Social Reproduction of Late Postclassic Ritual Practices in Early Colonial Central México

A seventeenth-century Nahua devotional miscellany: Fonds Mexicain 381

A set of strict Tridentine measures against the possession and circulation of unauthorized manuscript copies of devotional and doctrinal works emerged from the First (1555) and Third (1585) Mexican Church Councils. However, some indigenous groups of readers appear to have avoided Tridentine scrutiny by circulating or sharing manuscript copies in a clandestine manner among discreet circles of readers. While few extant examples exist of the devotional works in native languages that may have circulated in this manner, a brief glance at some of the known specimens affords a limited characterization of this type of literature. First, these works tended to be produced as a miscellaneous collection of genres and works, written by several scribes, and read and annotated by several readers. For instance, the Náhuatl manuscript known as Fonds Mexicain 381 of the National Library of Paris contains a sermonary, sections of doctrine, a translation of a Latin treatise on just governance, and a short monologue in which a religious image explains to Nahua worshippers that images should be venerated as representations, and not as real deities. The clandestine nature of this miscellanea, which bears the date 1559, is suggested by folios 62v-63r: they open up to reveal a Spanish text which bears no relation to the Náhuatl sermonary into which they are inserted, and could have hidden the volume’s content from inquisitorial glances. ⁴   Second, although the circulation of the manuscripts was clandestine or unauthorized, its contents did not necessarily challenge or distort devotional Christian discourses. For example, the text known as Codex Indiarorum 7 of the John Carter Brown Library, although apparently produced and owned by members of a Nahua confraternity in the Valley of México, contained a range of sermons, devotional texts, and perhaps most interestingly, a Náhuatl account of the voyages of Saint Amaro in the imaginative cartographies of early modern Europe. ⁵ 

In this section, I will provide a brief overview of Fonds Mexicain (Fonds Mexicain) 381 of the National Library of Paris, a manuscript Náhuatl miscellany of devotional and divinatory texts. ⁶   Two criteria render this unusual text relevant to my analysis: first of all, it shows the broad range of genres and topics that clandestine Náhuatl texts could have addressed; second, since its production and usage is roughly contemporary with both the Ruiz de Alarcón incantations and the Sola divinatory texts, its contents reflect the intentions of a group of native readers whose interests contrasted with those of the ritual specialists represented in the other two case studies.

Fonds Mexicain 381 is a sixty-page manuscript which was once part of the collection of the eighteenth-century Italian scholar and historian Lorenzo Boturini. It is likely that it was bought in México—along with other former components of the Boturini collection—by the French scholar and collector Joseph-Marie Aubin, who took his priceless collection with him to Paris in 1840. While it is not absolutely certain that this miscellanea existed in its present form before joining Boturini’s collection around the 1730’s, the fact that it features three alternating hands, with Hand 1 being responsible for an initial section and the final section of the manuscript, suggests that the manuscript has kept a certain integrity of content.

A remarkable feature of Fonds Mexicain 381 is the diversity of genres it contains. The manuscript begins with a set of Náhuatl prayers for meditation, a devotional enumeration of the thorns in Christ’s crown, a bilingual (Otomi and Náhuatl) persignum crucis, a Náhuatl translation of a Latin text about the life of Saint Nicholas Tolentino, a correlation between the Gregorian and the Tarascan calendars, a list of holy days, a set of Latin prayers recorded in the equivocating transcription of a scribe who was a native speaker of Náhuatl, assorted prayers in Latin, Spanish and Náhuatl, and, most striking of all, a brief text on the signs of the Zodiac and on their correlation with the days and months of the Christian calendar. The manuscript closes with a short doctrinal text about the Eucharist.

This miscellanea appears to have been in use from the early 1630’s to the mid 1650’s: on page 24, one finds a list of holy days with the annotation "a[n]nus 1633;" on page 45, there is a note about the feast of the Assumption in 1639; on the margins of the correlation between the Tarascan and Gregorian calendars, a note indicates that a certain Caterina fled from home in 1654. Unfortunately, as is the case with other miscellaneous works, it is impossible to ascertain either the authors’ identity or the exact location in which it was produced. While Náhuatl predominates in the text, the presence of Otomi and Tarascan elements suggests that the manuscript was produced by Náhuatl-speaking authors who lived close to Otomi and Tarascan speakers in the regions west and northwest of the Toluca Valley. Three such linguistically diverse regions lie in the jurisdictions of Querétaro, Metepec and Temazcaltepec (Gerhard 1972).

The list of holidays on page 24, and the correlations between days of the week, planets, months, and signs of the zodiac on pages 47 to 54 suggest that these sections were inspired by a manuscript or printed copy of a reportorio de los tiempos. This early modern genre shared some traits with the book of hours ⁷   genre—a correlation between days of the months and days of the week (indicated by letters a to g), a list of Christian holidays, and the canonical correlation between months and signs of the zodiac—but also included extensive information on the correlations among planets, months, days of the week, and signs of the zodiac, provided a characterization of personality types by zodiac signs, and usually included tables detailing moon phases for a particular time period (1495 to 1550, for example), and for a specific geographical location (Barcelona, Madrid, México City, etc.). Some reportorios even included instructions on common early modern healing practices, such as bleeding and cupping. Among the most influential examples of printed reportorio editions, one could cite Bernat de Granollach’s 1485 Catalan-language Lunari, Andrés de Li’s 1495 Reportorio de los tiempos (reproduced and analyzed in Delbrugge 1999), Bartolomé Hera y de la Varra’s 1584 Reportorio del mundo particular, de las spheras del cielo y orbes elementales, and the best known reportorio produced for a New Spain readership: Henrico Martínez’s 1606 Reportorio de los tiempos e historia natural de Nueva España (reprinted as De la Maza 1948).

Nahua readers seem to have studied, copied, and attempted to assimilate both the reportorio and the book of hours genres. The most salient example of the refashioning of a book of hours by Nahua scribes is found in the first eight pages of the Codex Mexicanus (BNP Fonds Mexicain 23-24). In this text, each of these pages corresponds to a month in the Christian calendar, and the codex’s surviving pages run from May to December. On each page, the days of the week are represented by letters, and important saints’ days are spelled out in pictograms with a phonetic content. ⁸   This manuscript also includes a chart with the twelve signs of the zodiac. Another Nahua attempt to interpret the European zodiac that presents a series of parallels with Fonds Mexicain 381 is an eight-page manuscript appended to a printed copy of Peter of Ghent’s 1553 Doctrina christiana en lengua mexicana. This Náhuatl text, entitled Reperdorio de los dienpos [sic], was transcribed by an anonymous sixteenth-century hand. López Austin’s (1973) transcription, translation and analysis of this Reperdorio allow a comparison with the contents of Fonds Mexicain 381. Both texts contain predictions about agricultural practices, health, and well-being for each of the twelve months of the Latin calendar, which are paired with signs of the zodiac, and both offer the characterizations of personality types by signs of the zodiac that are a mainstay of the reportorio genre. Unlike the Reperdorio, Fonds Mexicain 381 offers prediction for each of the days of the week, contains several calendrical lists, and shows a series of correlations among primordial elements, days, months, and zodiac signs.

While pages 47-54 of Fonds Mexicain 381 are not organized in the typical fashion of a reportorio, some elements suggests that its Nahua author leafed through such a book, for it features a brief text on the cardinal winds, a correlation among days of the week, signs of the zodiac, and primordial elements, and a correlation between months and zodiacal signs. Some elements in this Nahua appropriation of the zodiac suggest that the author of this section consulted a reportorio featuring the canonical images for the twelve zodiac signs with no help or supervision from a non-indigenous reader. In the primarily visual reading of the signs of the zodiac by this anonymous Nahua interpreter, the eight signs represented by relatively accessible animal or human icons (Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricornio, Aquarius, Piscis) are given a more or less accurate Náhuatl gloss. However, the icons for three signs are rendered equivocally in Náhuatl: the twins of Gemini become Wise Men, or tlamatinime; Libra’s scales are read as Merchant, or pochtecatl, and Sagittarius’ centaur turns into Deer Man, or tlacamaçatl (BNP Fonds Mexicain 381: 49). Surprisingly, there are faint echoes of this ambivalent reading in the zodiac sign glosses provided by the Nahua chronicler Chimalpahin. At the end of a manuscript section dedicated to the Mexica month count, Chimalpahin provides a Náhuatl translation for each zodiac sign that employs Spanish lexical items and Náhuatl glosses (Schroeder 1997: 128-129). Thus, he translates Libra with the Spanish term balança, and Sagitario with both Spanish and Náhuatl terms—centauro and tlacamaçatl. As for Gemini, Chimalpahin provides a lengthy explanation that refers in an indirect manner to twin brothers: "The astrologers render it as two children who embrace each other. Thus, they say that, when the two are born, they therefore love each other much; they therefore never quarrel." ⁹ 

The Náhuatl text about the signs of the Zodiac in Fonds Mexicain 381 does not seem to be a literal rendition of a Spanish reportorio de los tiempos; it rather seems that the authors were leafing through the pages of a reportorio and making partial notes on its contents. However, there are some lexical clues suggesting that these Náhuatl students of the zodiac were using a printed or manuscript version of Andrés de Li’s popular Reportorio de los tiempos, printed under his name in Zaragoza in 1495. In Li’s Reportorio, after a brief discussion of months, hours, and planets, there begins a section about the correlations between the nine heavens and the seven planets (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn). This section opens with the following words:

Siguen se los planetas
Del primer cielo & del septimo planeta que es la luna, que tiene enel su assiento.
El primer cielo es donde tiene su assiento la luna, que es el inferior planeta & seteno, el qual esta constituydo en el mas baxo circulo dela sphera. & en espacio de ocho años consuma su círculo, & es señor del seteno y ultimo clima (Delbrugge 1999: 57; my emphases)

On the other hand, after stating the correlations between months and zodiac signs (with the Náhuatl glosses discussed above), a new section in Fonds Mexicain 381 begins with the following mixture of Náhuatl and Spanish words:

Domi[n]go. Sigue se llos planetas. primero gramatica ca tlatohuani lunes el segoto mercielo planetas ques la llona que tiene en el su asie[n]to tetzacatl martes. el tercero ytel marius. tercero planetas cabalero miercoles. el segoto ciello ytel melgorio que es planetas ticitl yetz (BNP, Fonds Mexicain 381: 49-50; my emphases).

It appears as if the Náhuatl authors incorporated the expressions "Siguense los planetas" and "que es la luna que tiene en el su asiento," found verbatim in Li’s Reportorio, into a jumble of notes in Spanish and Náhuatl.¹⁰  In any case, in their role as amateur European astrologers, the Náhuatl author(s) attempted to grasp the correlations between signs of the zodiac, periods of time, and primordial elements—Earth, Wind, Fire and Water—by consulting a reportorio that may have been based on Li’s text. However, the contents of Fonds Mexicain 381 do not provide a section-by-section parallel to Li’s Reportorio, and introduce topics that are not treated in this text. Since its Nahua author(s) were apparently not interested in providing a literal translation of the reportorio that was consulted, it would be difficult—if not impossible—to link their work with a single printed or manuscript reportorio edition.

This Náhuatl text thus seems to follow its own peculiar logic. For example, a section on page 49 shows that each day of the week is related to one or two signs of the zodiac, to primordial elements, and to a particular archangel. Furthermore, an entire section is devoted to the following correlation between signs and elements:

(1) Primero Planeta. Nica[n] pohuallo yn izqui si[g]nos: yn iquac aries tle ticpacticate, yn iquac leon tlanepa[n] tlaticate, yn iquac sagitarius t[l]etl yn tzi[n]tlaticate yn izqui [i]llhuitl tlahuica[h], yn iquac taurus tlalticpacticate, yn iquac Virgon tlallinepa[n]tlaticate, yn iquac capricornios tlalli yn ci[n]tlaticate, yn iquac Seminis yehecatl ti[c]pacticate, yn iquac libra yehecatl nepa[n]tlaticate, yn iquac aquarius yehecatl tzintlaticate, yn iquac ca[n]cer atl ticpacticate, yn iquac Secorbius atl nepa[n]tlaticate / yn iquac pilcis atl tzintlaticate (BNP Fonds Mexicain 381: 48-49)

(1) First Planet.¹¹  All of the signs are counted here: During Aries, they are on top of Fire; during Leo, they are in the middle of it; during Sagittarius, they are at the bottom of Fire, and they bring all the holidays; during Taurus, they are on top of Earth; during Virgo, they are in the middle of Earth; during Capricorn, they are at the bottom of Earth; during Gemini, they are on top of Wind; during Libra, they are in the middle of Wind; during Aquarius, they are at the bottom of Wind; during Cancer, they are on top of Water; during Scorpio, they are in the middle of Water; during Pisces, they are at the bottom of Water.

The main section of the zodiac-related text in Fonds Mexicain 381 contains seven paragraphs dedicated to the days of the week, beginning with Sunday. Each paragraph gives a brief discussion of the planet and zodiac sign born on that day, often describes the particular features of the sign, gives a forecast applicable to people born on that day, and points out whether illnesses may be easy or difficult to cure on that particular day. For example, the text’s author(s) make the following remarks about Sunday:

(2) Yn ica micuiliuhtica yn izqui tlama[n]tli yplanetas ytlacatiliztli, yn queni[n] çan leportorion ypa[n] tlacatli nican motenehuan yn iquac Domigo tlahuizcalpa[n] motocayotia la primera ola yoan onca tlacati yn tlatoque ymacenhualli tlacatiz yoan ytla[h] ytequiuh mochihua[z] nica[n] t[laltic]p[a]c yn iquac tlacati ypiltzintli nima[n] notzaloz yn quimatia ylepordorion quitemelahuiliz yn queni[n] leon yn ipa[n] tlacat[l]i quihualcuitaci yn inacayo huel mahuiztic chalchihuitl teoxihuitl quetzaliztli yn ixtelolo temamauhti yn inacayo cenca chichiltic. Auh yn ic nemi y[n] t[laltic]p[a]c cenca ymacaxoni cenca yxteyo yn iquac mococohua huel[l]apaloz yn iquac macoz yn tlaquali amo quicahuaz ça[n] tequi[tl] tlaquatoz ytla[h] ypa[n] pehuaz. yn itoca leon niman ic iuhca miquiz ahuel patiz yn tlacatilizpa[n] (BNP Fonds Mexicain 381: 50).

(2) With this, one writes about the birth of all the planets. In this manner, in the reportorio, it is recounted here [that], on this day, when Sunday is in the light of dawn, it is called the first wave, and on that day the lords’ servant will be born, and some of his work will be done here on earth. When his child is born, he will then be summoned; he knows his reportorio, he will explain it to others. In this manner, Leo comes to possess him on this day. His flesh is very wondrous: precious stone, turquoise, emerald. His eyes are something frightful; his flesh is very red. Thus, he lives on earth, deserving much respect, with much fame. When he gets sick, he will sop his bread well; when he is given food, he will not leave it as soon as he goes to eat it. Something will begin on this [one] called Leo; in this manner, one will die; it will not be possible to heal on this birth.

A peculiar syntax and the ambiguity of these characterizations call for a translation open to several interpretations. For example, it is difficult to say whether the final admonition refers to the impossibility of healing a patient under Leo’s influence, recovering from an illness contracted under Leo’s influence, or to the observation that a person born under Leo will regain health only with great difficulty. It should be stressed, however, that both this text and the anonymous Náhuatl Repordorio fragment analyzed by López Austin (1973) agree on the characteristics of people born under Leo. In Fonds Mexicain 381, it is said that people born under Leo will live "deserving much respect, with much fame." The Repordorio states the following about people born under Leo (López Austin 1973: 290): yn imixpan nepechteco yuan cencayollo tlapallihui yollochicahuaque; "One bows before them; they are young men with a great heart, they are courageous." In fact, the characterization of people born under Leo that appears in Henrico Martínez’s 1606 Reportorio has certain parallels with the previously quoted passage from Fonds Mexicain 381:

Los que en su nacimiento tienen a León en el ascendente, suelen ser de hermosa estatura, los ojos zarcos y naturalmente atrevidos, altivos y de grande ánimo e ingenio y aprovechan mucho en las letras, si se dan a ellas, y asimismo en cualquier ejercicio ingenioso, suelen ser amigos de seguir su voluntad y de cumplir su palabra; también suelen ser algo tristes y sujetos a peligros y afligidos de dolores de estómago. […] (De la Maza 1948: 23).

The appropriation of a Spanish reportorio and its adaptation to a Nahua cultural context bears witness to the great interest which the authors and users of the Codex Mexicanus and the Fonds Mexicain 381 had about European divinatory practices. However, the differences between the context of production of a reportorio and that of Fonds Mexicain 381 kept this act of appropriation from becoming a simple transfer of contents. In transcribing, glossing and reinterpreting the contents of a Spanish reportorio, the anonymous Nahua scribe(s) had neither the possibility nor the interest of replicating the intention or encoded cultural assumptions which characterized the "horizon of expectations"—to use Jauss’ (1982: 19, 23) lucid term—of the reportorio genre. Paradoxically, such a selective appropriation of the European zodiac resulted in the emergence of a novel textual genre—the clandestine Nahua reportorio—whose horizon of expectation was still in the formative stages.

This concern with the use of European ritual techniques seems to indicate a process of substitution of the tonalamatl (Mexica ritual calendar text) and other Nahua divinatory techniques—which could even have been regarded as "idolatrous" by the users of Fonds Mexicain 381—with a new textual genre based on Christian divinatory techniques. In an attitude that contrasts with this tendency, other native cohorts of readers continued to use transcriptions of Mesoamerican calendars. In the next section, a circulation network for Zapotec calendars contemporaneous with the production of Fonds Mexicain 381 will be discussed.

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