MEMORY OF THE WORLD REGISTER
Colección de Lenguas Indigenas
Ref N° 2006-36
PART A – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
1
SUMMARY
The patrimony proposed herein is a set of 166 books containing 128 titles, held at the Biblioteca
Pública del Estado de Jalisco «Juan Jose Arreola» (Public Library of the State of Jalisco) in
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. These books are either written in indigenous languages or contain
studies of those languages, and were produced for purposes of evangelization during the colonial
period and the 19th century. The Colección de Lenguas Indigenas (as we shall call it), exists because
to a series of historical circumstances that occurred mainly in the area known today as Mexico. These
tomes contain invaluable information covering four centuries of religious acculturation, and illustrate
the modifications of languages that were spoken in an area of the Americas that stretched beyond the
modern borders of the Mexican Republic. Furthermore, they are illustrative of the development of
linguistic historiography and historical linguistics.
The very existence of books written in Amerindian languages that date from the early Colonial Period
in Mexico is a point whose importance it would be impossible to overstate. In their cultural
development, early American languages cultivated oral traditions that were often complemented by
pictographic writing. With the onset of European contact those traditions began to be written down
using the Latin alphabet, which was adapted so as to be able to represent Mesoamerican vernaculars.
This made it possible to record the speech of autochthonous groups and reproduce it at a distance,
complete with grammatical components and most phonetic elements. It is precisely this feature that
highlights the unique nature of this material, as it is well known that very few of the contact situations
between the West and cultures from other latitudes in colonial times resulted in recordings of native
languages. Moreover, even where this did take place, specialized studies of such materials did not
appear until much later, as in colonial North America, Australia and Africa. In most of those settings,
in fact, it was necessary to wait for the emergence of modern Ethnology and Linguistics in the 19th
century to find interest in systematic analyses of the languages of indigenous peoples.
In the case of Spanish colonization, the juridical framework that evolved to legitimize Spanish
permanence in these lands obliged the King to justify this presence among indigenous peoples using
the cause of evangelization. From the outset, this initiative of religious acculturation was entrusted to
the Mendicant Orders -Franciscan, Dominican, Augustinian- while somewhat later the Jesuits and
Ordinary Clergy also participated. Present in the Christian religion since apostolic times, language
acquisition was for the missionaries a necessary facet of predication.
The first three Orders mentioned above had been involved in experiences of evangelization since the
13th century and, as a result, had developed a series of strategies for Christianizing that included
preaching in the language of the evangelized in order to assure the correct understanding of the
religious message among recent converts. It was thus that a communicative necessity -transmitting a
religious creed- led to systematic studies and recordings of a variety of languages that modern
linguists have since classified into no fewer than 18 different families.
At that exceptional moment in time, then, the conquering culture already possessed a series of
conceptual tools that facilitated their learning of the structure of Mesoamerican languages: in Europe,
Humanism had first proposed emphasizing the study and recovery of the structure of Latin that, in
their view, had been adulterated in Medieval times. This perspective, combined with experiences of
translating from Classical languages, led to the development of a series of procedures and reflections
not only on the structure of those languages, but also of language in general and of its expressive
specificities. These began to be applied, little-by-little, in the study of the European languages that had
evolved from Vulgar Latin. Both Italian and Castillian had been objects of such reflections, the former
by El Dante and Lorenzo Valla, the latter by Antonio Nebrija and, later, Juan de Valdes. Nebrija, in
fact, elaborated a Gramatica (that is, a treatise on structure and correct usage, or «Grammar») of
Castilian, but it was his Gramatica Latina1 that served as a model for the study of indigenous
American languages.
These events spurred the elaboration of a series of Artes or Gramaticas of New World languages and a
variety of other texts (Vocabularios, Confesionarios, Catecismos, Sermonarios) dealing with those
vernaculars. The early arrival of the printing press in New Spain (by 1539), propitiated the publication
of such materials in mould lettering and contributed to fixing and disseminating studies made by
missionaries. Thus, the early dates and the systematic character of the contents of these books endow
this particular collection with a double historical-cultural value. First, it has great value from the
bibliographical perspective because of the details of the paper, composition and typography used in
these early printings, and because publishing texts in indigenous languages became a particularly
popular genre for the first printing presses in North America. Second, the collection has enormous
linguistic value, as it conserves both authentic records of indigenous languages, some of which have
since disappeared forever, and the conceptual tools that were used to study them. With respect to
languages that are still used today, though by ever smaller numbers of speakers, these early
Gramaticas preserve records of the forms they displayed at the moment of contact with the Spanish as
grasped by the missionaires. Given that languages -understood as «live», dynamic beings- change over
time, these Artes, Vocabularios and Catecismos preserve a specific moment in the history of each one
of these languages. One especially pertinent example of this is Nahuatl, the most widely-spoken
language in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica. In this case, the variant recorded by those early friar-authors is
now categorized as the «classical» ancestor of its contemporary manifestations.
2
DETAILS OF THE NOMINATOR
2.1
Name (person or organisation)
The University of Guadalajara, El Colegio de Michoacan A.C.
Study and edition of the proposal
Nora Edith Jimenez Hernandez
Johannes Hubertus Cornelis Roskamp
Rosa Herminia Yanez Rosales
Marina Mantilla Trolle
Guadalupe Martfnez Corona
El Colegio de Michoacan AC
El Colegio de Michoacan AC
University of Guadalajara
University of Guadalajara
University of Guadalajara
Design and image
Oscar Humberto Nuno Flores
Veronica Alcala Garda
University of Guadalajara
University of Guadalajara
2.2
Relationship to the documentary heritage nominated
As the owner of the bibliographical and documentary materials held at the Biblioteca Pública del
Estado de Jalisco Juan Jose Arreola, the University of Guadalajara has always striven to maintain the
support of specialists in all of the areas that make up its Special Collections. Specifically, for over five
years now it has carried out joint research ventures with members of El Colegio de Michoacan, AC, a
Graduate-level research and teaching institution. El Colegio de Michoacan has also contributed the
time and effort of its researchers to this proposal.
1
Error! Main Document Only.Introductiones Latinae Explicatae, Salamanca, 1481.
This cooperation strengthens both institutions' resources, allows them to be used more efficiently and
has led to the integration of a team of specialists in history, ethnohistory, linguistics and philology that
stands out for its extensive research experience in nationally and internationally important
bibliographic and documentary collections.
2.3
Contact person (s)
Mtro. Sergio Lopez Ruelas
Dra. Marina Mantilla Trolle
Dr. Rafael Diego Fernandez Sotelo
Dra. Nora Edith Jimenez Hernandez
Coordinator of Libraries, U. of Guadalajara
Coordinator, Stabilization Project
President, El Colegio de Michoacan
Professor/Researcher, El Colegio de Michoacan
2.4
Contact details (include address, phone, fax, email)
Universidad de Guadalajara
Juarez No. 975
Piso 7
Col. Centro. c.P. 44100
Telephone:- 01-33-3134-4658 and 3134-2277
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
El Colegio de Michoacan A. C.
Martfnez de Navarrete No.505
Col. Las Fuentes C.P. 59690
Zamora Michoacan, Mexico
Telephone:- 01-351-512-0370
3
IDENTITY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE DOCUMENTARY HERITAGE
3.1
Name and identification details of the items being nominated
Colección de Lenguas Indigenas, published between the 16th and 19th centuries. Includes 128 titles.
Held at the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco Juan Jose Arreola.
3.2
Description
As mentioned above, the Colección includes 128 titles contained in 166 tomes. Please note that the
following inventory is organized in alphabetical order by author's surname, thus the number assigned
to each book in no way reflects its relative importance or date of publication. As we explain in subsections below, this Colección has been handled as such (Le., as one integrated series of books) since
early times. Nonetheless, between the date of the earliest inventory and the middle of the 20th century,
additional materials were incorporated while others disappeared. Conscious of the great value of the
Colección as a set, but also of the still greater importance of particular tomes in relation to the rest, we
have made certain distinctions among the volumes included by dividing the Colección into two parts.
The first part consists of a total of 77 titles that we have denominated the «Core» of the Colección.
This core contains the following numbers, also divided into two sections:
a) First, the 49 original editions in indigenous languages elaborated for evangelization purposes, and
published between the 16th and 19th centuries. (In order of their dates of publication, these are
numbers 63, 42, 43, 61, 5, 6, 7, 60, 128, 4, 89, 93, 11, 12, 10, 48,49, 59, 3, 52, 67, 68, 115, 113, 57,
102, 114, 50, 13, 84, 112, 74, 76, 77, 56, 92, 107, 2, 36, 1, 27, 65, 88, 51, 109, 70, 69, 71, 17).
b) Second, the 28 facsimile re-editions of these and other original works, most of which were
published in the 19th century (Numbers 111, 72, 33, 44, 35, 64, 62, 47, 26, 90, 94, 8, 91, 14, 79, 87, 9,
108, 16, 24, 66,127,15, 22, 21, 28, 53, 39). These editions are, however, almost as rare and difficult to
obtain as are the original editions.
The second part contains 51 titles, including lexicographic and grammars, dictionaries, etymologies
and studies of toponyms (some of great authority) published in the 19th and 20th centuries. These
texts were elaborated from a more modern disciplinary perspective. We include in this section the nonfacsimile re-editions of earlier works that were produced in the 20th century.
Origin
Most collections of antique books in Mexico trace their origins back to the dissolution of the cloisters
of the country's monastic orders following a decree issued by the liberal government on July 12 1859.
This measure marked a culminating episode in a long chain of confrontations between the young
independent nation of Mexico, which had adopted a laical trajectory, and the Church, one of the last
remaining institutions from the 'Ancient Regime'. This decree stripped ecclesiastical corporations of
their properties, both fixed and movable, in an attempt to restrict the power and privileges they
exercised, which had in certain ways impeded the integration of the National State. From the very
beginning of Colonial times, the religious orders were practically the only institutions that had kept
libraries, and in the performance of their daily activities they took advantage of the long western
written tradition. As the breakup of the cloisters coincided with an active period of antiquarian
collecting, the bibliographical collections from those monasteries suffered widely varying fates,
though most were damaged by loss, culling and reductions of the original series. Indeed, we know of
more than a few cases of simple pillaging. Only the few materials (like those now held in Mexico's
Biblioteca Nacional) that were received by official agencies or educational institutions escaped this
process of dispersion.
In the case of Western Mexico, the new government recovered some collections and kept them in its
custody. The 1859 decree was published in Guadalajara in October 1860, and just a few months later
(July 24 1861), the Public Library of the State of Jalisco (BPEJ) was created. The BPEJ's original
fonds consisted of books from the San Jose Seminary and various monasteries: San Francisco
(including that of Zapopan), San Agustfn, El Carmen, Santo Domingo, San Felipe de Guadalajara and
Nuestra Senora de la Merced. In an effort to integrate these collections, from 1861 to 1863 the
Library's first Director, Ignacio Acal, worked to identify and organize the books from those seven
libraries; thus commencing the consolidation of the series now known as Fondos Especiales (‘Special
Collections’). Since Acal's time, one primary problem has been the difficulty of finding trained
personnel to do these tasks.
The year 1873 saw the publication of the first «Catalogue» of the books that formed part of the
archive2. A total of 36 exemplars representing 26 titles were assigned to a section entitled Mexican
Languages: Works Written in the Idioms or Dialectics of the Nation. This fonds continued to expand,
however, as that list includes only four editions from the 16th century, 8 from the 17th, 10 from the
18th, just one from the 19th and one other tome that is undated. We should also point out that this
fonds has suffered losses: three of the original titles are no longer found in it. Later inventories inform
us that some deteriorated materials were disposed of or sent to storage. In addition, historical
documents from the Library's own archives contain evidence that shows how some unprincipled
collectors solicited materials of which the Library had more than one copy in exchange for donations
of supposedly important works. These policies from the early decades of the Library's history seem
regrettable, as this proposal's pretended goals are part of a wider project designed to stabilize the
BPEJ's «Special Collections», but one thing is clear: from the very beginning, the collection of
materials in indigenous languages was handled as a separate entity, and this is one of the factors that
justifies this proposal's reference to the entire Colección and not just to some of its rarest or oldest
volumes.
2
Catalogo de los libros que existen en la Biblioteca Pública del Estado, Guadalajara, Tipografla de S. Banda,
1873.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Catalogues Consulted for comparative Purposes:
Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico.
Biblioteca Cervantina, Mexico.
Biblioteca Francisco Burgoa, Oaxaca, Mexico. Biblioteca Nacional de Antropologfa e Historia,
Mexico.
Library of Congress, U.S.A.
John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A.
4
JUSTIFICATION FOR INCLUSION/ ASSESSMENT AGAINST CRITERIA
4.1
Authenticity
A direct examination of the exemplars has been carried out and bibliographic reference books have
been consulted to verify the authenticity of these materials.
During the examination process, in addition to evaluating the appearance and condition of the
materials, we confirmed the presence of branding marks (marcas de fuego) that indicate the monastical
library to which the books belonged. Also, the existence of the BPEJ's own property seals was verified
as proof of the tomes' early integration into the Colección. The oldest date on such a seal is 1895.
Also, the first inventories have been reviewed to confirm that the tomes of the Colección do, indeed,
appear in those lists from the early decades of existence.
With regards to bibliographic elements (physical and typographical features, contents), comparisons
have been made with descriptions found in three indispensable bibliographies:
Bibliografía mexicana del siglo XVI, by the erudite and bibliophile, Joaqufn Carda Icazbalceta (first
published in 1886), containing an inventory and description of editions printed in Mexico City in the
16th century.
La imprenta en México, 1539-1810, by the Chilean bibliophile, Jose Toribio Medina (first published in
1907), with references to the editions produced by printing presses in New Spain during the years of
Spanish dominion.
Finally, the Catalogo de obras escritas en lenguas indígenas de Mexico, o que tratan de ellas,
published by Salvador Ugarte in 1949, which holds data on 432 editions in indigenous languages from
the 16th century to the 1940s.
All of the books included in this proposal appear in the abovementioned reference works, and
correspond to the descriptions contained therein.
4.2
World significance, uniqueness and irreplaceability
The uniqueness of these materials is evident when we consider that no other process of colonization
before the 19th century was accompanied by such a systematic study of the languages of indigenous
populations. Thus, the Colección provides us with, at the very least, the vocabulary and some records
of the use of native languages of Mesoamerica.
From the linguistic point of view, every language represented in the Colección conserves all of the
unique qualities that can be attributed to a language as the invention of a human group that makes
possible inter-individual and inter-generational communication through the articulation of sounds.
Implicit in the structure of each language lies a unique way of comprehending the universe through
means of classifying objects, structuring time, differentiating social situations and relating values.
Citing Leonardo Manrique, we can affirm that each vernacular «...is a unique and peculiar
manifestation of the human species' faculty for language.»3 That is, each specific expression of
language reflects the possibilities of this historically- and socially determined faculty and, therefore,
enriches our understanding of the linguistic phenomenon.
In this series of books elaborated for the evangelization of native peoples, no fewer than 17 different
indigenous languages are represented, belonging to nine different linguistic families. Furthermore,
some of these works constitute perhaps the only existing records of certain languages; as in the cases
of coahuilteca, in which the Manual para administer 105 santos sacramentos, by Bartholomé García
(1760) is written; or Natal Lombardo's (1702) book on the Opata and Teguima languages. Sadly, these
three languages are now extinct.4
At this point, another fact becomes pertinent: although the elaboration of the Gramaticas,
Vocabularios and Manuales that make up this Colección was a result of the colonization process, the
advance of the Spanish conquerors meant the imposition of Castilian and the consequent reduction in
the use of indigenous languages as the number of native speakers diminished at an accelerated pace.
Thus, the study and revindication of these vernaculars is an urgent cause and part of a policy to
prevent their complete disappearance.
With respect to the rarity of these tomes, a review of the catalogues of the principle collections of
colonial books, both Mexican and foreign, emphasizes the importance of the Colección found at the
BPEJ. An individual who wished to consult the books of this Colección without visiting that Library
would have to visit many different repositories in the United States (including the Library of Congress
in Washington, D.C., the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island and the Nettie Lee
Benson Library in Austin, Texas), as well as various more in Mexico (Biblioteca Nacional, Biblioteca
Cervantina, Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Biblioteca Nacional de Antropologfía e Historia), France
(Bibliotheque Nationale), and England (British Library), as no other institution in the world holds all
of the publications that are in the custody of the BPEJ.
Among the rarest of the books in the Colección at the BPEJ we would mention, above all, Arte en
lengua mixteca by Friar Antonio de los Reyes (Pedro Balli, 1593), the only other exemplars of which
are in the Nettie Lee Benson Library (University of Texas) and France's Bibliotheque Nationale. No
other copy of this work has been found in Mexico5. Other works that are especially difficult to find
include:
A Iesu christo S.N. offrece este sermonario en Lengua mexicana, by Fray
Juan Baptista (Mexico, 1606).
- Doctrina y ensenanqa en la lengua Maqahua..., by Diego de Nagera Yanguas,
(printed by Iuan Ruyz, 1637)
- Conversion de piritv de indios cymanagotos, palenqves, y otros..., by Matias
Ruiz Blanco, (printed by Iuan Garcia Infan(,;6n, 1690);
- Arte de la lengua teguima vulgarmente lIamada opata, by Natal Lombardo
(printed by Miguel de Ribera, 1702);
3
Manrique Castafieda, Leonardo, Atlas cultural de Mexico: Lingiiistica, Mexico, SEP-INAH-Grupo Editorial
Planeta, 1988, p. 88.
4
Information on the book by Bartolomé García is derived from an examination of its contents, as neither its title
nor its interior pages specify the language in which it is written .
5
Dr. Michael Swanton, scholar in historical linguistics (pers. comm).
- Manual para administrar a 105 indios del idiom a cahita lo ssantos sacramentos, by Diego
Gonzalez, (printed by Dona Marfa de Rivera, 1740).
None of the above books are found in the catalogues of the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico, the
Library of Congress (U.S.A.), or the John Carter Brown Library (JCBL). We would emphasize that
the important and extensive collection at the JCBL (Providence, Rhode Island), holds fewer than 50%
of the works written in indigenous languages and printed during the Colonial Period that are currently
held at the BPEJ.
4.3
Criteria of (a) time (b) place (c) people (d) subject and theme (e) form and style
a) Time. The proposed Colección herein reflects important circumstances present during the
discovery, conquest and colonization of the Americas by the Spanish Crown, which led to the
confrontation of two completely distinct cultures. This complex process -one by no means free of
violence and contradictions- was justified by the cause of evangelization which, paradoxical as it may
seem, meant that the conqueror's reprehensible intention to abolish the religious beliefs of the native
peoples of New Spain and replace them with the Christian religion actually gave rise to the need to
achieve mutual understanding, at least for the members of the religious Orders who devoted
themselves to studying local languages. This posture had antecedents in the evangelical epoch of
Christianity when high value was placed upon the «gift of tongues»6, and in the figure of Saint Paul,
who spoke Greek to the Greeks and preached to the Hebrews in their language. To this tradition of
learning languages so as to predicate in them, we can also add the experiences of the Dominican
missionaries in Languedoc and the Franciscans' voyages to regions of Asia crossed by the route of the
silk trade.
The contributions of Humanism and its striving to correct the use of Latin also played an important
role. This cultural movement's philological current had generated a series of instruments for describing
and understanding the structure of languages (taken up by Antonio de Nebrija in his Latin Grammar)
that were used as guides in early approaches to the study of the nature of Mesoamerican languages.
Without these tools, the achievements of the friars and other clergy would have been much more
circumscribed and would probably never have been converted into elaborated Gramaticas.
The books described are important not only for their character of primacy (as they preserve the first
fruits of these labours among ethnic groups in North America), but also because they bear witness to
the accumulation of knowledge of the languages of groups that were studied over three centuries as
Spanish dominion extended and the Crown pushed forward in its attempt to extend colonial
occupation to the most peripheral regions. This is the case of the languages spoken in western and
northern New Spain. The Colección shows how the first students of native languages worked to
perfect those early instruments and in some cases replaced them with others as they struggled to
comprehend languages with structures quite distinct from those typical of other Mesoamerican
languages, as shown -to cite one example- by Benito Rinaldini's Gramatica (1743).
This temporal criterion obliges us to mention, as well, the area of linguistic change, which occurs
because languages are living elements of culture. To some degree, these Gramaticas or Vocabularios
recorded, at least partially, a series of historical forms of the languages they examined as they
underwent change over the course of four centuries.
Place. The Mesoamerican complex has been defined as a cultural area whose cultural specificity is
comparable to that of regions like Mesopotamia or China7. To this initial geographical delimitation we
6
7
6 Hch. 2, 1-11.
Paul Kirchoff, «Mesoamerica. Sus limites geognificos, composici6n etnica y caracteres culturales,»
Supplement to the journal Tlatoani, Mexico, Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, 1967
must add the civil and ecclesiastical divisions used by the Spanish authorities (audiencias,
gobernaciones, kingdoms, missionary provinces, dioceses, etc.), which tended to overlap.
Evangelization began in the high central plains of Mexico (New Spain), so it was natural that later
developments would draw upon the early experiences of Franciscan missionaries from the Province of
the Santo Evangelio and of Dominicans in the area of Oaxaca. However, the works on deposit in the
BPEJ reflect, more than any other existing source, evangelical activity in the western area of the
colonial territory, inhabited by other groups that spoke languages with very distinct structures. This is
the case of the Franciscan Province of Xalisco, whose friars were in charge of evangelizing the native
peoples that lived in what are now the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Sonora and Coahuila, as well
as part of the modern state of Texas, U.S.A. and, upon the expulsion of the Company of Jesus in 1767,
also in the Tarahumara region in the modern-day state of Sinaloa, Mexico. The territorial division
between the Franciscan and Jesuit orders in the northern New Spain coincides with the territories of
Nueva Galicia, Nuevo Santander and Nueva Extremadura.
c) Persons. To begin with, we should mention the names of the authors of these Gramaticas,
Vocabularios and Catecismos: Friar Andrés de Olmos, OFM; Alonso de Molina, OFM; Pedro de
Gante, OFM, Maturino Gilberti, OFM, Juan Bautista Viseo, OFM; Juan Bautista de Lagunas OFM;
Agustín de Vetancurt, OFM; Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Inés, OFM; Friar Miguel de Tellechea,
OFM, Bartolomé García, OFM Juan de Córdova, OP; Francisco Alvarado, OP; Antonio de los Reyes,
o. P, Diego de Basalenque, OSA; Horacio Carochi, SJ; Joseph de Ortega, SJ; Natal Lombardo, SJ;
Benito Rinaldini, SJ., etc.
However, the friars and priests who learned these languages were aided by working with informants in
the different communities in which they carried out their ministries. These informants helped them to
know and understand their languages and records, to cull their vocabularies, to adapt expressions that
aided them in articulating their religious message and to elaborate textual genres suitable for their
evangelical enterprise. Thus, we could say that authorship was shared with local communities and
their informants, though the latter often remained anonymous. Among the actors involved in this
process we know of the role played by the Texcocan noble Fernando de Alva Ixtlixóchitl and by
students at the Colegio de Santiago de Tlatelolco, (including the celebrated Antonio Valeriano) in
elaborating texts in Nahuatl, or the contribution of the son of the last P'urhépecha governor, Antonio
Huitziméngri, to learning the Tarascan language.
Another facet that should be mentioned is the role of the early printers in New Spain, and their
successors in the 17th and 18th centuries: Juan Pablos, Antonio de Espinosa, Pedro Balli, Pedro and
Melchor Ocharte, Diego Lopez Davalos and his widow, Francisco Salvago, Diego Gutierrez, Juan
Ruiz, Francisco ROdrfguez Lupercio and heirs, Diego Fernandez de Leon, María de Benavides,
Francisco Rivera Calderón, María de Rivera and heirs, and Joseph Bernardo de Hogal and heirs.
d) Subject and theme. The contents of the works that make up the Colección de Lenguas Indigenas
reflect the fruits of writers, most of whom belonged to the Mendicant Orders or the regular clergy,
who authored them in order to advance the cause of evangelization among the colonized population.
These works were intended for use by the members of the Church, perhaps fellows of the same Order
or by those of the secular clergy8. They can be divided into two main headings: those that contain
strictly linguistic information related to Mesoamerican languages (such as the Artes (grammatical
descriptions) and Vocabularios (bilingual dictionaries); and those that include information concerning
8
A series of cédulas by Felipe II established that both secular and regular clergy appointed to ecclesiastical
offices had to study Nálhuatl. The cédula issued in El Pardo on 2 December 1578 and another issued by the
Crown in the 17th century, ratified the measure that no cleric who did not understand Náhuatl would be
authorized to lead a mission or parish; thus, the study of language became virtually obligatory. See,
Recopilación de las leyes de los Reinos de lndias (Book I, Title VI, Law 30).
the Christian religion presented in native vernaculars. In this second category we find the following
works:
- Doctrinas or Catecismos;
Confesionarios (questionnaires based on the Ten Commandments, designed to evaluate the
compliance of the faithful);
- Sermonarios:- collections of sermons for Sunday Mass and festive occasions.
Though elaborated for purposes of evangelization, some of the texts can be considered gems of
linguistic research of certain Mesoamerican languages. In his book on Tepehuán (1743), for example,
Benito Rinaldini included an Arte, a Vocabulario, a Confesionario and a Catecismo, which means that
authorship was shared and the work's view of the language and population that Rinaldini was charged
with evangelizing is broad and multi-faceted.
With respect to linguistic information, we would emphasize that both the early Artes from New Spain
and the later 19th-century Gramaticas are works that demonstrate the stage of development of
grammatical description that was attained in relation to Mesoamerican languages. We can observe in
these books just how, over time, a better understanding of the languages evolved, together with the
development of the descriptive tools that were applied. This is clear at both the phonological (some
truly outstanding books contain descriptions of the correct pronunciation of the sounds) and the
morphological-syntactic and semantic levels. From the first Náhuatl grammar written by the
Franciscan Friar Andrés de Olmos in 1547 (but not printed until the 19th century), that of Antonio del
Rincón in 1595, that of Horacio Carochi in 1645, and that of Agustán de Vetancurt in 1673, the
observer can clearly perceive an increasingly accurate understanding of the structure of that language.
It is probable that this progression can also be observed between the first grammar of a Mesoamerican
language ever published, the Arte de la lengua de Michuacan by Maturino Gilberti (1558), and the
grammar based on this same language but elaborated by Diego de Basalenque in 1714.
In the 19th-century works we find that the term Artes has changed to that of Gramática. Printers in
Mexico still published texts in indigenous languages, whose users must have been the same as those of
the Colonial period: members of the regular or secular clergy for whom knowledge of languages was
'indispensable' whether to undertake evangelization or reinforce it. These 19th-century books also
reflect contemporary currents of thought and theories concerning the teaching of second languages; a
topic in which local authors seem to have been quite up-to-date.
As this proposal shows, the Colección de Lenguas Indigenas includes elements for a history of
Mesoamerican languages and a sample of the contribution that these languages made to the
development of historical linguistics. By studying the works included in the Colección, scholars and
native speakers of indigenous languages, historians of linguistic science, of the printing press in
Mexico and of processes of evangelization, can all access a universe that is both surprising and
enriching, due to the linguistic diversity it holds and the variety of intellectual efforts to which it bears
witness.
e) Form and style. The texts include a large number of Artes or Gramaticas (28 titles), many of which
reflect the influence of the Gramatica Latina by Antonio de Nebrija (known then as Artes del Antonio
or, simply, El Antonio). There are also more than ten Vocabularios, while the rest of the Colección is
made up of works that deal with evangelization and predication: 17 Doctrinas, Sermonarios and
Catecismos, 4 Vocabularios. Finally, there are 7 Cartas for teaching people to read.
The Colección exhibits works of all the genres related to evangelization, as mentioned above, some
strictly linguistic, such as the Artes and Vocabularios, others with a purely religious content. With
respect to the works in the latter heading, we must emphasize that they are not simple indigenous
versions of Christian elements but, rather, and certainly in the case of the Confesionarios, true
ethnographic studies whose authors spelled out for each one of the Ten Commandments the «forms of
sinning» that he observed among the population he was charged with evangelizing9.
4.4
Issues of rarity, integrity, threat and management
4.4.1 As the party responsible for the conservation of all materials of a historical character and artistic
works, the University of Guadalajara is in charge of the administration and operation of the Biblioteca
Pública. Recognition from the UNESCO would represent for this institution a confirmation that we
are following the correct path in terms of the conservation of certain elements of collective memory
that are stored in this collection of books. Since its foundation, the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de
Jalisco has had its own budget and personnel and since it was turned over to the University, this
institution has taken responsibility for the ordinary budget and special projects for the conservation
and diffusion of the important works contained there. The University of Guadalajara assigns an
ordinary budget for the organization of the Biblioteca Pública to cover the administrative personnel,
the employees who offer services to the public and the workers who attend to the labors of
maintenance.
4.4.2 As mentioned in sub-section 5, «Legal Information», documents exist which prove that the
intellectual works stored at the Biblioteca Pública do indeed form part of the patrimony and are the
property of the University of Guadalajara; thus no legal impediment or burden threatens or disputes
the ownership of these materials. In addition, the BPEJ has the appropriate security measures and
guarantees access to users. The University of Guadalajara considers obtaining inscription of great
importance as it has discovered that in earlier times the Colección suffered losses. Hence, it wishes to
avoid such eventualities in the future and assure the conservation of the series in its entirety.
4.4.3 The physical conditions of the building that currently houses the Biblioteca Pública del Estado
de Jalisco Juan Jose Arreola are under constant supervision, as it was damaged by an earthquake in
2003. Preventive measures were instituted so as not to move the materials of a historical character
until such time as the construction of a new site is completed.
Though it is undeniable that the 20th century witnessed a relative lull in the administration and control
of its valuable materials, the Stabilization Project for the Special Collections is now making it possible
to generate improved conditions for their conservation and to assure, when the time comes, an orderly
and systematic transfer to their new home. In an effort to improve the quality and professionalism of
its cataloguing and administrative procedures, the University incorporated 16 students from the
History Department through its Stimulus Programme for Outstanding Students. These university
students were trained and receive ongoing orientation in the different areas of work in the library.
Supervision of these processes is entrusted to specialists in a variety of fields who assure that the tasks
of conservation, clearing and inventory of the Special Collections are carried out in accordance at the
highest quality standards, just as the collection merits for its great value. The responsibility for these
processes and their administration are in the hands of Dr. Marina Mantilla Trolle.
5
LEGAL INFORMATION
5.1.
Owner of the documentary heritage (name and contact details)
The University of Guadalajara
The «Organic Law» of the University of Guadalajara, published in the Official Bulletin of the
Government of the State of Jalisco (Periódico Ofical del Gobierno del Estado de Jalisco) on
September 29 1925, establishes that this «House of Studies» includes, among other State
dependencies, the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco.
In the same year, the University of Guadalajara received the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco,
including the inventories that attest to the existence of the Colección de Lenguas Indígenas.10
9
Error! Main Document Only.See, Azoulai, 1993; Yafiez Rosales, 2004.
The current «Organic Law» of the University of Guadalajara, published in the Official Bulletin of the
Government of the State of Jalisco on January 15 1994, establishes it as a decentralized public
organism of the Government of the State of Jalisco, with autonomy, juridical personality and its own
patrimony (Article 1).
Also in its Article 84, this Law stipulates that the patrimony of the University of Guadalajara is
conformed, among other elements, by:
«11. The goods, [be they] immovable or movable, [and] securities, credits, cash, artistic and
intellectual works and copyright that accompany them, inventions and patents registered for them,
equipment, laboratories, livestock and others that it currently possesses by original title, as well as
those that in the future it may obtain.»
5.2
Custodian of the documentary heritage (name and contact details, if different to owner)
The University of Guadalajara through the Biblioteca Pública del Estado de Jalisco Juan Jose
Arreola.
5.3
Legal status:
(a) Category of ownership
Public: The University of Guadalajara is a decentralized, public organism of the government of the
State of Jalisco, with autonomy, juridical personality and its own patrimony (Article 1, current
«Organic Law» of the University of Guadalajara).
(b) Accessibility
The documents contained in the Colección de Lenguas Indígenas are over one hundred years old.
Thus, in accordance with Article 29 of the «Federal Copyright Law» (Ley Federal de Derechos de
Autor), their divulgation is «open», with no restrictions, to all researchers who accredit themselves as
such and are supported by an institution or corporation devoted to research or teaching. Due to the
nature of this library/archive, our services are also sought out by foreign institutions and researchers;
thus we are now working to digitize these materials in order to offer the services of a «virtual» library.
(c) Copyright status
The Colección includes a total of 166 books with 128 titles, whose authors are identifiable. They were
printed between 1547 and 1904, and so have been accessible for over 100 years. For this reason, and
in accordance with Articles 18, 19 and 29 of the «Federal Copyright Law», the authors of the works
maintain their moral rights and divulgation is open, by virtue of the fact that more than 100 years have
passed since their printing, which occurred between the 16th and early 20th centuries.
(d) Responsible administration
The University of Guadalajara is the prime party responsible for the Colección, an obligation it
exercises through one of its dependencies, the Biblioteca Pública del Estado Juan Jose Arreola, which
pertains to the Coordination of Libraries under the auspices of the General Academic Coordination.
In accordance with the «Organic Law» of the University of Guadalajara, issued by the State Congress
of Jalisco, the University of Guadalajara is a decentralized organism of the State of Jalisco, with
autonomy, juridical personality and its own patrimony. Also, in its Article 84, this Law stipulates that
the patrimony of the University of Guadalajara is made up of: The goods, immovable or movable,
securities, credits, cash, artistic and intellectual works, copyright, patents, contributions, benefits,
subsidies, profits, yields, donations, inheritances, and any other kind of benefit in cash or in kind.»
With respect to the University's General Statutes, Article 103 section III, establishes that the General
Coordination of Patrimony, a dependency of the General Secretariat, is responsible for coordinating
10
Error! Main Document Only.Catalogue of the books that exist in the Biblioteca Pública del Estado, Vol. 2,
Guadalajara, Tip. De S. Banda, calle de la Maestranza no. 4, Guadalajara, 1873.
and supervising the inventory, and for the custody and administration of the properties and rights that
constitute the University's patrimony.
In relation to the Control of the Patrimonial Properties of the University that are of an artistic, cultural
and historical character, the General Coordination of Patrimony, through its Unit of Patrimonial
Control, maintains registers of the correspondinginventory that includes: author, title, characteristics,
materials, dimensions, conditions of conservation and a digitized image of each work. The
bibliographical holdings, incunabula, historical photographs, historical documents, and collections,
among others, are registered in the inventory of Artistic, Cultural and Historical Works, signed by the
Head of the dependency (in this case, the Director of the Biblioteca Pública del Estado Juan Jose
Arreola) and by a guardian who assumes responsibility for the preservation and custody of the
patrimony.
(e) Other factors
The University's normative context constitutes the juridical basis for the legal protection of its
patrimony. Institutional representation to attend all juridical controversies that may arise rests with the
General Attorney of the University of Guadalajara.
With regards to the technical measures instituted for the preservation of these patrimonial properties,
The Coordination of Libraries, in general, and the Biblioteca Pública del Estado Juan Jose Arreola, in
particular, assume responsibility for the maintenance and conservation, and the control measures that
govern consulting and internal administration.
6
MANAGEMENT PLAN
6.1
We would point out, first, that the Biblioteca Pública del Estado has always had the basic
personnel required for its good functioning and that the University of Guadalajara has been
responsible for maintaining the workforce and the buildings with the supervision and support of the
Coordination of Patrimony, Works and Projects (Coordinación de Patrimonio y de Obras y
Proyectos), to assure the good maintenance and protection of all materials housed therein.
Today, conditions at the BPEJ have improved markedly thanks to the Stabilization Project for Special
Collections (proyecto de Estabilización de los Fondos Especiales), which involves 16 students from
the Department of History through the University of Guadalajara's «Incentive Programme for
Outstanding Students». These young people were trained and receive ongoing training and supervision
from specialists in several areas in order to carry out their tasks of conservation, cleaning and
inventory of the «Ancient Collections» (Fondos Antiguos). The person responsible for administering
and overseeing these processes is Dr. Marina Mantilla Trolle.
7
CONSULTATION
7.1
Provide details of consultation about this nomination with (a) the owner of the heritage (b) the
custodian (c) your national or regional Memory of the World committee
Consulting these materials is open to the scientific community, as long as those who request access to
the service accredit their ascription to a research centre or institution that guarantees the good handling
of these materials and assures the Institution that proper acknowledgment will be made.
We have begun the process of digitizing these materials so as to integrate them into a «Virtual
Library.» We also have a Web-page that allows access to the materials that have been digitized up to
now.
PART B – SUBSIDIARY INFORMATION
8
ASSESSMENT OF RISK
8.1
Detail the nature and scope of threats to this documentary heritage (see 5.5)
At present, we consider that the conditions for the preservation of the materials are stable, as is the
edifice that houses the Fondos Especiales. However, work has begun on a project for the «New
Library», which includes a building designed ex profeso to improve both service and the physical
conditions of all materials in the collections.
9
ASSESSMENT OF PRESERVATION
9.1
Detail the preservation context of the documentary heritage (see 3.3)
To assure that the integral preservation of the Colección keeps pace with the possibilities of diffusion,
we have begun to digitize its works and to construct a Web-page, currently in progress. The Internet
address will be:
http://www.fondoshistoricos.udg. mxjlenguas i/default.php.
A catalogue already exists and digitization will be completed in three months' time. To assure better
identification, digitization began with images of the covers and the specific, distinguishing marks of
the works. This part of the work has now been completed.
With respect to the repository itself, it is a storage area that has been remodeled and modified so as to
introduce improvements in environmental conditions. It now has airconditioning and humidity
controls, as well as security services and alarms to prevent theft and fire.
PART C - LODGEMENT
This nomination is lodged by:
(Please print name)………………………………………………………………………...
(Signature)………………………………… (Date)………………………………………