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Small Particulars: Variant Titles and Dates to the Manuscript of Fray Diego Durán

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

John R. Hébert  and
Abby L. Forgang
John R. Hébert
Affiliation:
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Abby L. Forgang
Affiliation:
American University, Washington, D.C.
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Extract

The famous sixteenth-century illustrated manuscript Historia by Fray Diego Durán is an extensive account of Aztec/Mexica history and rites, and a description of the Aztec calendar. Although the exact date of completion is unknown, there are two internal dates in the text (1579 and 1581) which have been used to date the original document. Durán's account was recopied by Mexican scholar José F. Ramírez in 1854 and a two volume printed version with the title Historia de Nueva España y Yslas de Tierra Firme was published in Mexico between 1867 and 1880. Recently a manuscript copy of Durán's text, transcribed in the 1840s, was rediscovered at the Library of Congress containing the following title and description:

Historia antigua de la Nueva España con noticias de los ritos y costumbres de los Yndios y esplicacion del calendario mexicano por Fray Diego Durán, Escrita en el año de 1585. [Peter Force Papers, Series VIII C (Hispanic Collection), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington].

Type
Archival Report
Information
The Americas , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , October 1998 , pp. 299 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1998

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References

1 Among the manuscripts and manuscript transcripts accompanying the Durán manuscript transcript in the Peter Force Collection (Series VIII C), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, are the following items as listed in the register to that collection: 1.) Casas, B., de las. Historia Apologética (Transcribed by Luis de Tío in 1846)Google Scholar 4 volumes. 2.) de las, Casas, B.. Historia de las Indias Google Scholar (Eighteenth century transcription) 4 volumes. 3.) de las, Casas, B.. Historia o Brevísima (transcribed 1772)Google Scholar 1 volume. 4.) de las, Casas, B.. Notes and Transcriptions of other writings.Google Scholar Bound with Oviedo. 1 volume. 5.) José, Cortés. Memorias … 1779 Google Scholar bound with Diario y Derrotero of Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Feo. Ata. Domínguez 1776–77. Invoice 1799. 1 volume. 6.) Diego, Durán. Historia Antigua 1585. Nineteenth century transcription. 3 volumes. 7.) Hidalgo y Costilla, Miguel. Trial Record 1811 Google Scholar [1801]. 1 volume. 8.) Muñoz, Juan Bautista. Historia del Nuevo Mundo 1794? 1 typed copy. 1 volume. 9.) Oviedo y Valdes, Gonzalo Fernández de. Historia Natural 2d and 3d part, eighteenth century transcription. 3 volumes. 10.) Pérez de Ribas, Andres. Crónica y Historia. Transcription by L.F. Tasistro 1849. 1 volume. 11.) Relación de las ceremonias y ritos y población … “Michoacan”. Commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza. Transcribed from El Escorial in the nineteenth century. 1 volume. 12.) Thierry de Menonville, Nicholas Joseph. Voyage Polytechnique, Traite sur la cultura. Transcription 1 volume. 13.) Veytia, Mariano. Historia del origen. Transcription in the nineteenth century. 2 volumes. 14.) Miscelánea Nueva España (Diego Panes). Transcription by Diego Muñoz y Camargo. Nineteenth century transcription. 1 volume.

2 Benedict Warren, J., Hans P. Kraus Collection of Hispanic Manuscripts (Washington: Library of Congress, 1974), p. 71.Google Scholar On the chronicle of Fernando Alvarado Tezozomoc.

3 Heyden, Doris, “Translator’s Introduction,” in Diego Durán, The History of the Indies of New Spain. Trans. Doris Heyden. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), pp. xxv–xxxi.Google Scholar

4 Ibid.

5 Cited in Ignacio Bernal, “Introduction,” in Durán, Diego, The Aztecs: The History of the Indies of New Spain. Trans. Doris Heyden and Fernando Horcasitas. (New York: Orion Press, 1964), pp. xxi–xxii.Google Scholar

6 Heyden, , in Durán, , The History of the Indies of New Spain, p. xxxii.Google Scholar

7 Edmundo O’Gorman, “Prólogo” in de Acosta, José, Historia natural y moral de las Indias, Second Edition. (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1962).Google Scholar

8 Bernal, The Aztecs, p. xxi.

9 Heyden, in Durán, The History of the Indies of New Spain, pp. xxii–xxiii.

10 Peter Force Correspondence File 1850–1851, Series I, Peter Force Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington.

11 Rich, Obadiah, Catalogue of a Collection of Manuscripts (London: W. Bowen [1845?]).Google Scholar

12 Ibid.

13 Brownrigg, Edwin Blade, Colonial Latin American Manuscripts and Transcripts in the Obadiah Rich Collection: An Inventory and Index. (New York: New York Public Library, 1978), p. 51.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., p. vii.

15 José F. Ramírez, “Introducción,” in Durán, Diego, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y Islas de Tierra Firme. La publica con un Atlas de Estampadas, Notas, é Ilustraciones José F. Ramírez (México: Imprenta de J.A. Andrade y F. Escalante, 1867), p. vi.Google Scholar

16 Heyden, in Durán, The History of the Indies of New Spain, p. xxxiii.

17 Paz, Julián, Catálogo de manuscritos de America existentes en la Biblioteca Nacional (Madrid, 1933).Google Scholar Robertson apparently confused the Spanish bibliographer Julián Paz with the esteemed Mexican author.

18 Robertson, Donald, “The Paste-Over Illustrations in the Durán Codex of Madrid,” Tlalocan 5:4 (1968), 340–348 Google Scholar. For an important addition to the scholarship, see Boone, Elizabeth Hill, “The nature and earlier versions of Diego Duran’s ‘Historia de las yndias’ in Madrid,” in Smoke and Mist; Mesoamerican Studies in Memory of Thelma D. Sullivan Kathryn Josserand, J. and Dakin, Karen, eds. (Oxford, England: B.A.R., 1988), pp. 41–58.Google Scholar BAR International Series 402.

19 Paz, Catálogo.

20 Ramírez, in Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España, p. vi.

21 Paz, , Catálogo, p. 30.Google Scholar

22 Transcribed by Ramírez, , in Durán, , Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España, p. 1.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., pp. vi–vii.

24 Robertson, , “The Paste-Over Illustrations,” pp. 340–348.Google Scholar

25 Heyden, , in Durán, , The History of the Indies of New Spain, p. 562.Google Scholar

26 Diego Durán, Historia, Peter Force Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, folio 151.

27 Ibid.

28 Transcribed by Ramírez, , in Durán, Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España, p. 67.Google Scholar

29 Durán, Diego, Book of the Gods and Rites and the Ancient Calendar. Trans. Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden, (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), p. 390.Google Scholar