexico.

Zúniga paid much attention to detail in the works he published, including the typefaces. He spent 50,000 pesos acquiring type from Antwerp and Madrid. He was the first to use type cast in New Spain, by the clockmaker and printer Dimas Rangel, with whom Zúniga edited Estatutos de la Real Academia de San Carlos.