Life
Early years
There are few firm biographical details concerning Juan de Torquemada, most of which have to be deduced from his own work. Even basic information is subject to uncertainty and controversy. Born at Torquemada, Palencia, north centralMissionary activity, 1588-1602
Shortly after ordination (which, in this period, was normally conferred on aspirant Franciscans at age 25), he was sent as a missionary to Nueva Galicia, a large territory in central western New Spain, the capital of which wasAt Tlatelolco, 1603-1612
While guardian of the convent at Tlatelolco, he assumed numerous heavy burdens, both intellectual and practical, not all of which related to the affairs of the Franciscans. Among those which did may be mentioned the fact that the guardian of the convent was ''ex officio'' President of the '' Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco'', a post which entailed general oversight of the conduct of the institution under its rector. The College had, however, so far declined from the ambitious plans which attended its ceremonial opening in 1536 that, by the end of the 16th century, it had become an elementary school where local Indian children learnt reading, writing, manners and good behaviour.Administrator
In 1604 he visited Zacatecas to assist in the establishment of a Franciscan province to be headquartered there, and in 1606 he spent time inEngineer
Abnormally high rainfall in August 1604 led to a devastating flood of Mexico City - one of several inundations from Lake Texcoco which sometimes took years to recede. The city was still virtually an island at this time. Other such inundations occurred in 1555, 1580, 1607 and 1629 resulting in the decision in 1629 (imperfectly implemented) to drain part of the lake. As an emergency measure, Viceroy Juan de Mendoza asked the Franciscan provincial to assign members of his Order to help in various urgent remedial works. Torquemada participated, specifically in the reconstruction of the ''calzadas'' (causeways) of ''Los Misterios'' (leading north-east to Guadalupe – works which took five months of continuous activity to complete, employing thousands of labourers) and of that leading west toArchitect
Commencing in 1604, Torquemada took in hand the construction of a new church of Santiago de Tlatelolco, a project which had been stalled for many years. He reported that it proceeded in great part thanks to contributions in cash and kind by local Indians, many of whom donated their labour. It is notable for the massive bases of the towers flanking the main entrance, designed to resist earthquake. The work was completed in 1609 or 1610, and on 14 July 1610 the church was consecrated. It was built in the form of a Latin cross with a series of shallow domes in the vault over the nave and a large dome over the crossing, with a semi-dome over the apse. The following day, on Sunday 15 July 1610 (the feast of Santiago) the altarpiece or '' retablo'' behind the high altar was inaugurated. This sumptuous structure was arranged in four registers with an apex. It was decorated with 14 paintings by the celebrated Basque painter Baltasar de Echave Orio (who is also credited with designing the ''retablo''), alternating with carved wooden statues standing in niches. At the centre of the second register, directly above the later neo-classic ciborium (presumptively installed in the first decades of the 19th century and visible in a 19th century lithograph which shows the arrangement of the ''retablo''), was a carved and painted panel in high relief of theHistorian
It was while he was guardian of the convent of Tlatelolco that Torquemada also put in hand the organisation of the materials he had been gathering for many years previously, and (between 1605 and 1612) their redaction into the great work he had been projecting - the history of the aboriginal nations of New Spain, and their conquest and evangelisation by the Spanish. In addition to the voluminous unpublished writings of other Franciscans to which he had unimpeded access, Torquemada possessed many original documents acquired during his missionary work, as well as the oral testimony he had obtained from people he had encountered on his various travels. In 1609 he had been named chronicler of the Franciscan Order by Fray Bernardo de Salva, Franciscan Commissary General of the Indies. On completion of the work he took the manuscript to Spain in order to oversee its publication (as to which see below).Last years, 1613-1624
On 8 January 1614, in the year following his return from Spain, Torquemada was elected provincial of the province of the Holy Gospel (''del Santo Evangelio de México'') a post he held for the usual three-year term until the election of a successor on 14 January 1617. At that time the province of the Holy Gospel comprised México City, the modern State of México, and the State of Puebla, together with the '' custodia'' of Tampico on the Gulf Coast. In an ongoing dispute over the division of elective posts within the province conducted between the ''criollos'' (ethnic Spaniards born in New Spain) and the ''peninsulares'' (those born in Spain but who had emigrated to New Spain), Torquemada identified himself not as a peninsular (which he could justly claim to be) but as a member of an intermediate group of men who came out to New Spain in their childhood and regarded themselves as ''hijos de la provincia'' (sons of the province). The dispute became especially bitter under Torquemada's successor as provincial Juan López, a peninsular, with respect to whom Torquemada expressed deep-seated hostility, accusing him in private correspondence (two letters written in October 1620 to a former ''confrère'' of his, then resident in Spain) of being a liar and an ''hombre sin Dios'' (a man without God), and asserting that Hell held no man worse or more false (''este mal hombre de fray Juan López . . digo que otro peor no lo tiene el infierno ni más falso''). At the age of 62 or thereabouts, Torquemada died suddenly on New Year's Day, 1624, in choir in the convent at Tlatelolco after having sungLiterary works
''Monarquía indiana''
Introduction
By way of providing impetus to and official sanction for Torquemada's history, fray Bernardo Salva, the ''Comisario general de Indias'' (acting by specific direction from his immediate superior, Arcángelo de Messina, the minister general of the Order) wrote a letter dated 6 April 1609 from Madrid, in which he gave written authority and instructions to Torquemada to compile a chronicle of the life and work of the members of the Franciscan Order active in New Spain, as well as a wide-ranging account of the history and culture of the peoples they had evangelised. For that purpose, as Salva wrote, Torquemada was to utilise the voluminous historical and ethnographic writings of his fellow Franciscans (now, all of them dead) to which he had access, almost nothing of which had by then been published: works by Andrés de Olmos, Gerónimo de Mendieta, Motolinía, and Bernardino de Sahagún. Of these, only de Mendieta was mentioned by name by Salva. The work is a "remarkably dense text," because of its theological digressions, contradictions, and anachronisms, since Torquemada incorporated material without resolving contradictory and competing points of view from his sources. In addition to the texts written by Spaniards, Torquemada draws on the work of mestizoVision of history and purpose of the work
The leading motif of Torquemada's monumental history – elaborated by him in many places, especially in the general prologue to the entire work – can be characterised as the merciful action of Divine Providence in choosing the Spanish to liberate the Indians from their subjection to the Devil who had deceived these innocent peoples into practising a religion marred by errors and polluted by abominations such as human sacrifice. On this interpretation the fall of the Aztec monarchy was a Divine chastisement and Spain the rod. But, for all that, Torquemada was sympathetic to the positive achievements of the Indians, and, by situating their history and culture within the framework of the Old Testament and of the former glories of the empires of Egypt, Greece and Rome, he encouraged the educated elite of the Old World to recognise the indigenous nations of the New World as their peers. His history was, of set purpose, a laborious inquiry into the truth of things, requiring (as he says in his general prologue) diligence, maturation, and the exercise of prudence in adjudicating among conflicting testimonies. It was not written as an entertainment or to satisfy mere curiosity, but with a serious didactic purpose and to edify, for he believed that the record of the events of the past constitute not only an antidote to human mortality and the brevity of life, but also a hermeneutic key to understanding the present, thereby offering man an opportunity to progress.Method
The distinguished scholar and administrator, Howard F. Cline, who, at the time of his death was Director of the Hispanic Foundation of theHistorians generally see their tasks broken into three main stages: as comprehensive as possible collection of relevant documentation, followed by critical and evaluative appraisal of it, and finally, a synthesis based on verified data. Contrary to a considerable body of hostile secondary discussion, critical examination of Juan de Torquemada's ''Monarquía Indiana'' indicates a surprisingly high level of workmanship in at least the first two phases. Although what he strove for in synthesis – an accurate record that would place native Mexican cultures on a par with ancient, classical, and for him modern societies – is an early and interesting example of a comparative approach, the classical and Biblical citations he employed for such comparisons are now largely of curiosity value, except as clues to his own ambience and personal outlook. Torquemada was a skilled and careful historian, constrained only by some obvious usages and common attitudes of his age. Like others of his time, he puzzled over the problems of fitting native peopling of the New World and their development into a Biblical framework, and seldom doubted authenticity of miracles, or the Providential intervention which accounted for Cortes' Conquest as an expression of Divine Will. But for the most part he went at his tasks with professional coolness, and a rather high degree of historiographical craftsmanship.
Subject-matter
Salva's letter of 6 April 1609 itself expressed the full ambit of Torquemada's work as eventually written, including, as regards the converted Indians: "their rituals, ceremonies, laws, governments and governors, their mode of conservation and conversation, their kings, kingdoms, cities and domains, their origin and beginnings, their division into provinces and kingdoms 'sic'' the diversity of their languages, their riches and means of sustenance, their gods and worship, and, with great particularity, the manner in which friars and ministers initially converted them and how they have followed up on those conversions . . ." The work was published in three hefty volumes under a title which gives a precise conspectus of its subject-matter and author: ''LOS VEINTE IUN LIBROS RITUALES I MONARCHIA Indiana con el origen y guerras de los Indios Ocidentales, de sus Poblaçones, Descubrimiento, Conquista, Conversion y otras cosas maravillosas de la mesma ictierra discribuydos en tres tomos. COMPUESTO POR F. JUAN DE TORQUEMADA Ministro Provincial de la Orden de Nuestro Serafico Padre, San Francisco En la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico en la Nueva Espana''. The first volume comprises five books which principally treat of the creation of the world and the origin of the peoples who occupied New Spain (I, II), as well as the diverse nations constituting the Aztec Empire (III), followed by its conquest by the Spanish (IV) and its subsequent re-organisation (V). To the second volume were assigned nine books which deal with the religion (VI-X), government (XI), laws (XII), institutions (XIII) and social and military life of the indigenous peoples together with remarks on various geographical features and their cultural relevance (XIV). The subject of the seven books which constitute the third volume is the evangelisation of the Indians, with particular focus (especially in the last three books) upon the life, work and fate of Franciscan missionaries. The main focus is on the history and culture of the peoples of what is now central Mexico, with particular attention given to Texcoco,In the year 1576 a great mortality and pestilence that lasted for more than a year overcame the Indians. It was so big that it ruined and destroyed almost the entire land. The place we know as New Spain was left almost empty.He reported that two million, mostly indigenous, people died, according to a survey conducted by Viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.
Sources
The great diversity of sources employed by Torquemada, including precious indigenous documents now lost as well as colonial texts (published and unpublished), is fully laid out in exhaustive tables of analysis for each of the books in volume 7 of the IIH critical edition, following extensive study by the research seminar conducted under the leadership of Miguel León-Portilla between 1969 and 1971. At the end of the 17th century a charge of plagiarism was raised by fray Agustín de Vetancur who claimed that Torquemada had published under his own name the ''Historia eclesiástica indiana'', a history written by Jerónimo de Mendieta which had never been published, but the manuscript of which had been entrusted by Mendieta to Juan Bautista and by him to Torquemada. The accusation was rejected by Rodrígues Franco in his ''Proemio'' to the second edition of ''Monarquía indiana'', but it was taken up by the famous Mexican historian. . not completely justified in view of the fact that Torquemada was ordered by his superiors to use all historical works available and that politically speaking it was desirable that the ''Monarquía indiana'' should not be too closely identified with the ''Historia eclesiástica indiana'', lest the oblivion of the latter overtake the former.The various ways in which the accusation has been made are discussed in Gurría Lacroix' essay ("''Acusación de plagiario''") in volume 7 of the IIH edition. As Woodrow Borah put it in his review:-
Jorge Gurría Lacroix, who died before this volume appeared, examines at considerable length the old charge of plagiarism raised against Fray Juan in his use particularly of Mendieta's chronicle, and by doing so, of Mendieta in his use of Motoliniá's writing. The charges are disposed of, one hopes definitively, by making clear the customs of the time and the specific instructions to Torquemada from his Order. Chronicles were regarded as community property to be used as the Order decided.The charge occasionally resurfaces, even if only obliquely and by association. Almost the entirety of Mendieta's history is reproduced throughout the course of Books 15-21 of the ''Monarquía indiana'' (where it comprises about 80% of the text), but in the general prologue Torquemada acknowledged his use of prior writings by Francisco Ximénez, Motolinía, Sahagún, and Mendieta, and 66 specific references are made to Mendieta in the course of the work (only 36 of which have been identified). Nevertheless, Torquemada indisputably used these sources far more extensively than he gave credit for.
Publication
Once the work was in its final shape, Torquemada took the manuscript to Spain personally, despite the ''Comisario general de Indias'' (Bernardo Salva) having previously invited him to send it. Precise dates for the trip are not known, but the ''termini'' within which the trip must have occurred can be stated with confidence. Among the documents Torquemada took to Spain with him were the various permits relative to the printing of the book which were issued in México, the latest of which (the licence proper) was dated 17 May 1612. Back in Mexico, he officiated at a wedding in Xochimilco (where he was now guardian) on 10 October 1613. In between, he can be presumptively placed inDedication
Exceptionally, in the ''Carta nuncupatoria'' Torquemada dedicated his book to God – ''a la Sacratísima Magestad del Rey del Cielo, Dios Nuestro Señor'' (to the Sacred Majesty of the King of Heaven, God Our Lord) – explaining at length why he did so. As he well knew, the normal dedication of such works was to the King of Spain, to nobles, or to ecclesiastical dignitaries (usually the patrons of the author). The title page announces the same dedication: ''Dico Ego Opera Mea Regi. Saeculorum Inmortali et Invisibili''.Diffusion
Although (as noted in the following sub-section) the greater part of the print-run of the first edition was said to have been lost in a shipwreck, the ''Monarquía indiana'' was known in Mexico as early as 1624 when it was first cited in a book published there in that year. Between then and 1714 (that is to say, before the second edition) it was cited, even copiously on occasion, by at least eleven authors in works published for the most part in Mexico, but also in Madrid and Guatemala.Subsequent history of the text
The fate of the first edition, and details of the two subsequent facsimile reprints, are stated here as given in the essay "''Ediciones''" by Jorge Gurría Lacroix in volume 7 of the IIH critical edition. As Nicolás Rodríguez Franco, the printer of the second edition, informed his readers in his ''Proemio'', few exemplars of the first edition survive because the greater part of the print-run was lost in a shipwreck, and only three copies were known to him. Eight copies of the first edition exist in various libraries in North America and Europe, two of which lack the original frontispiece, and the other six of which lack also the first 32 pages. A ninth copy exists in Mexico divided between one owner who possesses the first volume, and another who possesses the other two. The errors and omissions were made good in the second edition by reference to the original manuscript which, so Franco discloses, was in the library of Don Andrés González de Barcia. The second edition has the date 1723 on the title page, but the ''Proemio'' itself is dated 20 January 1725, so the effective publication date must have been later than that. A third edition (a new facsimile reprint rather than a new edition) was printed in Mexico in 1943 by Salvador Chávez Hayhoe. The only addition was a title-page identifying the data relevant to the reprint. The fourth edition, published by ''Editorial Porrúa'' in Mexico in 1969 with an Introduction by Miguel León-Portilla, was another facsimile reprint of the second edition, but, this time, employing a magnificent large paper exemplar formerly owned by the Mexican historianCritical appraisal of the work
Until the publication of Mendieta's ''Historia eclesiástica indiana'' in 1870, Torquemada's work was held in high esteem but, thereafter, Icazbalceta's prestige combined with his vigorous denunciation of Torquemada's supposed plagiarism of his predecessor's previously unknown History, caused the ''Monarquía indiana'' to fall into disrepute, and many commentators disparaged its method, content, and style. From the middle of the 20th century, the work of numerous scholars has gone far to rehabilitating Torquemada and re-assessing the significance of the ''Monarquía indiana''. According toFor the historian of ideas the ''Monarquía indiana'' deserves to be restored to a position of eminence as one of the classic sources of colonial historiography.In the opinion of Alcina Franch (1969):-
"Neither the ponderous and erudite digressions . . nor the supposed plagiarism . . can obscure the genuine value of Torquemada's work; that is, his extraordinary assemblage of materials available at the end of the 16th century for tracing the ancient and contemporary history of Mexico, unwittingly salvaging numerous old sources, reports, oral traditions, etc., which, without him, would have been forever lost beyond recall." (translation from the Spanish original)More recently, it has been said (1996):-
La importancia de la obra de Torquemada no ha sido debidamente reconocida por parte de los especialistas, pero aquellos que la han estudiado en profundidad coinciden en hacer una valoración muy positiva. (The importance of Torquemada's work has not been properly recognised by specialists, but those who have given it deep study concur in a very positive appraisal)And (2002):-
Torquemada's work was more than a censored version of Mendieta's . . With his study, indigenous culture - more particularly the Nahuatl - was inserted into the context of universal civilisation on a par with Greece, Rome and Egypt . . More than an historical text, Torquemada's work is a theological speculation developed in order to explain, within a western philosophical framework, the existence of the American Indians and the role that their conquest and evangelisation play in the context of the history of salvation. (translation from the Spanish original)As for the author's style, opinions diverge. A judicious and broadly positive assessment such as this was made in 1890 by the American historian and ethnologist Hubert Howe Bancroft:-
He rises above the mere monk chronicler and strives to interest his readers by variety of topics, as well as by treatment, which receives no inconsiderable aid from a descriptive power of rare occurrence among his confreres; other faults remain, however. While concise enough in the narrative generally, he abandons himself to inappropriate deviations and wordy argument, and revels in learned references.By contrast, a non-specialist (who thought Torquemada arrived in New Spain in 1583 and made other elementary mistakes about his life in the few sentences he devoted to it) offered this observation which can be taken to be representative of the opposite tendency:-
The value of ''Monarquia Indiana'' as a history of prehispanic Mexico and of its conquest by Cortes is marginal. This hodgepodge of facts and fiction and of a few interesting details lost in tedious disquisitions is important for other reasons. . . The merit of Torquemada, if merit it be, is the fact that in his compilation he quoted .unpublished chronicles, sometimes mentioning the names of their authors, sometimes plundering parts of their work for his ''Monarquía Indiana'', thus saving them from oblivion. Torquemada's plagiarism of Jeronimo de Mendieta's work . . part of which he included in his ''pot-pourri'' without any change, proved very useful to Joaquín García Icazbalceta tc./blockquote>
Minor works
One other work published in his lifetime is known, ahagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...of fray Sebastián de Aparicio, a Franciscan lay brother who had died on 25 February 1600 and whose reputation of exemplary living resulted in hisbeatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...in 1789. Known by its shortened title ''Vida y milagros del santo confesor de Cristo, fray Sebastián de Aparicio'' (The Life and Miracles of the Holy Confessor of Christ, Friar Sebastián de Aparicio), it was printed in 1602 by Diego López Dávalos at the presses of the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, and in Seville in 1605. Torquemada himself mentioned playlets or scenes ("''comedias o reprecentaciones''") he had written inNahuatl Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...for members of theConfraternity A confraternity ( es, cofradía; pt, confraria) is generally a Christian voluntary association of laypeople created for the purpose of promoting special works of Christian charity or piety, and approved by the Church hierarchy. They are most c ...of Our Lady of Soledad to perform at the chapel of ''San José de los naturales'', a large mostly open space adjacent to the main Franciscan church of ''San Francisco de México'' which could accommodate thousands of persons. None of these pieces have survived. Other writings include two unpublished letters found in theGeneral Archive of the Indies The Archivo General de Indias (, "General Archive of the Indies"), housed in the ancient merchants' exchange of Seville, Spain, the ''Casa Lonja de Mercaderes'', is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history ...in Seville (dating from 1620), and two long apologetic "Statements" (or ''alegatos'', dating from 1621) eventually published by Icazbalceta. These argue - one from a theological and canonical perspective, the other from a historical perspective - that members of the three Mendicant orders then active in New Spain should not be subjected to examination by the diocesan bishopsExcerpts from two of the letters (both dated to October 1620) are in León-Portilla, at pp. 44f. The two ''alegatos'' (discussed ''ibid.'' at pp. 46f.) were published by Icazbalceta along with Mendieta's ''Historia'' in: ''Códice Mendieta, Documentos franciscanos siglos XVI y XVII, Nueva colección de documentos para la historia de México'', México, 1892, Vol. 5, p. 125-240.
References
Sources
* :– (Spanish version, originally published in 1969, of the chapter in the 1973 Handbook) *Arroyo, Salvador Guillie
Iglesia de Santiago de Tlatelolco, 1
an
companion articles posted on the website of ''Instituto nacional de antropología y historia'' (INAH), a research institute ofUNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigge ..., accessed 12 January 2014 * * * * * * * *, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Dec., 1962), pp. 234–243 * * * :– :– * Vol. 1, No. 2 * * :– * * * * * * Vol. XVI, núm. 61, pp. 73–80 * *
External links
Picture of the Cloister of the Monastery of Santiago Tlatelolco
Encarta
Archived
2009-10-31) {{DEFAULTSORT:Torquemada, Juan de Aztec scholars Novohispanic Mesoamericanists 17th-century Mesoamericanists People of New Spain 1560s births 1624 deaths People from the Province of Palencia Colonial Mexico Historians of Franciscan history