Crónica de Michoacán

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Author: Beaumont, Pablo de la Purisima Concepcion (c1710-c1780) from the library of professor George M Foster

Year: 1932

Publisher: Talleres Graficos de la Nacion

Place: Mexico City

Description:

3 volumes. xxix-574 pages with 4 folding maps; 466 pages with folding coats of arms, 6 folding native illustrations and map; 469 pages with 2 coats of arms (one folding) and 6 folding native illustrations. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 7") bound in half blue leather with raised spine bands and gilt lettering to spine. Introduction by Rafael Lopez. From the library of George Foster. Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nacion volume XVII, XVIII and XIX.

There are only meager biographical data about Pablo de la Purisima Concepcion Beaumont, whose work is a major source on Michoacan. Despite its title "Chronicle of the Holy Apostles St Peter and St Paul of Michoacan," Beaumont's work in fact spans a much greater area, including much of western Mexico, northward to New Mexico, and tending toward a general history. It provides details to 1565. Beaumont divided his total work into two major parts, the first, or Aparato, intended to be introductory to the second or the Cronica proper. the first seems complete, but the second was never finished. The Aparato takes up fully a third of the extant Beaumont work, although nominally introductory. It deals with the discovery of America and the conquest of Mexico to the year 1521. It was twice published before appearance of the total work. Far more valuable is the Cronica. It consists of two books and one chapter of book 3. Beaumont drew on a wide variety of sources. He tell us us that he gathered a large quantity of manuscripts from various Franciscan archives as well as listing 30 standard writers in printed sources. He gives full copies of some of his documents, of which several have since disappeared. He speaks of obtaining a native painting, possibly from which his illustrations came. These paintings show incidents of the first visits of Spaniards to Michoacan, there reception by Tarascans, labors of the Franciscans, coats of arms of principal cities of Michoacan. It is usually through that Beaumont composed his work around 1777. That is the last date in the later copies of the original manuscript. Unfortunately his original manuscript is lost. It was copied in Mexico City around 1792 to for volumes 7-11 of a 32 volume Collection of Memories on New Spain, ordered by Viceroy Conde de Revilla Gigedo and compiled by Manuel de la Vega. Three partially complete sets of these Vega Memorias are known; from one or another of them come other recopied manuscript copies, as well as the printed versions. Editions of the work have a somewhat unfortunate publishing history. In 1826 Bustamante published an incomplete and useless edition of the Aparato, attributing it to Vega, who had owned the manuscript Bustamante used. In 1873-74 a five volume edition of both Aparato and Cr�nica appeared in Mexico; it lacks the Indian drawings, and was based on a secondary manuscript copy made b y J F Ramirez that then belonged to Alfredo Chavero. A three volume version was published by the National Archives of Mexico in 1932, based on their copy of the 1792 collection of Memorias; it contains the Indian drawings and an introduction by Rafael Lopez. The text seems slightly corrupt, but it may be near the original, as Beaumont said his Spanish was defective, owing to his Parisian rearing.

George McClelland Foster, Jr born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on October 9, 1913, died on May 18, 2006, at his home in the hills above the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a professor from 1953 to his retirement in 1979, when he became professor emeritus. His contributions to anthropological theory and practice still challenge us; in more than 300 publications, his writings encompass a wide diversity of topics, including acculturation, long-term fieldwork, peasant economies, pottery making, public health, social structure, symbolic systems, technological change, theories of illness and wellness, humoral medicine in Latin America, and worldview. The quantity, quality, and long-term value of his scholarly work led to his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1976. Virtually all of his major publications have been reprinted and/or translated. Provenance from the executor of Foster's library laid in.

Condition:

Some underlining in pencil through out by Foster. Foster's date of acquire on front paste down, early owner's name on front end paper. some light soiling and rubbing to extremities else a very good set.

Kemper

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