Title: Tlaxcala Legal Documents

Date: 1694-1843

Language(s): Nahuatl and Spanish

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Consists of 25 legal documents, including wills and bills of sale. Places mentioned include San Andres Ahuashuatepec and San Salvador Tzompantepec, both in Tlaxcala.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Material and Layout: Paper; 39 leaves; 31 x 21 cm.

Binding: Unbound sheets in slipcase

PROVENANCE

Garrett deposited this manuscript at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1942 at which time he described them briefly in the "Garrett Collection List No. 3." Garrett donated the item along with several other manuscripts to the Princeton University Library in 1949.

Author: Mota Padilla, Matías de la (1688-1766)

Title: Conquista del Reyno de la Nueva Galicia en la America Septentrional, fundacion de su Capital Ciudad de Goadalaxara sus progresos militares y politicos y breve descripcion de los Reynos de la Nueva Viscaya, Nueva Toledo, o Nayarit, Nueva Estremaduram o Coahuila, Nuevas Philipinas, o Texas, Nuevo Reino de Leon, Nueva Andalucia, o Sonora, y Sinaloa, con noticias de la Ysla de la California por comprehenderse unos de d[ic]hos Reinos en el Ob[is]p[a]do de d[ic]ha cuidad, yotros en el districto de su R[eal] Au[dienci]a por el Lic[encia]do Dr. Mathias de la Mota Padilla natural de d[ic]ha cuidad de Goadalazara, Alguacil mayor de el Santo Officio, y actual Abogado Fiscal de d[ic]ha R[eal] Audiencia. Año de 1742.

Date: 1742

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Manuscript copy of a history of New Galicia extending to 1742. Includes accounts of its aborigines, its conquest and colonization by the Spaniards, founding of the capital city, and the work of religious orders, with brief descriptions of other regions which lay within the jurisdiction of the same audiencia or diocese. Title page written in 18th-century Mexican calligraphy.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Material and Layout: Paper; 478 leaves; 30 x 21 cm.

Binding: Brown calf, gilt stamped on spine with evidence of end clasps (now missing).

PROVENANCE

Includes several ownership marks including "Ex Biblioteca D. Francisci Xaverii de Gamboa Senatoris Mexicani," written in pen on front flyleaf; "W.S.," stamped on top edge of text block; "M.S. ... n. 76," a label on the spine. Also includes Robert Garrett's bookplate. Garrett deposited this manuscript at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1942 at which time he described them briefly in the "Garrett Collection List No. 3." Garrett donated the item along with several other manuscripts to the Princeton University Library in 1949.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Historia de la conquista de la provincia de la Nueva-Galicia, Escrita por el lic. D. Matias de la Mota Padilla en 1742, Publicada por la Sociedad mexicana de geografía estadística. México: Impr. de gobierno, á cargo de J.M. Sandoval, 1870 [1871-72].

Title: Codex cuara

Date: 1600s

Language(s): Tarascan

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

The manuscript represents the land titles and genealogy of the descendants of Don Miguel Irecha ("king") Cuara. It was probably made to document claims of heredity rights or possession of lands within the context of some litigation. Throughout the manuscript are glosses in Spanish with some Tarascan words. On the page published as plate 15 is the following inscription: "...Dios trin y uno que tien el poder padre hijo señor desta trira" (God, three and one, the power, father and son, the holy spirit, amen. Titles of the ancient lords of this land).

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Material and Layout: Paper; 22 leaves; 31 x 22 cm.

Binding: Unbound sheets in slipcase

Decoration: 19 full-page pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings. Plate 1 depicts Miguel Cuara seated below a device surmounted by an eagle. There are  simple plans of properties and show fields, houses, and water courses. It includes a fragmentary leaf with a calendar wheel with golssed European month names; the months from May through September are shown by crescent moons and human faces. The nine remaining pages containing drawings of men, women, and children in Indian costume.

PROVENANCE

The manuscript was secured in 1892 for the Museo Michoacano, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico by Dr. Nicolas León from the descendants of the Cuara family (presumably from Patzcuaro, Michoacan). In reporting this, León added that the codex was no longer in that museum. In 1939 the director of the Museo Michoacano stated in a letter to the Museo Nacional in Mexico City that the "Códice de la Familia Cuara" was in private possession but did not indicate that he knew (or did not know) who that person was (later in Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Mexico, administrative files). The codex is described on page one of a two-page typed and undated advertisement on the letterhead of the Mexico City book dealer "Mexlibris." It is not know from whom Garrett acquired the manuscript, and it is not identifiable in the three lists of books and manuscripts given by him to the Institute for Advanced Study in 1942 unless it is comprehended under no. 11 of List 3, "several damaged documents, mostly XVIII century (?)" or in the addenda to that list, "a few papers, apparently relating to various matters." Garrett deposited this manuscript at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1942 at which time he described them briefly in the "Garrett Collection List No. 3." Garrett donated the item along with several other manuscripts to the Princeton University Library in 1949.

Title: Tecamachalco Legal Documents

Date: ca. 1557-94

Languages: Nahuatl and Spanish

SCOPE AND CONTENTS

Consists of legal documents in Nahuatl and Spanish concerning lands and rents. Leaves 1-4 in Nahuatl. Leaves 5-9 contain Spanish translation of the Nahuatl. On fol. 9v there is a difficult date: 1594? and the signature of Don Luis de Velasco identified in the text as Caballero de la Orden de Santiago. Depending on the date this may be the first or second Viceroy of that name. Folio 1 is a land document in Nahuatl and Spanish. the text begins, "Muy Magos. Señores. Franco Garcia de Morales nican nichan china ynipan Xmaltepetin Amispanticinco..." Francisco Garcia de Morales is identified in the text as "Español." The words "tlalli" and "cavallerias" (lands in Nahuatl; Spanish for a unit of land measure, respectively) so that the document concerns lands. The Nahuatl text is continued on the verso and mentions "Diego Ramirez, excribano de la audiencia" and his signature appears together with 10 others.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Material and layout: Paper; 10 leaves; 31 x 22 cm.

Binding: Unbound sheets in slipcase

PROVENANCE

Garrett deposited this manuscript at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1942 at which time he described them briefly in the "Garrett Collection List No. 3." Garrett donated the item along with several other manuscripts to the Princeton University Library in 1949.