Breve compendio de todo lo que debe saber y entender el christiano, para poder lograr, ver, conocer, y gozar de Dios nuestro señor en el cielo eternamente, dispuesto en lengua othomí, y construido literalmente en la lengua castellana

Author: Antonio de Guadalupe Ramírez

Year: 1785

Publisher: Herederos del Joseph de Jáuregui

Place: Mexico City

Description:

72 pages. Small quarto (7 3/4" x 5 1/2) bound in half leather with hand lettering to spine over marbled boards. (Medina, México 7585; Palau 246641; Pilling 3174; Sabin 67637) First edition.

Incomplete title in facsimile with an additional title in manuscript hand. Lacks first six pages and pages 73-80. Pages 67-71 have been restored at heal lacking text.

The *Breve compendio de todo lo que debe saber y entender el christiano.* [Brief Compendium of Everything a Christian Should Know and Understand.], composed in the Otomi language, is a documentary gem for both linguistics and the history of New Spain. Written by the Franciscan friar Fray Antonio de Guadalupe Ramírez and originally published in Mexico in 1785, this work is notable as a bilingual catechism designed for the evangelization of the Otomi people in the Mezquital Valley; it also offers a grammatical approach that was unique for its time.

The text organizes Christian doctrine into columns or paragraphs, presenting the version in the Otomi language alongside a literal construction or translation in Spanish. The Otomi language possesses a high degree of phonetic complexity (featuring nasal, glottal, and tonal sounds). To print it, the workshops of the time—specifically the *Imprenta Nueva Madrileña* (New Madrid-style Printing House) run by the heirs of Jáuregui—had to cast special characters and letters, devised by the author himself, to accurately represent the pronunciation. It includes basic prayers (the Our Father, the Hail Mary, the Creed), the Commandments, the Sacraments, and brief explanations of the mysteries of the faith necessary for salvation.

Condition:

Bibliographic notation in pencil to front end paper, former owenr's stamp to front paste down. Page 69/70 miss-bound. Incomplete title in facsimile with an additional title in manuscript hand. Lacks first six pages and pages 73-80. Pages 67-71 have been restored at heal lacking text. A fair copy of a rare printing.