Texas’ history and culture has been heavily influenced by Mexico, its southern neighbor. Mexico was considered a Spanish colony—New Spain—from 1521 until 1810, when Mexican insurgents fought back in rebellion. In its heyday, New Spain was a colonial territory that encompassed Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Central America, the Philippines and the southwestern United States, including Texas.
At Texas A&M, a special collection of books known as the Colonial Mexican Collection offers scholars an invaluable look into the early New World. The collection is managed by Anton duPlessis '03, a clinical assistant professor and library curator, who also serves as director of the Los Primeros Libros de las Américas project, an initiative to digitize these early works to ensure their future accessibility for scholars across the world.
What is the Colonial Mexican Collection?
The Colonial Mexican Collection consists of books, manuscripts and other documents from the 16th century and offers scholars a unique opportunity to study Mexico’s cultural past. Many of the items in this collection are rarely, if ever, seen in their original format. The content of this collection appeals to researchers from a variety of disciplines, including scholars interested in the study of history, religion, literature, politics, art, architecture, linguistics and other topics relating to life in New Spain.
The books are unique. Many have covers that were made by wrapping vellum, or sheets made from dried animal skin, over thin wooden panels. About 150 books in this collection also include “firebrands,” or imprinted marks to show ownership, similar to cattle brands. The books’ pages are made from cotton paper and sewn together, some using glue to seal the edges.
What is the Primeros Libros project?
The Primeros Libros de las Américas project is an initiative to digitize the first books, or the "primeros libros," printed in the Americas before 1601. There are 220 editions believed to have been produced in Mexico and 20 from Peru.
The project’s website (http://primeroslibros.org) was launched in August 2010 and houses digital copies of these works in a variety of formats, such as JPEG and PDF files. Available free of charge, the website also offers viewers navigational aids and metadata describing the materials.
Who is involved in this project?
There are more than 25 partners from five countries, but more have been invited to collaborate, spanning the globe from Mexico and Spain to the United States, Chile and Peru. As for U.S. participants, Cushing Memorial Library and Archives has partnered with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas; the Houghton Library at Harvard University; the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University; the Bancroft and the Robbins Collections from UC Berkeley; the Latin American Library at Tulane University; the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington D.C., and the Huntington Library in California.
Through the Primeros Libros project, these institutions can share equipment, training and technological resources. Mexican scholars are translating some of the primeros libros related to medicine and pharmacology into Spanish from Latin. Both Texas A&M and the University of Texas have obtained grants from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop the technology and implement the workflows to optical character recognition software (OCR) and automatically produce searchable text from the scanned images of the primeros libros.
Where did these items come from?
Most of these books were the property of Roman Catholic convents or seminaries, as these were the premier educational institutions during colonial times. Some of the textbooks cover subjects like astronomy or geometry, while others are religious tracts, mainly of Christian doctrine.
What is the goal of the project?
The project seeks to create a digital collection of the first books printed in colonial Mexico and Peru during the 16th century. This will provide primary sources for research focused on cultural history, linguistics, religious studies and book history, among others. A specialized tool is being updated that allows collaborators to annotate texts, much like a PDF.
Ideally, the project seeks to scan at least one example of each edition while also digitizing as many copies as possible. Duplicates facilitate scholarly inquiry since variants in printing presses, ownership marks and other copy-specific attributes are often critical for interpretation and for dating sources. For example, even if different institutions own two copies of the same book, one of the books might have missing or damaged pages, so having the ability to compare the two copies provides great value.
Why is it important to study these books?
These books are critical to scholarly study because they represent the first printing in the New World and provide open source materials and technology for scholarly studies in a variety of academic fields. With private support, we can ensure that these materials are documented digitally and protect these unique sources from unfortunate losses such as accidental fires, natural disasters or even being misplaced among a library’s vast shelves.
The Primeros Libros project also demonstrates Texas A&M University’s involvement in international university collaboration. Special collections such as this one allow the university to differentiate itself as a tier-one research institution.
You may donate items relating to the Colonial Mexican Collection by contacting Anton duPlessis '03 at duplessis@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1951.
