• Catecismo pictórico Otomí (Pictorial catechism in Otomí)

Extent:

• 1 v. (26 leaves) : paper, ill. ; 8 x 6 cm.

Format:

• Manuscript
• Book

Abstract:

• A pictorial prayer books that contain the catechism of the Catholic Church in picture writing. In this manuscript, as in most surviving examples, the drawings have little relationship to the traditional forms of Mexican Indian manuscript painting. The document has 51 illustrated pages and one gloss. Also there is a curious legend written on a preliminary leaf "Alaja preciosal cogida al enemigo en Sn. Yago del Cerro".

Description:

• Decoration: watercolor illustrations throughout.

Binding note:

• Paper wrappers, sewn.

Subject:

• Catholic Church—Catechisms—Otomi
• Picture-writing—Mexico
• Otomi language—Texts
• Indigenous Studies

Provenance:

• The manuscript is undoubtedly one of several manuscripts acquired by J.M.A. Aubin from Francisco Pérez about 1830-1840 (see Aubin, quoted in Boban, 1891, 2: 178,181). It was listed, together with the other "Testerian" manuscript (no. 3b) in the Garrett collection, as lot 238 of a Sotheby and Co. catalog of November, 1936, and four of its pages were reproduced in that catalog (Sotheby and Co., 1936: 35 and plate labeled "lot 238"). It was purchased by Garrett in November of that year through or from Bernard Quaritch. On the verso side of a preliminary leaf is Garrett's accession mark, "R.G., Nov. 1936". The Princeton manuscript was no. 3 of List No. 3 of books and manuscripts deposited by Garrett in the Institute for Advanced Study in 1942.

Former owner:

• Aubin, J. M. A. (Joseph Marius Alexis), 1802-1891

Edm rights:

• No Known Copyright

View in catalog:

• https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/9939242343506421

Curator's notes:

• Otomí, Spanish
  México, circa 1775–1825, paper

  From the 16th century onwards the Franciscan Jacobo de Testera used a pictorial writing system to teach the Christian catechism to indigenous peoples of Mexico unfamiliar with alphabetic writing. The pictorial content, however, has little relationship to traditional Mexican paintings. This manuscript was meant for the Otomí, an indigenous people in Mexico. They use different native terms for themselves and their languages, which is why the foreign term Otomí, derived from Nahuatl, is still in common use when referring to these groups as a whole.

  Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942
  Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 3a

  For further reading

  Wright Carr, David Charles. Manuscritos otomíes en la Biblioteca Newberry y la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Princeton. Guanajuata : Ediciones La Rana, 2006.

Exhibit category:

• The codex tradition
• The spread of the codex

Genre:

• Manuscripts, Maya Mexico 18th century.
• Watercolors (paintings) Mexico 18th century.
• Paper.
• manuscripts (documents)