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Manuscripts Concerning Mexico and Central America in the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
There is no doubt that manuscripts proceeding from or referring to Ibero-America which are preserved in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress constitute an interesting collection for the historian of the Hispanic world. This collection was begun in the second half of the nineteenth century when the library started to receive writings, documents, correspondence, and diverse papers relating to the past history of these northern regions and of other countries south of the frontiers of the United States. It was the moment when the North American collectors and antiquarians began to frequent the auctions of papers and books, when individuals and universities began to make their collections of material from which historians could procure documentation for their writings. The Library of Congress did not stay on the fringe of this movement, and some outstanding examples of documentation began to arrive in this depository, so much so that in 1900 the head of the Manuscript Division sent to the Congress of Americanists meeting in Paris a catalogue of the fifteen items relating to Mexico to be found under his care.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1962
Footnotes
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Translated by Mathias C. Kiemen, O. F. M.
References
1 The catalogue is entitled Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque du Congrès à Washington, D. C. se rapportant au Mexique and is included in the Acts of the Inter-national Congress of Americanists published in Paris in 1900.
2 See the Handbook of Manuscripts in the Library of Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918); Garrison, Curtis Wiswell, List of Manuscript Collections in the Library of Congress to July, 1931 (Washington, 1932)Google Scholar; Powell, C. Percy, List of Manuscript Collections received in the Library of Congress July, 1931, to July, 1938 (Washington: GPO, 1939)Google Scholar; Griffin, Grace Gardner, A Guide to Manuscripts relating to American History in British Repositories reproduced for the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress (Washington: Library of Congress, 1946).Google Scholar
3 The microfilm collection of the Library of Congress is very rich. It is taken from both American and European archives and libraries. This article does not mention microfilms because nowhere in the catalogues of the microfilm division is there a heading “Latin America.”
4 The author was enabled to do this work by grant from the Organization of American States. Part of the time had to be spent in the Library of Congress, and because of this, the norms in the process of being set up by the librarians of that library were consulted and followed as far as possible. In the case of the title and author of expedientes, cedulas, lawsuits, etc. when it was not immediately evident, the author invented a generic title which, she felt, would be more illustrative than considering the work as anonymous. In the case of orders, reports, etc. she took as guide the one to whom the paper was sent, not the author (the king or viceroy), for the same reason.
5 The author hopes to publish later a report on the items pertaining to the Caribbean Island and South America.
6 This is true because there are various copies existing, such as that of the Rich Collection of the New York Public Library, which at times supply lacunae in the original copy of the Spanish Academy of History in Madrid. In this, as in other cases of multiple copies, the author has tried to note all the copies she knows of, plus the place where they are preserved.
7 This Spanish archivist selected those documents which were complete and signed by the king, in Ac. 402, I, and noted those she did not include. She distinguishes: a) cedulas which are not complete, either because they lack the date in the required place, or the destination, or are simple extracts of important sections of the document; b) royal orders signed by the secretary corresponding to the offices concerned; c) regulations, instructions and other official disposiciones of the king, the ministers, or the audiencias; d) documents purely ecclesiastic, bulls, briefs, etc. e) official correspondence of viceroys, oidors, etc. We have made use of her classification, placed at the head of the entry.
8 This is listed in the Handbook mentioned in note 2 above, p. 21, item 17. It must be noted that the information given in this book is often incomplete or erroneous. Because of this, we will not cite it as a reference, unless it adds further knowledge to our own catalogue.
9 This item is listed in the paper presented at the Congress of Americanists of 1900, p. 306, under the name “Oviedo.” The same three tomes, with identical pagination and content of chapters, are found in the Rich Collection, Number 19. Number 18 of this same collection has copies of “papeles tocantes a Oviedo y Extractos de sus obras,” all from the Archive of Simancas, but different from those in the Library of Congress. It is highly interesting to note the copies of these works, fundamental sources for American history; they form various families. Srta. Zulueta was on the trail of these “families” in her work in Madrid, Washington, and New York. According to her discoveries, such copies must have been made under the auspices of Sr. Uguina based on the documents owned by Muñoz and Fernández de Navarrete.
10 This copy has, like the work of Fernández de Oviedo, a twin in the Rich Collection, Number 13. Besides, in Tome III it states that it is a copy made for Sr. Uguina, which makes its relation very clear with those cited above.
11 The same as Number 14 of the Rich Collection. It is mentioned in the Catalogue of 1900, pp. 305–306. Here it says that it was published in part in 1875-1876 by the Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle. Brasseur de Bourbourg says (Histoire des nations du Mexique, I, lxxv) that it is a copy of that existing in Madrid.
12 Number 17 of the New York collection is another copy of this index, whose last folio ends with a handwriting and ink similar to the corrections in the other copies. It is not, however, the writing of Muñoz, even though he seems to have supervised the work. Following it are bound lists of the works of Las Casas existing in the Secretariat of the Indies, manuscripts of the History of the Indies, of the Library of the Cathedral of Palencia, of the Escorial, and manuscripts and books of the “Collection of the Indies,” and corrections copied on official paper of 1824–1825, in which the author says that he has consulted the papers of Muñoz and Navarrete, and gives his reasons for his version of names if there is a variance in these in the authors.
13 This copy also has its echo in the Rich Collection, No. 16, although it consists of only 34 leaves. It figures in the Catalogue of 1900, where it says that the original is probably found in Seville, although it is actually the third volume of the Colección Muñoz.
14 This work is cited by the Conde de la Viñaza in his Bibliografía española de las lenguas indígenas de América (Madrid, 1892), No. 86.
15 Mentioned in the Catalogue of 1900.
16 Photocopied by William Gates, who includes it under No. 1043 in his catalogue, without indicating from what source it came.
17 There exists a diary of 1850, No. 4160 of the Catálogo de la Biblioteca de Andrade, 1869, p. 388. There is also another diary which is in the Bibliotheque Mexico-Guate-malienne of Brasseur de Bourbourg, p. 25.
18 Cornyn wrote the introductions and a historical and stylistic study of each of the comedies and dramas, at the same time classifying them as to character and language. He does not mention the place where he found the manuscripts or if they were genuine.
19 This is included in the Catalogue of 1900 and is contained as No. 92 in the manuscripts of the Rich Collection. The title page has parallel lines and the size and format is the same as that of other copies in the same collection (different from the Washington copy which is contemporary). It would appear, therefore, that all were made with the same criteria or by order of the same person in the nineteenth century. It also contains the Diario of Fr. Vélez Escalante, although this is not mentioned in the card file. The page numeration does not correspond.
20 These seem to correspond to the sources reviewed by Herbert E. Bolton in his Guide to Materials for the History of the United States in the Principal Archives of Mexico, pp. 19, 210.
21 See Brasseur de Bourbourg, op. cit., I, lxxv. The present work was edited in Mexico City by José Fernando Ramírez from 1867 (vol. I) to 1880 (vol. III). It is No. 37 of the Rich Collection, although there it is in a smaller size and in two volumes, with some other differences.
22 The prologue of this work has been printed in Antiquities of Mexico, edited by the Viscount of Kingsborough (London, 1830–1848), VIII, 159-217, and appears to be a copy of this manuscript under consideration. The National Museum of Mexico has acquired two prologues in the handwriting of the author, one of five and the other of 21 pages, according to Ramírez, J.F. in his Adiciones y correcciones … a la Biblioteca Hispano Americana Septentrional de J. M. Beristain (México, 1898), pp. 600–619 Google Scholar. Ramírez gives a biography and analysis of this work of Durán. The Rich Collection, No. 29, has a copy in two volumes written by at least three distinct hands, with the same binding, etc. as described above.
23 There is a copy of this work in Diarios y derroteros, Vol. 24, of the manuscripts of Tudela, Muñoz. José, in his Catálogo de los manuscritos de América en la bibliotecas españolas, p. 48 Google Scholar, states that there is a folio copy, with map, in the Academy of History. Is this the original from the College of San Fernando in Mexico City?
24 The same is to be noted here as with the item just above, with which this item is often united. It is also to be found in Vol. XXIV of the Memorias de la Nueva España, and in the third series, Tomo IV of Documentos inéditos para la historia de Méjico.
25 The 1900 Catalogue already cites the edition of Dávalos.
26 This manuscript corresponds to No. 2197 of the Catálogo de la Biblioteca de Andrade, p. 179, and it also figures in the catalogue published by the bookdealers Puttik-Simpson in the same year, 1869, of the sale of the Fischer books (No. 1900).
27 This appears to be the same as No. 2203 in the above-mentioned catalogue of Andrade. In the Rich Collection, in tome 49, fols. 7–66, under the title Relaciones varias, there is a copy contemporary with the original which does not have its own card but does have a note written in in pencil which cites the edition of Carreño.
28 The 1900 Catalogue cites an edition of London, without maps or tables, of the year 1812, later than the Paris edition of 1787. It is in two volumes and comprises the part entitled “ Traité de la culture du Nopal … ,” which is listed in the Biblioteca de Andrade as No. 2135.
29 Of these “ Memorias de la Nueva España ” there exist three collections: one that is in the National Archive of Mexico (with the first volume missing), another in the Colección Muñoz, and a third that was in the convent of San Francisco of Mexico City, and of which some volumes are in the General Archive of the Ministry of the Treasury of Madrid (with the first volumes also missing). In the Rich Collection the tome number 47 is the same as the present work in Washington, with corrections in a later hand and explanatory notes.
30 The Conde de la Viñaza cites this in his No. 8. Through a comparison with the edition published by Remi Siméon in Paris in 1875, the exemplar in the Bibliothèque nationale and that of the bookdealer Maisoneuve, the author has proved that the copy in the Library of Congress is the latter. See my communication to the Thirty-Third International Congress of Americanists in Vienna in 1960.
31 The text of the Relación was published in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España (Madrid), LIII, 5–294 without illustrations, and in a facsimile edition by José Tudela (Madrid, 1956), who also includes it in his catalogue, pp. 370-384. Another copy of the Relación, of the nineteenth century, with illustrations in water-color [some unfinished and some not colored at all] can be found in the Rich Collection, No. 42. Either this copy or that of Washington (I am inclined in favor of the latter) should be the one owned by Peter Force which Brasseur de Bourbourg might have consulted when he visited the capital, as he mentions in his Histoire des nations du Mexique, I, Ixxv.
32 As in the case just above, there exists another copy of this item in the Rich Collection, No. 52. There is still another in the Ayer Collection of the Newberry Library, Chicago, No. 1142. Morel Fatio mentions another in his No. 568 in his catalogue of the holdings of the Bibliothèque Nationale. One of these could be the one which figured in the No. 1898 of the auction of books of Father Fischer in 1869. It was published in Mexico in 1831.
33 In the catalogue of the Andrade Library of 1869 this is mentioned as No. 182, and is published in “El segundo conde de Revilla Gigedo (Juicio de Residencia),” by the National Archive of Mexico, XXII (1933), 98–209.
34 There are more papers on the same material in the Archivo General de Indias, Patronato, leg. 203, ramos 1-4, of which there is a microfilm copy in the same Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. See below, note 35.
35 There are editions of the first part of the work of Fuentes made on the basis of the manuscript sent to Spain by royal order, such as the edition of Justo Zaragoza in Madrid in the Biblioteca de los Americanistas, 1882. The second part concerns the history of Guatemala during the conquest, the establishment of civil and ecclesiastical authority, the qualities of the various regions, flora and fauna, customs and life of the Indians. Brasseur de Bourbourg wrote some Anotaciones to the history of the manuscript of the M. Padilla collection in the University of Guatemala (Bibliotheque, p. 9), and Pedro de Arévalo and Juan Gavarrete made some extracts from the work, according to Bourbourg in his Histoire des nations du Mexique, I, p. lxxxxiv. J. A. Villacorta published in 1932 in Guatemala the codex of the Archivo de la Municipalidad. It is also mentioned in the catalogue of the Colección Muñoz, I, 14.
36 This item is included here, although most of the material does not concern Nicaragua, because the author refers to it both above and below.