• Ritual of the bacabs : manuscript, [between 1775 and 1800].

Collections:
  • Mesoamerican Manuscripts
  • Robert Garrett
  • Digitized Manuscripts
  • Collections Donated to Princeton University Library
  • Indigenous Cultures
Format:
  • Manuscript
  • Book
Date:
  • [between 1775 and 1800].
Subject:
Language:
View in catalog:
Call number:
  • C0744.01 (Garrett-Gates Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 1)
  • Electronic Resource
Extent:
  • 1 v. (164 leaves) : paper ; 15.3 x 10 cm.
Type:
  • Formulas, recipes, etc
  • Paper
  • Leather bindings (Binding)
  • Indulgences
  • Texts
Description:
  • Layout: 1 column, 14 lines.
  • The last 2 pages of manuscript are written on the verso of a fragment of a printed indulgence (Latin) that includes the printed date February 1779. From the language of the text it would appear that this manuscript was copied from a 16th- or 17th-century manuscript. There are two separate modern numbering systems, neither includes blank leaves.
  • Title supplied by William E. Gates.
Title sort:
  • Ritual of the bacabs : manuscript, [between 1775 and 1800].
Alternative:
  • Cana che la ba Can yaban
Spatial:
  • Mexico
Relation:
  • Robert Garrett Collection, ca. 1340 B.C.-1900s
Text language:
  • Text in Yucatec.
Binding note:
  • Leather wrapper (type unidentified).
Provenance:
  • Discovered in the Yucatan in native hands by Frederic J. Smith during the winter of 1914-1915, under the commission of William Gates; sold to Robert Garrett (purchased from William Gates in 1930); deposited by Garrett at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1942; removed from the Institute in 1949, at Garrett's request, and donated to the Princeton University Library.
Source acquisition:
  • Gift; Robert Garrett; 1949.
Donor:
  • Garrett, Robert, 1875-1961
Former owner:
  • Gates, William, 1863-1940
Created:
  • 1775-01-01T00:00:00Z/1800-12-31T23:59:59Z
Abstract:
  • The text comprises incantations and herbal remedies for the treatment of a broad range of injuries and diseases, particularly for seizures (10 spells), snake stomach (5), and bites (4). Asthma, toothache, respiratory congestion, and bone ailments are represented by two spells each, and there is a spell apiece for gout, erysipelas, fever, ulcers, eruptions, burns, running sores, gum inflammation, and placenta ejection. There are also three spells for cooling things and a spell apiece for making fire, shaping flint, and deer calling. Two spells, included in an appendix, appear to be later than those in the remainder of the text.
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/bn999802r
Location:
  • HSVM C0744.01 (Garrett-Gates Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 1)
  • HSVM Electronic Resource
  • ELF1 C0744.01 (Garrett-Gates Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 1)
  • ELF1 Electronic Resource
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
References:
  • Weeks, J.M. Mesoamerican Ethnohistory in United States Libraries, 51
Available online:
Exhibit Tags: