Abstract
This article examines several libraries assembled by the Society of Jesus in their college and missions in Northern Mexico (in the present-day Mexican State of Chihuahua), where Jesuits have been a constant presence from the seventeenth century, interrupted only temporarily by the Society’s suppression. All their bibliographic collections were transferred, dispersed, or looted after the general expulsion of 1767. Archival materials preserved in repositories such as the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, however, enable a reconstruction of these libraries. This essay argues that these collections constituted a sort of “cultural oasis” (Michael Mathes). They provided arsenals of knowledge for missionaries in distant places with harsh living conditions and show the strong and lasting bond between Jesuits and print culture even in the most remote and adverse of conditions.
In memory of Fathers Javier Campos Morales, “El gallo,” and Joaquín Mora Salazar, “El morita”
On June 20, 2022, two Jesuits were brutally murdered inside the church of Cerocahui, Chihuahua, while trying to help and protect a man who sought refuge from criminal groups. It is disheartening to begin this article with such a horrific incident, which not only reflects the current violent climate in Mexico but also reminds us of the enduring, longstanding, and brave presence of Jesuit missions in Northern Mexico from the seventeenth century onwards, and their eventual return during the nineteenth century, long after their general expulsion in 1767. In fact, the church of Cerocahui where the assault occurred was itself a former Jesuit mission founded by Juan María de Salvatierra (1648–1717) in 1680.1 It was one of several established throughout the uplands and valleys of the impressive Sierra Tarahumara in the southwestern part of what is now the State of Chihuahua, where members of the Society of Jesus have worked and lived in body and soul among the Rarámuri people and other social groups.
Following the initial commotion and general disbelief, the rector of the Universidad Iberoamericana of Mexico City (uia), Dr. Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, published an opinion article simply entitled “Jesuitas,” where he pointed out that “We Jesuits are called to be frontier people. That is, to go where no one else wants to go. To be present where it is more necessary to share and build hope.”2 These simple but powerful words evoke the past and present of the Society’s missionary activities in remote and border regions such as northern and northwestern Mexico with their harsh climatic, geographic, and social conditions, of which the region of Chihuahua was one.3
These historic and distant missions were more than frontier institutions of religious and spiritual evangelization, however. They also contributed to the not always successful political and economic integration of different local communities such as the abovementioned Rarámuri of the Sierra Tarahumara or the Tepehuanes into the colonial system.4 As Bernd Hausberger has pointed out, the objective was to convert these semi-nomadic peoples into useful subjects aligned to the interests of the Spanish monarchy, such as border defense, agriculture or mining. Hence, the missions offered an early example of social disciplining.5
In terms of art and culture, they were places where artistic and cultural objects, such as devotional images and paintings were assembled and circulated.6 Books and engravings from many different (though mostly European) printing centers, particularly from Catholic cities in France, the Italian peninsula, the Southern Netherlands, and the Iberian peninsula, formed the basis of libraries of different sizes (from ten to three hundred copies), quite useful as tools for the missionaries’ ministry and even their leisure. In fact, these small collections were practically the only link the missionaries had to European culture. The 1991 article of the late Michael Mathes, “Oasis culturales en la Antigua California: Las bibliotecas de las misiones en Baja California en 1773,” opened new lines of scholarship in the field of Jesuit mission libraries in northwestern New Spain.7 However, despite the archival materials available, the study of these Jesuit libraries, especially those located in remote villages or missions, has received little attention since then.8 Therefore, the overall objective of this contribution is to offer a general overview of the kind of mission libraries and their materials that Jesuits were able to collect in regions such as present-day Chihuahua and their fate after the general expulsion. In particular, it draws attention to the inventory made of the books and papers belonging to the Jesuit college of the Villa de San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua (founded in 1718) and some of the missions of the Sierra Tarahumara.9 All these libraries were subjected to dispersion after the general expulsion of the order in 1767 from Spain and its overseas territories.
The existence of these remote collections is known to us exclusively through archival documentation preserved in different repositories such as the National Archive of Mexico or Archivo General de la Nación (agn). For instance, within the documentary sections Temporalidades and Jesuitas, which among many other materials comprise the inventories of the libraries left behind after the expulsion of the Jesuits. These records made several years after 1767 are particularly remarkable for the field of book history because they offer a complete overview of libraries of different sizes, located either in major cities (mostly in colleges and other institutions, such as the House of the Professed) as well as in distant and smaller colleges or missions. The main purpose of this documentation was to create detailed registers of all kinds of confiscated written materials (including imprints, manuscripts, papers, correspondence, or archival documents related to the administration of the colleges, novitiates, residencies, and other properties). According to the royal dispositions, all these items had to be first collected in one single space to be carefully examined, appraised, and—if needed—purged or discarded, so that a selection of the most suitable materials could be reassigned to other religious or educational institutions.10 Although the sale of these books or papers had not really been the main initial objective, it became common practice, especially to cover transportation costs (as we will see below).
Some of these documents are very detailed and provide extensive information and descriptions of large bibliographic collections, including the year and place of publication, book sizes, as well as other material aspects such as the kind of binding used, their state of conservation, and even the prices estimated by the people who drew up the inventories. Probably the best example in terms of detailed and well-organized information on printed materials is provided by the inventory of the library of the College of San Pedro and San Pablo in Mexico City, considered one of the largest and finest collections in New Spain at the time.11 It boasted more than 16,200 volumes, spread across the main library (Librería grande) and those belonging to the sodalities of Our Lady of the Sorrows and the Immaculate Conception,12 which had been erected in the same college (Congregaciones de La Purísima y de los Dolores). The following paragraph provides a typical example of an entry in the inventory of San Pedro and San Pablo:
“2 Galileo, Obra del compás geométrico y militar: Bolonia 1655 y 56 dos de q[uar]to escritos en lengua italiana en 4p[esos].”13 (2 [copies of] Galileo, work on the geometric and military compass: Bologna 1655 and 56, two [volumes] in quarto, written in Italian [valued] in 4 pesos).14
The initial numeral refers to the number of copies of one single edition; the name of the author (which could also contain the given name in brackets) follows then a short title is provided, which is normally registered in Spanish even when the work is written in another vernacular language. In this case, two copies in the Italian language of Galileo’s geometric and military compass. Then the place and year of publication are mentioned, when the language is other than Spanish or Latin, it is also registered, and finally an estimate of the value is given in pesos and reales.15 Unfortunately, the inventories for the mission libraries of Northern Spain do not come anywhere near this level of detail.
Jesuit Mission Libraries in Northern New Spain
The Society of Jesus arrived in New Spain in 1572. Eventually, as we saw, their libraries became particularly rich in their convents and colleges of Mexico City and surroundings (such as the novitiate of Tepotzotlán). Moreover, the network of colleges established in more than twenty different urban centers like Puebla, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, or Valladolid (present-day Morelia), dominated Latin language studies in New Spain in Jesuit hands. For almost two hundred years, the Society dominated the education of local elites.16 Jesuit colleges were cultural centers with an active academic life, these institutions required vast numbers of books, both for their libraries, and for the educational activities of professors and students. The pupils in particular needed numerous editions of textbooks.17 This placed the Society among the most important book consumers in New Spain.
However, despite the distance from the major cities of central Mexico, the smaller Jesuit colleges and missions located in remote northern borderlands still normally boasted a modest library, usually amassed by religious men with interests in developing their personal studies and exercising their Christian ministry. Michael Mathes’s important study of thirteen 1773 inventories of confiscated Jesuit libraries provides a comprehensive idea about the dimensions and materials available in these remote bibliographic collections. These inventories were compiled by Franciscans, who were put in charge of administering the former Jesuit missions. Mathes offers the following figures (see Table 1).
According to Mathes, these small libraries formed a “cultural oasis” which normally provided the only source of knowledge, letters and entertainment for those solitary missionaries, these collections could be divided in four sections: a work library, which included liturgical, ascetic, and spiritual works; a study library, which contained works of philosophy, theology, patristics, hagiography; a reference library, which boasted books on canon law, theological and scientific works; finally, an “entertainment” library, which included works of literature, poetry, and history.18 These libraries were amassed by the missionaries who brought these books and papers with them over many years.
The harsh living conditions in Northern Mexico, distant from well-established urban centers (there are more than 1,450 km between Mexico City and Chihuahua, and the journey could take up to three months depending on the weather),19 along with constant uprisings by different communities such as the Tepehuanes or the Tarahumaras, also claimed their toll on the preservation of these libraries.20 A look at the letters and reports written by the missionaries reveals the often deplorable material conditions in their northern missions, such as the account of the mission of San Ignacio in Tórim (in the present-day State of Sonora), founded in 1623, among the Yaqui people,21 in which Lorenzo José García (1713–76) complained in 1744 that “the rest of the books and papers from the first missionaries were lost in 1640, this year was the uprising in which […] we lost the largest and the best part of the library in this region, which was a very large and select one because of the studies and efforts of the missionaries.”22 Thus, as a collateral damage of Indian rebellions, many of these libraries were already in terrible conditions long before their official dispersion.
When on February 27, 1767, king Charles iii (1716–88) issued a decree expelling all the members of the Society of Jesus from Spain and its overseas possessions, this left the Jesuit missions, and their library collections, in a legal status similar to that of a death intestate. Therefore, following the expulsion, several secular boards called Juntas de Temporalidades were created throughout Spanish America to undertake the distribution of the Jesuit patrimony, and draw up inventories of all the Society’s possessions.23 Therefore, the libraries were cataloged and relocated to different corporations, such as diocesan seminaries, or the library of the Royal University of Mexico.24
The Case of the College of Chihuahua and the Missions in the Tarahumara
Throughout New Spain, the Jesuit libraries were looted, purged, lost, scattered, selected, and censored (on the ground of the supposedly Jesuit lax doctrines and loose morals) and what was left of some of them was reassigned after long bureaucratic and slow processes to different educational institutions such as diocesan seminaries, whose collections were consequently increased. The bishops of Puebla, Valladolid (Michoacán), or Durango had sufficient financial resources and political influence to take charge of large Jesuit collections within their dioceses and pay for the resulting transportation costs.25 For instance, the diocesan college of San Nicolas of Valladolid (present-day Morelia) received the books of the Jesuit college of San Luis de la Paz.26 In 1793, the seminary of the city of Durango received the books of the Jesuit college of Parras, Coahuila, as well as the books belonging to the Jesuit college of the Villa de San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua and from the missions of the upper and lower Sierra Tarahumara.27
An initial list of 1772 provides an inventory of the books coming from the college of San Felipe el Real de Chihuahua and the missions of the upper and lower Tarahumara and the Tepehuana region. It lists these books according to their format (see Table 2). The document was signed by the commissioner in charge in Chihuahua, Francisco Antonio Carrillo (dates unknown) on May 12, 1772, after the books had already been brought to that city.28 All we can reliably learn from these lists is that books in quarto format clearly dominated the collections.
One problem for Carrillo and the cataloguers was that after this initial list, the books had become “scrambled and piled up in a single chamber” (revueltos y amontonados todos en un cuarto).29 Hence, it was no longer possible to know whether they had originally belonged: to the college or to the missions. In March 1772, Carrillo informed the viceroy at the time, Antonio María de Bucareli (1717–79), that a large number of books from the Jesuit missions were now in his possession, but completely mixed up with the books from the local college of Chihuahua. He had not appreciated the importance of these books coming from the missions in terms of their quantity and volume. This lack of clarity and information prevented him from delivering this set of books to the Franciscans, who had a right to them as the new administrators in charge of the former Jesuit missions.30 This episode illustrates the utter chaos caused by the confiscation of Jesuit libraries in New Spain and, indeed, elsewhere. Often no one knew with precision what had happened with numerous books; therefore, the figures given in inventories must be taken with caution.
Given all of this, it should not surprise us that it took another twenty years, until finally, in September 1790, the municipal council of Chihuahua decided to give the confiscated books to the bishop of Durango, Esteban Lorenzo Tristán y Esmenola (1713–93), because all these gathered materials had become an obstacle to transforming the former college into a military hospital. Hundreds of remaining books were quickly moved to a priest’s residence in Chihuahua from where they were to be transferred to Durango,31 although this did not occur until October 11, 1793. Only at this point was a new inventory drawn up, this time arranged alphabetically by author.32 The inventory of books (from both the college in Chihuahua and the missions) listed a total 1,364 copies of different sizes,33 which were to be dispatched to Durango, some 640 kilometers south of Chihuahua.
The 1793 figure of 1,364 copies contrasts sharply with the 3,325 books mentioned previously (752 + 2,573=3,325) in the 1772 list. The title of the 1793 inventory already implies that the missing 1,880 books were of an inferior quality: “Index of the useful and serviceable [útiles y servibles] books that have been separated from the library that was located in the college of the ex-Jesuits of this villa [of Chihuahua]” (emphasis added).34 The selection had been made by the commissioner appointed by the bishop of Durango, a priest named Juan Isidro Campos (dates unknown). He signed the inventory on October 11, 1793, to fulfill the final resolution of the board of Temporalidades regarding these books, issued three years before on September 28, 1790.35 Thus, while the donation was made in 1790, it was not until 1793 that the commissioner was able to select the books considered useful to transport them to Durango.
The inventory’s definition of “useful or serviceable books” was particularly destructive for manuscripts or small imprints. In fact, the document did not hide the author’s contempt for “papers” or damaged books. The abovementioned priest Campos remarks without hesitation that “[those] 1,882 missing books were unbound, damaged, moth-eaten, and useless, and if any of these books were in good conditions, they were just lives of venerable Jesuits that could only be suitable as readings for school children [para lectura de niños de escuela].”36 An additional 102 liturgical books, such as breviaries and diurnals, were also considered useless: “they have no other destiny than the flames [no tienen otro destino más que el fuego].”37
All the manuscripts are badly damaged and number 109 volumes. They only include various dictionaries that the expatriated Jesuit fathers used to facilitate their learning of Indian languages on the missions they administered. Since they are of no value [siendo ya de ningún uso], to save on transportation costs, I believe that 134 grammars in the Tepehuana language, which are useless, can be put up for sale as if these books were scrap paper [como si fuese papel viejo]. Chihuahua, October 11, 1793. Juan Isidro Campos.38
In 1743, the Italian Jesuit Benito Rinaldini (1695–1764), who was active in Chihuahua among the Rarámuri and the Tepehuanes from 1732, published his Arte de la lengua tepeguana.39 All 134 grammars were likely printed copies of this edition.40 At the end of the document, Juan Isidro Campos attached an account of the logistics and transportation expenses (a total of 170 pesos), which included the salary of the scribe who made a draft and two manuscript copies of the index of books, along with the tools and instruments used for the manufacture of wooden cases, such as one hundred nails, ixtle fibers for cords,41 leather to protect the cases, as well as twenty-one petates (woven bedrolls made from vegetal fibers) also used for protection. He also acknowledged receipt of a payment of seven pesos and seven reales, from a cohetero (a firework maker) for “all the fragments of books and manuscripts.”42 Although seven pesos was not a small amount, especially compared to the wages of workers at the time,43 it was a negligible sum given the many materials that had been discarded. The weight of these hundreds of volumes sold as waste paper must have been considerable. Was Campos hiding information? Malinalli Hernández suggests that he could have retained for himself many of the supposedly discarded books. There is no way of knowing either way.44
An Overview of the Contents and Authors of the Books Dispatched to Durango
The 1793 inventory of the selected and surviving books of the college and the missions of Chihuahua was arranged alphabetically. It provides the name of the author and an abbreviated or shortened title of each book. Occasionally, the binding and size are mentioned, and on rare occasions, the place of publication is given as well. A small sample of the type of works listed on the first three (of twenty-one) folios of the inventory, representing authors whose last name started with A, B, or C, must suffice to demonstrate the variety of titles present in Jesuit frontier libraries.
Not surprisingly, the number of Jesuit authors is substantial, and their works are very well represented. Among the identified Jesuit authors and their works, we can mention the following: First, ten volumes of different works on Sacred Scripture, published in Antwerp, in folio, bound in vellum (vitela), plus seventeen more volumes bound in parchment, all of them written by the prolific Flemish exegete, Cornelius a Lapide (1567–1637), whose works were so widespread as to be practically ubiquitous in every Jesuit library, in large numbers.45 Three volumes in 4° of the popular Theologia tripartita, by the Irish Jesuit Richard Archdekin (1616–93) were available as well. Archdekin pursued an academic career as a theologian in the Jesuit colleges of Antwerp and Leuven, and his works enjoyed widespread popularity.46 We also find the works of English Jesuits active in the Southern Netherlands, including Thomas Carleton-Compton (1591–1666).47 Among the works of German Jesuits, we observe Ignaz Agricola (1661–1729) and his work on German Jesuit history, Historia Provinciæ Societatis Jesu Germaniæ Superioris.48 The popular treatise, Medulla theologiae moralis by the German theologian Hermann Busenbaum (1600–68), was also well-represented, with no fewer than fifteen copies, probably because they came from different mission libraries in the Tarahumara.49 One of the works on Mariology by the Bavarian Jesuit Andreas Brunner (1589–1650) was also available.50 We also find the works by the Jesuits active in Austria, such as Nicolaus von Avancini or Nicolas Avancini (1611–86).51 The works mentioned by Daniello Bartoli (1608–85)52 and Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621)53 embody the various kinds of texts written by Italian Jesuits.
Inevitably, Spanish Jesuits were especially well-represented. Particularly noteworthy is the work of the well-known writer and naturalist, José de Acosta (1540–1600), whose works on the natural history of the New World were world-famous.54 Lexicographic works are exemplified by the revised and posthumous version of the Latin-Spanish dictionary, composed by the Spanish linguist Bartolomé Bravo (1554–1607).55 We also find works of Fernando Castro Palao (1581–1633).56 Commemorative editions in Spanish and historical accounts on the Spanish American provinces (the New Granada) are both exemplified by the works of José Casani or Cassani (1673–1750).57
The collection also includes publications from authors belonging to other religious orders on a wide range of different genres dealing with hagiography, homiletics, Scripture, and theology. Hagiographies include the lives of the venerable preacher Fray Francisco de Posadas (1644–1713) by his fellow Dominican Diego de Alcalá (d.1740),58 Fray Juan de San Buenaventura (1640–1723) by the Franciscan Bartolomé José Adalid Hurtado (dates unknown),59 and a life of the famous and prolific Carmelite John of the Cross (1542–91).60 The collection also contained lives and accounts of holy nuns.61 Some of the authors mentioned were openly anti-Jesuit, such as the Dominican Daniele Concina (1687–1756), whose controversial theological work was well-represented with no less than ten copies.62 Therefore, even in such remote libraries, the Jesuit missionaries were aware of the work of their opponents and sought to study or take part in the heated theological debates of their day. We also find the works of celebrated royal preachers of different nations, as well as books dealing with the Old Testament.63 Interest in theology also extended to works on ecclesiastical and canon law, and even demonology.64
The local output of the Mexico City printing press is exemplified by the chronicle of the Franciscan province of Zacatecas in New Spain by José de Arlegui (c.1688–1748), Chronica de la provincial de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas printed by José Bernardo de Hogal (d.1741) in 1737.65 This chronicle documents the Franciscan missionary activities in the region of Zacatecas. These kinds of works were probably very esteemed by the missionaries because they provided an account of experiences in other mission outposts that connected with their own. This entry also shows the presence of books published in Mexico City circulating in regional markets.
As to historical works, Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio’s (1577–1644) famous account of the wars in the Low Countries suggests that the missionaries’ interests were wide-ranging, extending well beyond local history.66 Contemporary physicians and medical science were represented by the works of the Armenio-Italian surgeon, Giorgio Baglivi (1668–1707).67 Because anonymous works (or rather, those from unidentified authors) were listed under the letter “A,” our sample also includes three anonymous copies of the Historia del Emperador Leopoldo (History of Emperor Leopold),68 as well as various standard Jesuit books such as the Rules or the Constitutions.69
Given the missionary interests and the diversity in backgrounds of the Jesuits themselves, it is not surprising to find lexicographical works particularly well-represented. These include the grammar by the French translator Pierre-Paul Billet (c.1640–c.1715), who was active in Madrid as a French, Spanish, and Latin teacher.70 Although in terms of languages of publication, Spanish and Latin are the most representative in this inventory, the library also includes several works in Italian or French. Italian in particular is surprisingly well-represented.
Conclusion
The sample analyzed shows that the materials in mission libraries and in distant and frontier colleges such as Chihuahua boasted diverse materials coming from different printing centers. Works not only came from the Iberian peninsula, but also from the Italian peninsula, France, the Southern Netherlands, and German Catholic cities such as Cologne. While some books were small and cheap imprints, many were precious volumes, such as those exegetical works written by Cornelius a Lapide and published in Antwerp. Moreover, the different vernacular languages of the books remind us of the diverse origins of the missionaries and, in general, of the global presence and nature of the Society of Jesus. The predominance of European printed books in New Spain also reflects the supply of books, which heavily depended on shipments from Europe. Like other global religious orders, the Society used their own envoys or procuradores, who relied on intermediaries in commercial hubs like Seville, where they managed to buy books from the most important printing centers in France (Lyon or Paris) and other cities, like Antwerp, Rome or Venice.71 The mission collections, studied in this article, were indeed small libraries containing only a few hundred works. They were puny when compared to those located in major urban centers such as the library of the College of San Pedro and San Pablo in Mexico City, and yet, they were representative of the Society’s efforts and interests throughout the world. Furthermore, the presence of local Mexican books, such as Rinaldini’s Arte de la lengua tepeguana or Arlegui’s Chronica de la provincial de N.S.P.S. Francisco de Zacatecas (both published by the Hogal family in Mexico City), makes them distinctive among other Jesuit libraries because these Mexican editions tended to circulate only in regional markets.
Regrettably, these Jesuit collections were dismembered after 1767. As we saw, selection and preservation were the result of a range of different criteria, based, for instance, on doctrinal contents (which were not free from anti-Jesuit prejudices), or the state of conservation. The destination mattered as well. The library of the Jesuit college of the city of Durango was transferred to the local diocesan seminary. However, only the books considered useful and necessary for education were kept, while those deemed lax in doctrine were dispatched to Mexico City. As with the library of Chihuahua, items that were in a poor state were discarded and those regarded as pointless or “vain” were sold.72 A royal decree of July 9, 1769, had already ordered for the first time the separation of books that were lax in doctrine and contained “ideas dangerous to the customs, calm, and subordination of the nations.”73 Concerns about laxity also connect these inventories with the reasons why the Society was suppressed, to begin with.
Finally, the figures studied here also reflect the poor conditions of the book transfers themselves, as well as the often chaotic and negligent attempts to register and preserve the confiscated items. Unfortunately, many books were lost during a process that took years or, in the case of Chihuahua, even decades. Books were frequently kept in dark spaces where this remarkable patrimony was subjected to the combined effects of time, dampness, insects, and theft. That said, although these collections had been dispersed, numerous books that once belonged to Jesuit libraries are still preserved in a myriad of historical collections across Mexico. Their marks of property, ex libris, and marginalia can further illuminate the fortunes and misfortunes of the once great libraries from which they once came.
On Salvatierra’s missionary activities see the classic edition of his letters: Ernest J. Burrus, ed., Juan María de Salvatierra S.J.: Selected Letters about Lower California (Los Angeles: Dawson, 1971).
Luis Arriaga Valenzuela, “Jesuitas,” Reforma, June 21, 2022.
The Jesuit missional project in North and Northwestern Mexico started in Sinaloa in 1591. During the seventeenth century, they gained new territories in the north such as Durango, Chihuahua, eventually reaching Southern Arizona. By 1697, they started their missioning in Baja California. By 1748, the Society had established 117 missions among the mayos, yaquis, opatas, pimas, coras, tepehuanes, tarahumaras, and other groups: Ernest J. Burrus and Félix Zubillaga, eds., El noroeste de México: Documentos sobre las misiones jesuíticas 1600–1769 (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1986), 591–99.
The Jesuit missions in Northern New Spain have been the subject of extensive research: Herbert Eugene Bolton, “The Mission as a Frontier Institution in the Spanish American Colonies,” The American Historical Review 23, no. 1 (1917): 43–61; Ernest J. Burrus and Félix Zubillaga, eds., Misiones Mexicanas de la Compañía de Jesús, 1618–1745: Cartas e informes conservados en la “Colección Mateu” (Madrid: J. Porrúa y Turanzas, 1982); Burrus and Zubillaga, eds., El noroeste de México. For more recent works, see Bernd Hausberger, Miradas a la misión jesuita en la Nueva España (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2015). For the missions in the Tarahumara, see Ricardo León García, Misiones Jesuitas en la Tarahumara (Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 1992), Zacarías Márquez Terrazas, ed., Simposium de las misiones Tarahumaras (Chihuahua: Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, 2011).
Bernd Hausberger, Miradas a la misión jesuita en la Nueva España (Mexico City: El Colegio de México, 2015), 239–40.
On the art of the missions, see Clara Bargellini and Michael Komanecky, El arte de las misiones del Norte de la Nueva España, 1600–1821 (Mexico City: Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, 2009).
Michael Mathes “Oasis culturales en la Antigua California: Las bibliotecas de las misiones en Baja California en 1773,” Estudios de Historia Novohispana 10 (1991): 360–442.
For a starting point, see Ignacio Osorio Romero, Historia de las bibliotecas novohispanas (Mexico City: Dirección General de Bibliotecas, 1986). For some recent work on Jesuit libraries in New Spain, see Emilia Recéndez Guerrero, “Las bibliotecas particulares de los jesuitas en Zacatecas en el siglo xviii,” in Leer en tiempos de la colonia: Imprenta, bibliotecas y lectores en la Nueva España, ed. Idalia García Aguilar and Pedro Rueda Ramírez (Mexico City: unam, 2010), 237–51; Idalia García Aguilar, “Imprenta y librerías jesuitas en la Nueva España,” in El libro en circulación en la América colonial: Producción, circuitos de distribución y conformación de bibliotecas en los siglos xvi al xviii, ed. García Aguilar and Rueda Ramírez (Mexico City: Quivira, 2014), 205–37; García Aguilar, “Entre el olvido y la supervivencia: los libros jesuitas del Colegio de San Luis Potosí,” Revista del Colegio de San Luis 11 (2016): 48–105; Armando Hernández Soubervielle, Sarmiento de fe, ciencia y arte: La biblioteca de los jesuitas en San Luis Potosí, 1624–1767 (Mexico City: Universidad Iberoamericana, El Colegio de San Luis, 2020); Malinalli Hernández Rivera, “Leer a solas: Bibliotecas y colecciones librarias en los aposentos jesuitas de Pátzcuaro,” in Pátzcuaro: Grandeza de una ciudad, ed. José Manuel Martínez Aguilar and Fernando Mendoza Colina (Morelia: Archivo Histórico del Municipio de Pátzcuaro, 2021), 243–62.
The city of Chihuahua is the current capital of the state with the same name.
See Malinalli Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos: Desmembramiento, tránsito y dispersión de las bibliotecas jesuitas novohispanas, a través de sus Juntas de Temporalidades, 1767–1798” (PhD diss., El Colegio de Michoacán, 2019), 183–89.
Archivo General de la Nación (hereafter agn), Jesuitas, vol. iii-30, this file contains the inventory of the Library of the College of San Pedro & San Pablo in Mexico City. There are also two volumes of another inventory of the same college, agn, Temporalidades, 230. Another important bibliographic collection was held at the House of the Professed (Casa Profesa) of Mexico City where books were also found within the different chambers of the Jesuit fathers. agn, Temporalidades, 230.
Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 339.
agn, Jesuitas, vol. iii-30, 260r.
The work in question is, Galileo Galilei, Le operationi del compasso geometrico, e militare (Bologna: Heirs of Evangelista Dozza, 1656), published in quarto.
The peso was a silver coin, which was worth eight Spanish reales, that is why it was known as the “piece of eight,” and it was widely used as an international currency during the early modern period.
Ignacio Osorio Romero, Historia de las bibliotecas novohispanas (Mexico City: Dirección General de Bibliotecas, 1986), 25.
Pedro Rueda Ramírez, Negocio e intercambio cultural, el comercio de libros con América en la carrera de Indias (siglo xvii) (Seville: Diputación de Sevilla, Universidad de Sevilla, csic-eeha, 2005), 172.
Mathes, “Oasis culturales en la Antigua California,” 379.
Because of his personal diary, we know that the Flemish missionary Thomas van Hamme departed from Mexico City on November 22, 1688, to the mission of Papigochi in the Sierra Tarahumara where he arrived on February 21, 1689: Luis González Rodríguez, “Un cronista flamenco de la Tarahumara en 1688: Petrus Thomas van Hamme,” Estudios de Historia Novohispana, iii (1970), 8–9.
Although the Jesuits tried to pacify the region and its semi-nomadic groups, the Tepehuanes revolted violently against Spanish rule in 1616 (killing eight missionaries then); the Tarahumaras or Rarámuris did the same in 1648; again in 1650 (when they killed the Flemish missionary Cornelio Beudin); again from 1652 to 1662; and, finally from 1690 to 1698. All these rebellions, especially the last one, were severely repressed by the Spanish authorities, see John G. Kennedy, The Tarahumara (New York: Philadelphia, Chelsea House Publishers, 1990).
For the history of the Yaqui people and their interactions with the colonial Spanish rule see: Raphael Brewster Folsom, The Yaquis and the Empire: Violence, Spanish Imperial Power, and Native Resilience in Colonial Mexico (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015).
“Informe de la misión de San Ignacio de Tórim, compilado por el P. Lorenzo José García, 20 de noviembre de 1744,” in Burrus and Zubillaga, Misiones Mexicanas de la Compañía de Jesús, 69.
In New Spain these boards were in the archbishopric of Mexico, the Audience of Guadalajara, and the bishoprics of Puebla, Oaxaca, Valladolid (Michoacán) and Durango, see Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 173. The concept of temporalidades refers to all patrimonial property belonging to religious orders, such as real estate, and income.
Similarly, in Spain, the University of Salamanca received the books coming from the Jesuit college of the city. Margarita Becedas González and Óscar Lilao Franca, “Noticias sobre la biblioteca del Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús de Salamanca,” in Estudios salmantinos, homenaje al Padre Benigno Hernández Montes, ed. José Antonio Bonilla Hernández and José Barrientos García (Salamanca: Editorial de la Universidad de Salamanca, Ayuntamiento de Salamanca y Caja Duero, 1999), 511–38.
Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 415–17.
agn, Temporalidades, vol. 175.
agn, Temporalidades, vol. 50, vol. 164; see also José Pacheco Rojas, El Colegio de Guadiana de los Jesuitas 1596–1767 (Mexico City: Plaza y Valdés, 2004), 138–39.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 98r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 98r. Spanish spelling has been modernized throughout.
Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 410.
Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 412.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 21r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 21v.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 21v.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 21v.
Benito Rinaldini, Arte de la lengua tepeguana (Mexico City: Widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, 1743). The Tepehuano language belongs to the Uto-Aztecan language family.
The author thanks Marina Garone for discussing the issue of these dictionaries with him.
The ixtle is a common plant fiber in Mexico, also known as Tampico fiber.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 23r.
For instance, in 1795 the monthly salary of a farmer working on a hacienda in the district of Guanajuato was twenty-four reales or three pesos (the peso was divided in eight reales). See Enriqueta Quiroz, Economía, obras públicas y trabajadores urbanos: Ciudad de México: 1687–1807 (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Dr. José María Luis Mora, 2016), 179–82.
Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 438.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r. On the large number of Flemish books circulating in New Spain, see César Manrique Figueroa, El libro flamenco para lectores novohispanos: Una historia internacional de comercio y consumo libresco (Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2019).
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
The inventory mentions two volumes of his theological works, probably his famous Cursus Theologici (first published in Liège in 1658): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
The inventory mentions four copies. The book was first printed in Vienna, in 1727: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
The inventory contains two entries, one listing seven copies, the other eight: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fols. 11v–12r. The Medulla was first published in 1645.
The inventory mentions a volume in 16° of his work on Mariology, Fasti mariani cum divorum elogiis (first published in 1630, however this copy must be the edition printed in Antwerp by Hendrik Aertssens in 1663).
The inventory mentions one volume in 8° of his most popular work: Vita et Doctrina Jesu Christi (first published in Vienna, in 1665): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
The inventory mentions one volume in octavo format of the Spanish translation of his Declaración copiosa de la doctrina christiana (first published in Madrid, in 1617), and then three more copies, two of them bound in parchment: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
The inventory mentions one volume in 4° of his Delle grandezze di Christo (first published in Rome, in 1675): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
The inventory mentions one volume in 8° of his De natura noui orbis libri duo; et de promulgatione Euangelii apud barbares siue de Procuranda indorum salute libri sex (first appeared in Salamanca in 8°, in 1588): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
Bartolomé Bravo, Thesaurus Hispanolatinus (first published in Valladolid, in 1654): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fols. 11v–12r.
The inventory mentions nine volumes of his Operis moralis de virtutibus, et vitiis contrariis, in varios tractatus, & disputationes theologicas distributi, pars prima [-septima] (first published in different volumes in Lyon from 1631 to 1651). agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
The inventory mentions one folio volume of the Historia de la Provincia de la Compañía de Jesús del Nuevo Reyno de Granada (Madrid: Manuel Fernández, 1741), and two folio volumes of the commemorative book, Glorias del segundo siglo de la Compañía de Jesús (first published in Madrid, in 1734)
Diego de Alcalá, Vida del V. siervo de Dios… f. Francisco de Possadas (first printed in folio, in Córdoba, Spain in 1728). agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
Bartolomé José Adalid Hurtado, El portugués exemplar: Vida del venerable padre fray Juan de San Buenaventura (Seville: Pedro Joséph Díaz, c.1733): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
Gaspar de la Anunciación, Representación de la vida del bienaventurado P.F. Juan de la Cruz (Bruges: Pierre van Pée, 1678) or (Brussels: François Foppens, 1678): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v. This rare book printed in octavo, shows the importance of cities like Brussels in publishing Carmelite Spanish editions during the seventeenth century.
For instance, the work of Fernando de San Antonio y Capilla O.F.M., Vida singular de la madre María de Christo (Madrid: Manuel Ruiz de Murga, 1716): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
The inventory mentions ten volumes in quarto of his Theologia christiana dogmatico-moralis (first published in twelve volumes in Lyon, in 1749–51): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
For examples of the former, see the books written by Cristóvão de Almeida and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r, 12r. For an example of a commentary on the Old Testament, see Pedro de Abreu, Explicación de el hymno que dixeron los tres mancebos en el horno de Babylonia (first published in folio, in Cádiz, in 1610; this was probably the edition listed in the inventory): agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
For example, Pedro de los Ángeles, Compendio del orden judicial y práctica del tribunal de religiosos, first published in Madrid in 1643: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11r.
agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
The inventory mentions one volume in folio of Guido Bentivoglio, Historia de la Guerras de Flandes. However, no year or place of publication is mentioned: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
The inventory mentions one volume in octavo format of his popular Opera omnia medico-practica et anatomica, published throughout the eighteenth century. agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
This could be a Spanish version of Galeazzo Gualdi Priorato’s work.
These volumes probably correspond with one of the numerous editions of the Epitome Instituti Societatis Iesu: agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 11v.
One volume of his Gramática francesa (first published in Zaragoza, in 1673) was mentioned. agn, Temporalidades, 50, fol. 12r.
On this trade, see Rueda Ramírez, Negocio e intercambio cultural.
Irma Leticia Magallanes Castañeda, Autos de un secuestro: Inventarios, avalúos y destino de los bienes de la Compañía de Jesús del Colegio de Durango, Nueva Vizcaya (1767–1791) (Durango: Instituto de Cultura del Estado de Durango, 2015), 45.
Cited in Hernández Rivera, “Los libros peregrinos,” 191.