Title Page, Regionum Indicarum per Hispanos olim devastatarum, 1664 Edition

What it is

This is the engraved title page of the 1664 Heidelberg edition of Regionum Indicarum per Hispanos olim devastatarum, a Latin book attributed to Las Casas. The top shows Spanish soldiers with pikes and firearms attacking Indigenous people. The centre holds the Latin title. Along the bottom and sides, Indigenous people carry vessels and pots, and a seated Indigenous ruler in a feathered headdress faces a Spanish soldier. The catalogue credits the design to Joos van Winghe and Theodor de Bry.

Why it matters

The title page frames the whole book before a reader opens it. Its images of conquest and of an Indigenous ruler facing a soldier show how the Spanish destruction of the Americas was packaged for European readers. The edition came out in 1664, long after Las Casas died in 1566, so it reflects later publishing choices as well as his own words. It shows how the figure's critique of Spanish conquest was reshaped for a Protestant and European audience.

Look closer

• Who is shown attacking, who is attacked, and how are the soldiers and the ruler positioned?
• Why might a publisher in 1664 put violent scenes on the title page of a book about the Indies?
• What might a reader who cannot read Latin understand from the pictures alone?