• Codex cuara, [16--?].

Created:
  • 1600-01-01T00:00:00Z
Extent:
  • 1 v. (22 leaves) : paper ; 31 x 22 cm.
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/bz60cx55h
Language:
  • Spanish; Castilian
  • Burmese
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
View in catalog:
Call number:
  • C0744.02 (Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 14)
  • Electronic Resource
Format:
  • Manuscript
  • Book
Type:
  • Texts
  • Paper
  • Pen works
  • Watercolors (paintings)
  • Unbound sheets (Binding)
Description:
  • Decoration: 19 full-page pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings. Plate 1 depicts Miguel Cuara seated below a device surmounted by an eagle. There are simple plans of properties and show fields, houses, and water courses. It includes a fragmentary leaf with a calendar wheel with golssed European month names; the months from May through September are shown by crescent moons and human faces. The nine remaining pages containing drawings of men, women, and children in Indian costume.
  • Other titles: Códice de la Familia Cuara; Genealogía de la Familia Cuara; Genealogía de los Caciques Cuara Irecha de Patzcuaro.
Subject:
  • Cuara family
  • Tarascan language—Texts
  • Land tenure—Mexico
  • Tarasco Indians—land tenure—Mexico
  • Paper
  • Pen works—Mexico—17th century
  • Watercolors (paintings)—Mexico—17th century
  • Unbound sheets (Binding)—17th century
Title sort:
  • Codex cuara, [16--?].
Spatial:
  • Mexico
Text language:
  • Text in Tarascan.
Binding note:
  • Conserved and bound, 2006.
Source acquisition:
  • Gift Robert Garrett, 1949.
Date:
  • [16--?].
Abstract:
  • The manuscript represents the land titles and genealogy of the descendants of Don Miguel Irecha ("king") Cuar (also spelled Quara) . It was probably made to document claims of heredity rights or possession of lands within the context of some litigation. It includes six pages of Tarascan and Spanish text. On one of the plates is the following inscription: "...Dios trin y uno que tien el poder padre hijo señor desta trira" (God, three and one, the power, father and son, the holy spirit, amen. Titles of the ancient lords of this land).
Location:
  • HSVM C0744.02 (Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 14)
  • HSVM Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 C0744.02 (Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 14)
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Provenance:
  • The manuscript was secured in 1892 for the Museo Michoacano, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico by Dr. Nicolas León from the descendants of the Cuara family (presumably from Patzcuaro, Michoacan). In reporting this, León added that the codex was no longer in that museum. In 1939 the director of the Museo Michoacano stated in a letter to the Museo Nacional in Mexico City that the "Códice de la Familia Cuara" was in private possession but did not indicate that he knew (or did not know) who that person was (later in Museo nacional de Antropologia, Mexico, administrative files). The codex is described on page one of a two-page typed and undated advertisement on the letterhead of the Mexico City book dealer "Mexlibris". It is not know from whom Garrett acquired the manuscript and it is not identifiable in the three lists of books and manuscripts given by him to the Institute for Advanced Study in 1942 unless it is comprehended under no. 11 of List 3, "several damaged documents, mostly XVIII century (?)" or in the addenda to that list, "a few papers, apparently relating to various matters."
Former owner:
  • León, Nicolás, 1859-1929
  • Museo Michoacano
Relation:
  • Robert Garrett Collection, ca. 1340 B.C.-1900s
Donor:
  • Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961
Alternative:
  • Códice de la Familia Cuara
  • Genealogía de la Familia Cuara
  • Genealogía de los Caciques Cuara Irecha de Patzcuaro
Exhibit Tags:
Available online: