Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Documents, letters, and papers relating to the ecclesiastical, political, and social history of Mexico. A large group of ecclestical material is dated 1772 while most of the secular papers fall in the early part of the 19th century. Of these documents 144 originated from archepiscopal authority and bear the signatures or seals of Manuel Barrientos (Vicar General and acting Archbishop), Andres Martinez Campillo (Canon of the Metropolitan Parish Church), Francesco Antonio Lorenzana (24th archbishop of Mexico), and others. These include about 67 dispensations in cases of marriage to avoid publishing the banns and to set aside degrees of consanguinity and affinity; a chronological list of the 31 archbishops of Mexico from 1527 to 1821; and wills and settlement of estates. Also, papers of Clemente de Jesús Munguía (1810-1868), Bishop of Michoacan. Among the material of less ecclesiastical nature there are letters and official communications relating to revolutionary leaders, 1811-1886, reports from viceregal archives, and tax assessments.