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The Library of the Convent of Ocopa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2022

Lorene Pouncey
Lorene Pouncey*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
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Some twenty-five kilometers from Huancayo, Peru, nestled in the Jauja Valley, in unbelievable tranquillity, there exists a center of learning: the library of more than twenty thousand volumes in the Convent of Ocopa. This Franciscan monastery now opens the doors of its wealth of printed resources to scholars and researchers, both men and women, from far and near. During a visit of only two days, the author consulted with the librarian, Father Julián Heras, O.F.M., took photographs of the library, examined briefly certain volumes, and photographed title pages, colophons, engravings, and any particular items of interest in the more valuable works. What follows is an attempt to describe the printed resources for research in a library that has been called by Raúl Porras Barrenechea “una biblioteca de insigne sabiduría.”

Type
Research Reports and Notes
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , 1978 , pp. 147 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by the University of Texas Press

References

Notes

1. The author was in Peru in the summer of 1977 on a Research Enabling Grant from the University of Houston to study the contents, condition, and availability for research of the books in the Franciscan monastery libraries in Lima, Huancayo, Arequipa, and Cuzco. The Library at Ocopa is the only one of the four libraries visited that is accessible to researchers.

2. Quoted by Nora Cordova de Castillo in her thesis on this library, “La Biblioteca de Ocopa: Su Historia y Organización,” Fenix; Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional (Lima), no. 23(1974):84. Her citation for the source of the quotation is Raul Porras Barrenechea's “Los Franciscanos en el Perú en la Época Colonial,” Revista Franciscana del Perú (Lima), nos. 11–13(1944–45):15.

3. Father Julián Heras, O.F.M. El Convento de Ocopa; Guía Turística y Síntesis Histórica (Lima, Perú: 1974), pp. 26, 29.

4. Letter to the author of August 22, 1977. Professor Rodríguez-Camilloni, of the School of Architecture, Tulane University, was largely responsible for the recataloging project of the Library of the Convent of San Francisco of Lima, undertaken in 1974 by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura. Due to lack of funds, the project was threatened with stoppage in 1977 prior to its completion.

5. Heras, El Convento de Ocopa, p. 15.

6. Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, hrsg. von der Kommission für den Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. (Leipzig: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1926), vol. 2, col. 283, no. 1931.

7. National Union Catalog of Pre-1956 Imprints (London: Mansell, 1967–) 333:422. Hereafter NUC.

8. Reference is to Uriarte 2146 for the title, and Uriarte 729 for data on the origin and authorship. Uriarte's title is taken from the Library of Congress Catalog of Printed Cards (Paterson, N.J.: Roman & Littlefield, 1963) 155:145.

9. “La Biblioteca de Ocopa,” p. 92. The Spanish reads: “Del siglo XVI, o sea, de 1500 a 1600, cuenta con unas cincuenta obras de gran valor.”

10. Ibid., pp. 86–87. The citation is to an unpublished manuscript by Fernando Rodríguez Tena, O.F.M. Misiones Apostólicas de las Santas Provincias de la Orden de N. P San Francisco Sujetas a la Comisaría General del Perú (Lima: 1780), noted as being now in the Archives General of the Franciscan Order in Rome. It would appear that duplicates from the Convent of San Francisco of Lima supplemented other convents of the same province, for one was encountered in the Convent of the Recoleta in Arequipa.

11. San Francisco de Lima, Estudio Histórico y Artística de la Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco de Lima (Lima: Imprenta Torres Aguirre, 1945), p. 298.

12. Ibid., pp. 295, 296.

13. Heras, El Convento de Ocopa, p. 16.

14. “La Biblioteca de Ocopa” p. 93.

15. This work was earlier, 1593, issued with title: Evangelicae Historiae Imagines ex Ordine Evangeliorum. Only the “editio ultima” bears the Ex Officina Plantiniana imprint. There are eight copies of the 1593 edition and two copies of a 1595 edition reported in the NUC 104: 218. When the volumes for the Bible entries of the NUC are published, the 1607 edition will be found under: Bible. N. T. Gospels, Liturgical. Latin. 1607. Vulgate., providing the cross reference on p. 217 is correct.

16. Louis Joseph Alvin, Catalogue Raisonné de l'Oeuvre des Trois Frères Jean, Jérome & Antoine Wierix (Bruxelles: T. J. I. Arnold, 1866), p. 343, no. 1728.

17. Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Houston Baptist University, and noted bibliographer of Milton.

18. The Golden Compasses; a History and Evaluation of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp (Amsterdam: Vangendt & Co., 1969) 1: 196.

19. Francisco Vindel, Manual Grafico-Descriptivo del Bibliofilo Hispano-Americano (1475–1850) (Madrid: F. Vindel, 1930) 5:184.

20. Jacques Charles Brunet, Manuel du Libraire et de l'Amateur de Livres (Paris: Dorbon-Ainé, 1928) 3, col. 1233.

21. NUC 345:404.

22. Allison E. Peers, Ramon Lull, a Biography (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1929), p. 124, especially footnote 1.

23. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (New York: Macmillan, 1967) 5: 108.

24. El Convento de Ocopa, p. 16.

25. “La Biblioteca de Ocopa,” p. 92.

26. Señora de Puente is the wife of an Argentine writer who was a resident reader in the library, staying with his wife and three children in the pensione which is operated by the Convent for its visitors.

27. Señora Parra is the aunt to Señorita Teófila Zúñiga, who provided transportation to and from Huancayo and who also brought along her cousin, Srta. Erdith Gavilan, to keep company with the author. These three local persons became known through the help of Señor Peter O'Brien, chief of the railroads for this region of Peru, who accompanied the author on the eleven-hour train ride from Lima to Huancayo. One station in the route is over 15,000 feet high.

28. NUC 109:619. Twelve copies reported in the United States. Library of Congress card no. 5–9898.

29. Ibid. 139:82. One copy reported at the University of Pennsylvania.

30. Listed on p. 4 of the 2d edition of Ant. Aug. Renouard's Annales de l'Imprimerie des Estienne ou Histoire de la famille des Estienne et de ses Editions (Paris: Jules Renouard et Cie., 1843).

31. NUC 297:456. Twelve copies reported in the United States. Library of Congress card no. 48–13629.

32. Ibid. 344:580. One copy reported at the Hispanic Society of America. Ambrosio Montesino's translation of this much published life of Christ was commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and the first edition of 1502 is said to be the first book printed at Alcalá. See the bibliographical note on p. 19 of Sister Mary Immaculate Bodenstedt's The Vita Christi of Ludolphus the Carthusian (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1944).

33. NUC 345:403. Two copies reported in the United States, one at Brown University and one at Washington State University. This work is considered by many to be an early forerunner to modern encyclopedias.

34. Ibid., 480: 376. Only the 1513 issue is reported at Yale University. Jean Petit's device is on the title page. The authorship of this compilation is discussed by Victor Scholderer, “A Further Note on Nicolaus Hanapus,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch, 1939, pp. 153–54, who believes that it is the work of Bindo (or Bydo) de Senis.

35. Ibid. 500:221. Library of Congress card no. 42–47431. The work is in two volumes, the title to volume one is given here to emphasize the work of Jewish authors.