Fray Juan de Torquemada
Juan de Torquemada | |
---|---|
Title | Minister Provincial, Province of Santo Evangelio, México |
Personal | |
Born | Juan c. 1562 |
Senior posting | |
Period in office | 1614-1617 |
Successor | Juan López |
Ordination | c. 1587 |
Juan de Torquemada (c. 1562 – 1624) was a
Life
Early years
There are few firm biographical details concerning Juan de Torquemada, most of which have to be deduced from his own work. Even basic information is subject to uncertainty and controversy. Born at
He is almost certain to have personally known other notable Franciscan friars who were his contemporaries and who were animated, as he was, by a profound interest in the pre-hispanic life and culture of the conquered Indians in New Spain, especially Andrés de Olmos, Gerónimo de Mendieta, and Bernardino de Sahagún.[6]
Missionary activity, 1588-1602
Shortly after ordination (which, in this period, was normally conferred on aspirant Franciscans at age 25), (an area west of Mexico City, extending to the Pacific).
Among his achievements during this phase of his life was his role as one of the founders of the Confraternity of
In 1600 and 1601 (possibly in 1599 as well) he was guardian of the convent of
At Tlatelolco, 1603-1612
While guardian of the convent at Tlatelolco, he assumed numerous heavy burdens, both intellectual and practical, not all of which related to the affairs of the Franciscans.[10] Among those which did may be mentioned the fact that the guardian of the convent was ex officio President of the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, a post which entailed general oversight of the conduct of the institution under its rector. The College had, however, so far declined from the ambitious plans which attended its ceremonial opening in 1536 that, by the end of the 16th century, it had become an elementary school where local Indian children learnt reading, writing, manners and good behaviour.[11]
Administrator
In 1604 he visited Zacatecas to assist in the establishment of a Franciscan province to be headquartered there, and in 1606 he spent time in Michoacán and Jalisco for the same purpose - the establishment of a new province in Jalisco (headquartered in Guadalajara), carved out of the province of San Pedro y San Pablo covering Michoacán-Jalisco.[12] A surge of vocations from among the criollos as well as a renewed influx of friars from Spain had necessitated a new alignment of responsibilities. A generation before (in 1570), numbers of friars in Nueva Galicia had fallen to 16, four of whom were elderly. In striking contrast to this long period of decline, in 1601 and 1602 alone, 14 friars had arrived from Spain destined for Nueva Galicia and 32 more for Zacatecas. Between 1610 and 1618 these numbers were augmented by another 40 arrivals.[13]
Engineer
Abnormally high rainfall in August 1604 led to a devastating flood of Mexico City - one of several inundations from
Architect
Commencing in 1604, Torquemada took in hand the construction of a new church of Santiago de
The work was completed in 1609 or 1610, and on 14 July 1610 the church was consecrated. Most of the decoration of the church was either removed by the civil authorities, looted, damaged or destroyed during the turmoil of the era of La Reforma in the mid-19th century.[21] The church then became a customs warehouse, and as late as 1944 the convent was a military gaol; but the use of the church has since been restored to the Franciscans and the Santiago panel has been returned to its original location on the wall above the altar.[22]
A curious episode attaches to the building of the church. Allegations were made that Torquemada had exploited and abused the Indian workforce and had severely beaten one particular labourer "almost to death" (a punto de muerte). An official investigation was initiated by the Archbishop of México on 16 February 1605, but there is no record of the outcome and there was no interruption to Torquemada's work on the church.[23]
It was while he was guardian of the convent of Tlatelolco that Torquemada also put in hand the organisation of the materials he had been gathering for many years previously, and (between 1605 and 1612) their redaction into the great work he had been projecting - the history of the aboriginal nations of New Spain, and their conquest and evangelisation by the Spanish. In addition to the voluminous unpublished writings of other Franciscans to which he had unimpeded access, Torquemada possessed many original documents acquired during his missionary work, as well as the oral testimony he had obtained from people he had encountered on his various travels.[24] In 1609 he had been named chronicler of the Franciscan Order by Fray Bernardo de Salva, Franciscan Commissary General of the Indies.[25] On completion of the work he took the manuscript to Spain in order to oversee its publication (as to which see below).
On 8 January 1614, in the year following his return from Spain, Torquemada was elected Historian
Last years, 1613-1624
At the age of 62 or thereabouts, Torquemada died suddenly on New Year's Day, 1624, in choir in the convent at Tlatelolco after having sung matins with the community at midnight. He had apparently been in good health. The cause of death was likely a heart attack, given that an indigenous witness said he said "Help me, unloose my chest where my heart is."[29] He died in the presence of his brother friars and of the guardian of the convent of San Francisco. His body was conducted in solemn procession from Tlatelolco to Mexico City accompanied by many mourners who paused at seven places on the way in order to sing responses. On arrival at the church of San Francisco (the mother church of the province), it was interred in the sanctuary, on the right-hand side near the high altar.[30]
Literary works
Monarquía indiana
Introduction
By way of providing impetus to and official sanction for Torquemada's history, fray Bernardo Salva, the Comisario general de Indias (acting by specific direction from his immediate superior, Arcángelo de Messina, the
The work is a "remarkably dense text," because of its theological digressions, contradictions, and anachronisms, since Torquemada incorporated material without resolving contradictory and competing points of view from his sources.
At the time of its publication, Torquemada referred to his history under the abbreviated title Libros rituales y monarquía indiana or Monarquía y historia indiana, but others were already calling it the Monarquía indiana, the name by which it has generally been known ever since.[33]
Vision of history and purpose of the work
The leading motif of Torquemada's monumental history – elaborated by him in many places, especially in the general prologue to the entire work – can be characterised as the merciful action of Divine Providence in choosing the Spanish to liberate the Indians from their subjection to the Devil who had deceived these innocent peoples into practising a religion marred by errors and polluted by abominations such as human sacrifice.[34] On this interpretation the fall of the Aztec monarchy was a Divine chastisement and Spain the rod.[35] But, for all that, Torquemada was sympathetic to the positive achievements of the Indians, and, by situating their history and culture within the framework of the Old Testament and of the former glories of the empires of Egypt, Greece and Rome, he encouraged the educated elite of the Old World to recognise the indigenous nations of the New World as their peers.[36] His history was, of set purpose, a laborious inquiry into the truth of things, requiring (as he says in his general prologue) diligence, maturation, and the exercise of prudence in adjudicating among conflicting testimonies.[37] It was not written as an entertainment or to satisfy mere curiosity, but with a serious didactic purpose and to edify, for he believed that the record of the events of the past constitute not only an antidote to human mortality and the brevity of life, but also a hermeneutic key to understanding the present, thereby offering man an opportunity to progress.[38]
Method
The distinguished scholar and administrator, Howard F. Cline, who, at the time of his death was Director of the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.[39] gave, in 1969, this positive assessment of Torquemada's skill as an historian :-[40]
Historians generally see their tasks broken into three main stages: as comprehensive as possible collection of relevant documentation, followed by critical and evaluative appraisal of it, and finally, a synthesis based on verified data. Contrary to a considerable body of hostile secondary discussion, critical examination of Juan de Torquemada's Monarquía Indiana indicates a surprisingly high level of workmanship in at least the first two phases. Although what he strove for in synthesis – an accurate record that would place native Mexican cultures on a par with ancient, classical, and for him modern societies – is an early and interesting example of a comparative approach, the classical and Biblical citations he employed for such comparisons are now largely of curiosity value, except as clues to his own ambience and personal outlook.
Torquemada was a skilled and careful historian, constrained only by some obvious usages and common attitudes of his age.
Like others of his time, he puzzled over the problems of fitting native peopling of the New World and their development into a Biblical framework, and seldom doubted authenticity of miracles, or the Providential intervention which accounted for Cortes' Conquest as an expression of Divine Will. But for the most part he went at his tasks with professional coolness, and a rather high degree of historiographical craftsmanship.
Subject-matter
Salva's letter of 6 April 1609 itself expressed the full ambit of Torquemada's work as eventually written, including, as regards the converted Indians: "their rituals, ceremonies, laws, governments and governors, their mode of conservation and conversation, their kings, kingdoms, cities and domains, their origin and beginnings, their division into provinces and kingdoms [sic]; the diversity of their languages, their riches and means of sustenance, their gods and worship, and, with great particularity, the manner in which friars and ministers initially converted them and how they have followed up on those conversions . . ."[41]
The work was published in three hefty volumes under a title which gives a precise conspectus of its subject-matter and author: LOS VEINTE IUN LIBROS RITUALES I MONARCHIA Indiana con el origen y guerras de los Indios Ocidentales, de sus Poblaçones, Descubrimiento, Conquista, Conversion y otras cosas maravillosas de la mesma [sic] tierra discribuydos en tres tomos. COMPUESTO POR F. JUAN DE TORQUEMADA Ministro Provincial de la Orden de Nuestro Serafico Padre, San Francisco En la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico en la Nueva Espana.[42]
The first volume comprises five books which principally treat of the creation of the world and the origin of the peoples who occupied New Spain (I, II), as well as the diverse nations constituting the Aztec Empire (III), followed by its conquest by the Spanish (IV) and its subsequent re-organisation (V). To the second volume were assigned nine books which deal with the religion (VI-X), government (XI), laws (XII), institutions (XIII) and social and military life of the indigenous peoples together with remarks on various geographical features and their cultural relevance (XIV). The subject of the seven books which constitute the third volume is the evangelisation of the Indians, with particular focus (especially in the last three books) upon the life, work and fate of Franciscan missionaries.
The main focus is on the history and culture of the peoples of what is now central Mexico, with particular attention given to
Torquemada describes the 1576 epidemic in New Spain in the following terms:
In the year 1576 a great mortality and pestilence that lasted for more than a year overcame the Indians. It was so big that it ruined and destroyed almost the entire land. The place we know as New Spain was left almost empty.
He reported that two million, mostly indigenous, people died, according to a survey conducted by Viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.[44]
Sources
The great diversity of sources employed by Torquemada, including precious indigenous documents now lost as well as colonial texts (published and unpublished), is fully laid out in exhaustive tables of analysis for each of the books in volume 7 of the IIH critical edition, following extensive study by the research seminar conducted under the leadership of Miguel León-Portilla between 1969 and 1971.[45]
At the end of the 17th century a charge of plagiarism was raised by
. . not completely justified in view of the fact that Torquemada was ordered by his superiors to use all historical works available and that politically speaking it was desirable that the Monarquía indiana should not be too closely identified with the Historia eclesiástica indiana, lest the oblivion of the latter overtake the former.
The various ways in which the accusation has been made are discussed in Gurría Lacroix' essay ("Acusación de plagiario") in volume 7 of the IIH edition. As Woodrow Borah put it in his review:-[48]
Jorge Gurría Lacroix, who died before this volume appeared, examines at considerable length the old charge of plagiarism raised against Fray Juan in his use particularly of Mendieta's chronicle, and by doing so, of Mendieta in his use of Motoliniá's writing. The charges are disposed of, one hopes definitively, by making clear the customs of the time and the specific instructions to Torquemada from his Order. Chronicles were regarded as community property to be used as the Order decided.
The charge occasionally resurfaces, even if only obliquely and by association.[49] Almost the entirety of Mendieta's history is reproduced throughout the course of Books 15-21 of the Monarquía indiana (where it comprises about 80% of the text),[50] but in the general prologue Torquemada acknowledged his use of prior writings by Francisco Ximénez, Motolinía, Sahagún, and Mendieta, and 66 specific references are made to Mendieta in the course of the work (only 36 of which have been identified). Nevertheless, Torquemada indisputably used these sources far more extensively than he gave credit for.[51]
Publication
Once the work was in its final shape, Torquemada took the manuscript to Spain personally, despite the Comisario general de Indias (Bernardo Salva) having previously invited him to send it.[52] Precise dates for the trip are not known, but the termini within which the trip must have occurred can be stated with confidence. Among the documents Torquemada took to Spain with him were the various permits relative to the printing of the book which were issued in México, the latest of which (the licence proper) was dated 17 May 1612. Back in Mexico, he officiated at a wedding in Xochimilco (where he was now guardian) on 10 October 1613. In between, he can be presumptively placed in Madrid on and before 4 February 1613 and again, on and before 5 May of the same year, those being the dates when written approval for the printing was granted by two officials resident in that city, who stated they had read and approved the manuscript.[53]
The first edition was printed by Mathias Clavijo in Seville in 1615; that is, two years after Torquemada had returned to Mexico, so his presence in Seville can only have been to select and arrange matters with the printer, and not to oversee the actual printing or check the galley-proofs. León-Portilla suggests these arrangements (including the choice of type and the layout) might have taken weeks at most, giving Torquemada time to visit Madrid and other places in the land of his birth.[54] That no doubt explains how it happened that the first edition lacked two passages present in the manuscript, as well as words from some of the chapter headings, and contained countless other mistakes which the printer of the second edition noted but did not specify in his Proemio.[55] Despite the blemishes which marred the body of the first edition, the printer of the second edition was unstinting in his praise of the analytic indices which, he said, greatly enriched the text. According to a modern commentator, expressing also the hope that similar works would not omit a scientific apparatus of this kind, "their usefulness and erudition are formidable".[56]
Dedication
Exceptionally, in the Carta nuncupatoria Torquemada dedicated his book to God – a la Sacratísima Magestad del Rey del Cielo, Dios Nuestro Señor (to the Sacred Majesty of the King of Heaven, God Our Lord) – explaining at length why he did so. As he well knew, the normal dedication of such works was to the King of Spain, to nobles, or to ecclesiastical dignitaries (usually the patrons of the author).[57] The title page announces the same dedication: Dico Ego Opera Mea Regi. Saeculorum Inmortali et Invisibili.[58]
Diffusion
Although (as noted in the following sub-section) the greater part of the print-run of the first edition was said to have been lost in a shipwreck, the Monarquía indiana was known in Mexico as early as 1624 when it was first cited in a book published there in that year. Between then and 1714 (that is to say, before the second edition) it was cited, even copiously on occasion, by at least eleven authors in works published for the most part in Mexico, but also in Madrid and Guatemala.[59]
Subsequent history of the text
The fate of the first edition, and details of the two subsequent facsimile reprints, are stated here as given in the essay "Ediciones" by Jorge Gurría Lacroix in volume 7 of the IIH critical edition.[60]
As Nicolás Rodríguez Franco, the printer of the second edition, informed his readers in his Proemio,[61] few exemplars of the first edition survive because the greater part of the print-run was lost in a shipwreck, and only three copies were known to him.[62] Eight copies of the first edition exist in various libraries in North America and Europe, two of which lack the original frontispiece, and the other six of which lack also the first 32 pages. A ninth copy exists in Mexico divided between one owner who possesses the first volume, and another who possesses the other two.
The errors and omissions were made good in the second edition by reference to the original manuscript which, so Franco discloses, was in the library of Don Andrés González de Barcia. The second edition has the date 1723 on the title page, but the Proemio itself is dated 20 January 1725, so the effective publication date must have been later than that.[63]
A third edition (a new facsimile reprint rather than a new edition) was printed in Mexico in 1943 by Salvador Chávez Hayhoe. The only addition was a title-page identifying the data relevant to the reprint.
The fourth edition, published by Editorial Porrúa in Mexico in 1969 with an Introduction by Miguel León-Portilla, was another facsimile reprint of the second edition, but, this time, employing a magnificent large paper exemplar formerly owned by the Mexican historian Joaquín García Icazbalceta.
The fifth edition (substantively, the third, critical edition) was published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas (
Critical appraisal of the work
Until the publication of Mendieta's Historia eclesiástica indiana in 1870, Torquemada's work was held in high esteem but, thereafter, Icazbalceta's prestige combined with his vigorous denunciation of Torquemada's supposed plagiarism of his predecessor's previously unknown History, caused the Monarquía indiana to fall into disrepute, and many commentators disparaged its method, content, and style. From the middle of the 20th century, the work of numerous scholars has gone far to rehabilitating Torquemada and re-assessing the significance of the Monarquía indiana. According to John Leddy Phelan, writing in 1956 (second edition revised, 1970):-[65]
For the historian of ideas the Monarquía indiana deserves to be restored to a position of eminence as one of the classic sources of colonial historiography.
In the opinion of Alcina Franch (1969):-[66]
"Neither the ponderous and erudite digressions . . nor the supposed plagiarism . . can obscure the genuine value of Torquemada's work; that is, his extraordinary assemblage of materials available at the end of the 16th century for tracing the ancient and contemporary history of Mexico, unwittingly salvaging numerous old sources, reports, oral traditions, etc., which, without him, would have been forever lost beyond recall." (translation from the Spanish original)
More recently, it has been said (1996):-[67]
La importancia de la obra de Torquemada no ha sido debidamente reconocida por parte de los especialistas, pero aquellos que la han estudiado en profundidad coinciden en hacer una valoración muy positiva. (The importance of Torquemada's work has not been properly recognised by specialists, but those who have given it deep study concur in a very positive appraisal)
And (2002):-[68]
Torquemada's work was more than a censored version of Mendieta's . . With his study, indigenous culture - more particularly the Nahuatl - was inserted into the context of universal civilisation on a par with Greece, Rome and Egypt . . More than an historical text, Torquemada's work is a theological speculation developed in order to explain, within a western philosophical framework, the existence of the American Indians and the role that their conquest and evangelisation play in the context of the history of salvation. (translation from the Spanish original)
As for the author's style, opinions diverge. A judicious and broadly positive assessment such as this was made in 1890 by the American historian and ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft:-[69]
He rises above the mere monk chronicler and strives to interest his readers by variety of topics, as well as by treatment, which receives no inconsiderable aid from a descriptive power of rare occurrence among his confreres; other faults remain, however. While concise enough in the narrative generally, he abandons himself to inappropriate deviations and wordy argument, and revels in learned references.
By contrast, a non-specialist (who thought Torquemada arrived in New Spain in 1583 and made other elementary mistakes about his life in the few sentences he devoted to it) offered this observation which can be taken to be representative of the opposite tendency:-[70]
The value of Monarquia Indiana as a history of prehispanic Mexico and of its conquest by Cortes is marginal. This hodgepodge of facts and fiction and of a few interesting details lost in tedious disquisitions is important for other reasons. . . The merit of Torquemada, if merit it be, is the fact that in his compilation he quoted [..] unpublished chronicles, sometimes mentioning the names of their authors, sometimes plundering parts of their work for his Monarquía Indiana, thus saving them from oblivion. Torquemada's plagiarism of Jeronimo de Mendieta's work . . part of which he included in his pot-pourri without any change, proved very useful to Joaquín García Icazbalceta [etc.]
Minor works
One other work published in his lifetime is known, a
Torquemada himself mentioned playlets or scenes ("comedias o reprecentaciones") he had written in
Other writings include two unpublished letters found in the General Archive of the Indies in Seville (dating from 1620), and two long apologetic "Statements" (or alegatos, dating from 1621) eventually published by Icazbalceta. These argue - one from a theological and canonical perspective, the other from a historical perspective - that members of the three Mendicant orders then active in New Spain should not be subjected to examination by the diocesan bishops[74]
References
- ^ Brading, p. 273.
- ^ Brading, p. 277.
- ^ Monarquía indiana: for Tlacopan, Lib. XIV, cap. 35; for Chiauhtla, Lib. XV, cap. 38 and Lib. XX, cap. 80. The passages relating to Chiauhtla are quoted by León-Portilla, p. 24.
- ^ Monarquía indiana: for Juan Bautista, see Lib. XX, cap. 79; for Valeriano, see Lib. V, cap 10. Both passages quoted by León-Portilla, p. 23.
- ^ For the various dates cited in this paragraph, see León-Portilla, pp. 21, 23, 24. Moreno Toscano, p. 498, regarded 1565 as the only probable date of birth but (following Icazbalceta, although offering no arguments herself), accepts 1579 as the date Torquemada took the habit. She does not discuss the date of his ordination. For Torquemada's impression of the aged Díaz (hombre de todo crédito), see Monarquía indiana, Lib. IV, cap. 4 (quoted by León-Portilla, p. 21). See also Alcina Franch (1973), pp.256f. who accepts a date between 1563 and 1565 for his birth or even 1559 if 1579 is taken as the date of his profession at age 20.
- ^ León-Portilla, p. 27; Moreno Toscano, p.499 (who mentions only Gerónimo de Mendieta).
- ^ León-Portilla, p. 21.
- ^ See León-Portilla: for the location of his missionary activity, pp. 25-27; for his election as guardian of the convent at Tlaxcala, p. 22; for his part in the founding of the confraternity, pp. 27f. (quoting from Monarquía indiana, Lib. 20, cap. 79 and the Septima relación of Chimalpahin); for his election as guardian at Tulancingo, p. 31.
- ^ León-Portilla: for the starting date, see p. 31 (quoting the Anales coloniales de Tlatelolco; for Torquemada as guardian of the convent of Tlaxcala in February 1612, see p. 39 (citing the Aprobación of [27] February of that year provided for the Monarquía indiana by fray Luis Váez.
- ^ In the general Prologue to Monarquía indiana he emphasises how heavy these burdens were, not (he says) in order to boast of his talents but to show how much he accomplished in the comparatively few years when he was also writing (when he had the time) his magnum opus.
- ^ For the guardian as ex officio president of the institution, see Moreno Toscano, p. 499 (although she mis-assigns the start of his guardianship to 1600). For the decline of the institution before Torquemada's guardianship, see Juan Estarellas, "The College of Tlatelolco and the Problem of Higher Education for Indians in 16th Century Mexico", History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1962), pp. 234-243 , at pp. 240f.
- ^ León-Portilla, p. 34. For the division of Franciscan provinces in New Spain at this time, see Habig, p. 228, with the map on p. 216.
- ^ Foin, pp. 219-221 for the low number in 1570; p. 234, table of arrivals 1610 onwards.
- ^ Louisa Hoberman, pp. 212 and 222, and see Mathes, pp. 425-428.
- ^ See passages in Monarquía indiana, Lib. V, cap. 60, partly quoted by León-Portilla, pp. 33f. and Prólogo general (p. XXIX of IIH edn.). The three main causeways dating from the Aztec period are described in Monarquía indiana, Lib. III, cap. 23; the Spaniards built two more (ibid., cap. 26).
- ^ Monarquía indiana, Lib. XVII, cap. 5, quoted by Victoria (1990) at pp. 75f.
- ^ León-Portilla (p. 36) quotes the anonymous Anales coloniales de Tlatelolco and the Diario of Chimalpahin on the events of 14 and 15 July 1610; Victoria (1990) at p. 76 quotes the same passages, accepting 1610 as the relevant year. In his later work (1994, p. 38), he preferred the date 1609 for the completion of the building works, relying on a passage in Monarquía indiana, Lib. XVII, cap. 4.
- ^ Chimalpahin in his Diario is explicit that the consecration occurred on 14 July, the eve of the feast ("14 de julio de mil seiscientos diez años, siendo las vísperas de Santiago apóstol"), and that the retablo was inaugurated the following day, a Sunday, the feast of Santiago, 15 July; in the Roman Calendar that feast is celebrated on 25 July.
- ^ The retablo is described in Victoria (1990) pp. 78, based on a lithograph published in 1861 in Manuel Ramírez Aparicio's book Los conventos suprimidos de México, and reproduced as fig. 1 to Victoria's article; fig. 2 is a photograph of the Santiago panel. It is Victoria (1990, p. 77 and p. 78, cf. (1994) pp. 111f.) who attributes the design of the retablo to Echave.
- ^ Monarquía indiana, Lib. XII, cap. 34.
- ^ See Victoria (1990), p. 74.
- ^ Arroyo: for the fate of the church, 1; for the fate of the retablo, 2.
- ^ See León-Portilla, pp. 36f., who comments that gratuitous violence, especially against Indians, is not congruent with everything else we know about the character and disposition of Torquemada.
- ^ For the dates of composition, see León-Portilla, p. 20.
- ^ Alcina Franch, p.258 citing Monarquía indiana. The letter of appointment, dated 6 April 1609 is at pp. XXI and XXII of the preliminares to the IIH online edn.
- ^ For the terminal dates of service as provincial, see León-Portilla, pp. 42f.
- ^ Habig, p. 220, with map at p. 216. In 1908 the provinces were consolidated into three, and Santo Evangelio comprised all the southern States of Mexico: Habig, p. 223. For Puebla as comprised within the province at this time, see the review by John P. Harrison of: Francisco Morales, O.F.M., "Ethnic and Social Background of the Franciscan Friars in Seventeenth Century Mexico" (1973), in Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 63, No. 1 (January 1977), pp. 60f., at p. 60.
- ^ León-Portilla, pp. 43-46, quoting the relevant parts of the letters and (p. 46) remarking upon the harshness and violence of Torquemada's language when denouncing lies and injustice.
- ^ Alcina Franch, p.259 quoting "Unos anales colonialies, 1948, pp. 182-84.
- ^ Details taken from the Anales coloniales de Tlatelolco, quoted by León-Portilla (pp. 47f.). Moreno Toscano (p. 501) asserts that he died at the convent of San Francisco. Alcina Franch (p. 60, but hesitantly - al parecer, he notes) understood that at the time of death Torquemada himself was guardian of the convent of San Francisco.
- ^ Brading, pp.281-83.
- ^ Brading, p.281.
- ^ In the preliminares to the IIH online edn see: Torquemada's prólogo general (pp. XXIX and XXXI); for the 2nd edn, the printer's proemio and the requisite government tax certificate (pp. IX and XXXVII respectively). Antonio de Herrera, chronicler royal, had an advance copy of the work which he attacked under the name Monarquía indiana at the end of his own Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del mar océano published in parts between 1601 and 1615; see Gurría Lacroix, pp. 431f.
- ^ Moreno Toscano, pp. 501-503; León-Portilla, pp. 351-361, 364; Rubial García, p. 351.
- ^ See, e.g., Phelan, pp. 114f.
- ^ Phelan, pp. 115-117; Moreno Toscano, pp. 506-508; León-Portilla, pp. 349f., 364; Cline, p. 372; Rubial García, p. 351.
- ^ . . fuera de otras mil cosas, una diligencia grande en la inquisición de las cosas verdaderas, una madureza no menor en conferir las dudosas y en computar los tiempos, una prudencia particular y señalada en tratar las unas y las otras, y sobre todo, en la era en que estamos, es menester un ánimo santo y desembarazado para pretender agradar sólo a Dios, sin aguardar de los hombres el premio o algún interés.
- ^ Moreno Tuscano, p. 502; León-Portilla, pp. 342-344; Rubial García, p. 347.
- ^ See the obituary by John J. Finan in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 51, No. 4 (November, 1971), pp. 646-653, at p. 646.
- ^ Cline, p. 372.
- ^ Letter from fray Bernardo Salva, publ. as part of the preliminares to the IIH online edition, pp. XXI and XXII:- ". . de las vidas de tantos religiosos santos y graves . . como también de los nuevamente convertidos, de sus ritos y ceremonias, de sus leyes, repúblicas y gobiernos; del modo de su conservación y conversación, de sus reyes, reinos, ciudades y señoríos, de su origen y principios, de la división, provincias y reinos; de la diversidad de sus lenguas, de las riquezas y sustentos de ellos, de sus dioses y adoraciones y con mucha particularidad del modo que los religiosos y ministros tuvieron en el principio de aquellas conversiones y cómo han proseguido y prosiguen en ellas; con el modo de su entrada y el que tienen en la administración de los santos sacramentos, donde tan copioso fruto se ha cogido; y con las demás cosas notables que en ésa y las demás provincias de la Nueva España se pudieren verificar y sacar en limpio, poniéndolo vuestra reverencia todo en buen estilo y modo historial."
- ^ As printed on the title-page of the 2nd edition, lacking accents; word-breaks introduced, and medial "s" written in modern style.
- ^ For an overview, see Cline, pp. 377-386.
- ^ Quoted in Rodolfo Acuna-Soto, et al.,"Large Epidemics of Hemorrhagic Fevers in Mexico 1545-1815" Archived 2007-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ In addition to the tables of analysis, see also León-Portilla, p. 95. The indigenous sources are discussed at pp. 96-109; those in Spanish, at pp. 109-127. Biblical, ecclesiastical, and classical sources are discussed in the essay "Fuentes bíblicas, clásicas y contemporaneas" by Elsa Cecilia Frost (ibid.) pp. 267-274, and listed in the three appendices to that essay.
- ^ The charge was levelled by Vetancur in Teatro Mexicano: Crónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de México, Menologio Franciscano, Mexico (1697-98). The transfer of Mendieta's manuscript is asserted by Juan Bautista in the Prólogo to his 1606 book of sermons in Nahuatl. For the Proemio to the 2nd edn see the preliminares to the IIH online edn at pp. IX-XVI; the response to Vetancur is at pp. XII-XIV. See, on all this, Gurría Lacroix, pp. 57-67.
- ^ See Phelan, chapter 13, especially at pp. 112-114. The quote comes from footnote 4. On p. 114 Phelan observes that in Book IV Torquemada borrowed from Herrera who borrowed from Cervantes de Salazar and López de Gómara, both of whom "derived much of their material from Motolinía". He continued: "It is both impertinent and superfluous to squander moral indignation about the plagiarism of these authors . ."
- ^ At p. 565. On this point, see also Castañeda de la Paz, passim, esp. p. 189 (where she discusses Chimalpahin's use of work by Tezozomoc) and pp. 193f. (where she discusses Tezozomoc's use of earlier documents).
- ^ See, e.g., Merrim, p. 213; Carman, p. 84.
- ^ León-Portilla, p. 122.
- ^ Alcina Franch, pp. 63-67, especially at pp. 64 and 66.
- ^ Letter dated 6 April 1609 from Salva, publ. in the preliminares to the IIH online edn at pp. XXIf. The evidence that Torquemada took it to Spain resides in the permits issued in New Spain for his departure and Spain for his return (unfortunately, lacking dates) - see León-Portilla, pp. 40-42.
- ^ León-Portilla: permits issued in Mexico before departure (including the licence granted by the provincial dated 17 May 1612), and Torquemada's presence in Xochimilco on 10 October 1613, p. 40; recommendations issued in Madrid, p. 41 (one, acting at the request of a senior Franciscan, with oversight of all the friars in the Indies, was by fray Francisco de Arribas, confessor of King Philip III of Spain; the other, acting by order of the Royal Council of Castile, was by Pedro de Valencia, chronicler royal).
- ^ León-Portilla, p. 41.
- ^ . . en el cuerpo de la historia y en las márgenes, eran innumerables las faltas (in the body of the History and in the margins, the mistakes were countless). The Proemio to the 2nd edn (dated 1725 although the title page says 1723) is in the preliminares to the IIH online edn (pp. VII-XVI). Gurría Lacroix, p. 469, says the missing passages are the last paragraph of chapter 22, and the whole of chapter 66, but without identifying the book(s). Each of books 2, 4, 5, and 20 has more than 65 chapters, and only books 12, 18 and 21 have less than 22.
- ^ Gurría Lacroix, p. 469: "[Los índices] son en verdad, de una utilidad y erudición formidables y ojalá que en la actualidad no se omitiera este tipo de aparato científico, en obras similares."
- ^ Gurría Lacroix, pp. 468 and 469. A comparable dedication to the Heavenly King appears in a book of Nahuatl sermons published in Mexico in 1606 written by fray Juan Bautista, former teacher and singular amigo (special friend) of Torquemada - as he describes himself in his own prólogo. The title-page of Juan Bautista's book opens with these words: "A Iesu Christo S[eñor] N[uestro] ofrece este sermonario en lengua mexicana su indigno siervo Fr[ay] Ioan Baptista . . (To Jesus Christ Our Lord, his unworthy servant Juan Bautista offers this book of sermons in the Mexican language). The dedication is repeated in a verse (v.2b) from the Vulgate edition of Psalm 45 (44) printed under an engraving of Jesus (Iesu Christo Nazareno) on the title-page: Dico ego opera mea Regi (I recite my works to the King).
- Pauline Epistles(1 Tim.1:17) : "regi autem saeculorum inmortali invisibili soli Deo honor et gloria in saecula saeculorum amen" (But to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen).
- ^ Gurría Lacroix, pp. 431-435.
- ^ pp. 467-470.
- ^ For the Proemio see the preliminares to the IIH online edn, at pp. IX-XVI. The relevant parts are quoted by Gurría Lacroix.
- ^ One in the Royal Library, one in the Colegio Imperial of the Jesuits, and one in a private collection.
- ^ See remarks in footnote 1 on the first page of the general introduction by León-Portilla to the critical edition published by IIH (vol. 7, pp.7-11).
- ^ See León-Portilla: Advertencia to the completed work, pp. V and VI of the preliminares to the online edn; general introduction to volume 7 (pp. 7-11); and the Presentación dated May, 2010 on the home page of the project on the IIH website accessed, 15 January 2014. The completed work was warmly applauded by, e.g., Woodrow Borah in his review in The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Aug., 1985), pp. 564-565 ("The great project has borne rich yield. We should wish for more seminars of this kind"), but not without reservations as to the decision to modernise the text).
- ^ See Phelan, p. 117.
- ^ See Alcina Franch, Spanish text republished in 1988, p. 70.
- ^ Villalba, p.39.
- ^ Rubial García, at p. 351:- ". . la obra de Torquemada era algo más que una versión censurada de la de Mendieta. Con una visión universalista . . Con su estudio, la cultura indígena, más bien la náhuatl, se insertaba en el contexto de la civilización universal a la altura de Grecia, Roma o Egipto . . Más que un texto histórico, la obra de Torquemada es una especulación teológica, surgida para explicar, dentro del esquema filosófico occidental, la existencia de los indios americanos y el papel que su conquista y evangelización jugaron dentro del contexto de la historia de la salvación".
- ^ Bancroft, p. 505.
- ^ Preibish, p. 20. At the time, he was librarian and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian bibliographer at Syracuse University (New York).
- ^ Ronald J. Morgan, Spanish American Saints and the Rhetoric of Identity, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2002, pp. 39-66.
- ^ See the prólogo of Juan Bautista to his Sermonario en lengua mexicana (1606). Also, León-Portilla, p. 18 (in the footnote carried over from the previous page), and p. 31; and Rubial García, pp. 343f.
- ^ Monarquía indiana, Lib. XX, cap. 79 quoted by León-Portilla at pp. 27f.).
- ^ Excerpts from two of the letters (both dated to October 1620) are in León-Portilla, at pp. 44f. The two alegatos (discussed ibid. at pp. 46f.) were published by Icazbalceta along with Mendieta's Historia in: Códice Mendieta, Documentos franciscanos siglos XVI y XVII, Nueva colección de documentos para la historia de México, México, 1892, Vol. 5, p. 125-240.
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- –"Bibliografía sobre fray Juan de Torquemada". Fray Juan de Torquemada, Monarquía indiana. Vol. 7. Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas (UNAM). 1983. pp. 455–465.
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- Rubial García, Antonio (2002). "La crónica religiosa: Historia sagrada y conciencia colectiva". In Chang-Rodríguez, Raquel (coordinadora) (ed.). Historia de la literatura mexicana, Vol. 2: La cultura letrada en la Nueva España del siglo XVII. México: Siglo veintiuno editores. pp. 325–371.
- Victoria, José Guadalupe (1990). "Noticias sobre la destrucción del retablo del Tlatelolco". Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas. 16 (61): 73. . Vol. XVI, núm. 61, pp. 73–80
- Victoria, José Guadalupe (1994). Un pintor en su tiempo: Baltasar de Echave Orio. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, a research institute of UNAM.
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External links
- Picture of the Cloister of the Monastery of Santiago Tlatelolco
- Encarta (Archived 2009-10-31) (in Spanish)