VLT spectroscopy of blue supergiants in IC 16131

We present multiobject spectroscopy of young, massive stars in the Local Group galaxy IC 1613. We provide the spectral classification and a detailed spectral catalog for 54 OBA stars in this galaxy. The majority of the photometrically selected sample is composed of B- and A-type supergiants. The remaining stars include early O-type dwarfs and the only Wolf-Rayet star known in this galaxy. Among the early B stars we have serendipitously uncovered six Be stars, the largest spectroscopically confirmed sample of this class of objects beyond the Magellanic Clouds. We measure chemical abundances for nine early B supergiants, and find a mean oxygen abundance of 12+log (O/H) = 7.90 +/- 0.08. This value is consistent with the result we obtain for two H (II) regions in which we detect the temperature-sensitive [O (III)] lambda 4363 auroral line.