Edition in the 18th-century Basque Country: quantitative data, trends and evolution of the press in the light of Wikidata

Abstract

This article offers an approach to the evolution of printing in the 18th-century Basque Country. The study stems from an interdisciplinary digital humanities project aiming at the promotion of free knowledge, i.e. structuring and uploading to Wikidata the bibliographic material printed in the above geographic area during that period, as available in the digital bibliographic catalogue Lau Haizeetara provided by the Regional Library of Biscay. This sample, data-matching with other digital catalogues and other research lay out the basis for a summary analysis of printers, presses, types of documents and texts, figures and trends of the publications issued from them. The reader will learn that presses settled down permanently in the main capitals and that publishing evolved out in close connection to the period’s social and historic circumstances.