Francisco de Borja del Paso y Troncoso (October 8, 1842 in

Veracruz, Veracruz Veracruz (), known officially as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipal seat for the surrounding municipality of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located along the coast in the central pa ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

– April 30, 1916 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) was an important Mexican

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to Document, records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist c ...

, and

Nahuatl language Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in ...

scholar. He "was and remains the outstanding major Mexican investigator of his era, a fully accepted figure in the international group of his peers."

Early life and education

Del Paso y Troncoso, often cited in bibliographies as Paso y Troncoso, attended primary school in his hometown of Veracruz, and later moved to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. In his youth, he dedicated most of his time to commercial activities, but still found time to register in the

National Preparatory School The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria ( en, National Preparatory High School) (ENP), the oldest senior High School system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founde ...

, attending as a regular student until he had successfully completed his studies. It is believed that he had among his teachers Don

Gabino Barreda Gabino Barreda (born Puebla, 1818 – died Mexico City 1881) was a Mexican physician and philosopher oriented to French positivism. After participating in the Mexican–American War defending his country as a volunteer, he studied medicine in ...

, and he had initially decided to pursue a career in medicine. Toward the end of his studies he wanted to prepare his thesis on the

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

and ethno-pharmacology of the ancient Mexicans. His initial investigation in this field aroused his interest so much that he devoted himself to the study and research of the archaeological field, particularly to the inquiry of documentary sources from both Indian and Spanish authors of the 16th century. This change in studies was eventually at the cost of his not receiving his medical degree.

Career

He soon came to focus on the

Nahuatl 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 ...

language, and his work came to be permanently linked to the National Archaeological Museum. In 1889 Del Paso y Troncoso was appointed director of that institution. During much of 1890 and 1891, he led a significant archaeological exploration of the state of Veracruz. In 1892, at the commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of European contact with the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, Del Paso y Troncoso was nominated president of the Mexican Commission on the American Historic Exhibition to be held in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. He kept his title as director of the National Archaeological Museum in Mexico, and traveled to Spain in August 1892. Del Paso y Troncoso was to remain in Europe until his death, working without rest in archives and libraries on the continent. During the nearly twenty-four years devoted to research and outside of Mexico, Del Paso y Troncoso arranged for publication a wealth of documents and previously unpublished works of the utmost importance for the history of Mexico. His extensive correspondence shows that he was always in contact with cultural institutions and specialists in his country and others from abroad that were also interested in the same field of research. Utilizing materials found in the libraries, archives and collections of

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, Del Paso y Troncoso made significant contributions to the

historiography Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians ha ...

of the Conquest-era and

Colonial Mexico Colonial or The Colonial may refer to: * Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology) Architecture * American colonial architecture * French Colonial * Spanish Colonial architecture Automobiles * Colonial (1920 au ...

periods, identifying, collating and publishing a number of important historical source documents and original manuscripts. Many of these documentary collections were utilized by Charles Gibson, historian in his 1964 publication ''Aztecs Under Spanish Rule'', which established in English-language scholarship the importance of the indigenous in the colonial history of Mexico. Before 1884, Del Paso y Troncoso was elected Fellow of the

Mexican Academy of Language The Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (variously translated as the Mexican Academy of Language, the Mexican Academy of the Language, the Mexican Academy of Letters, or glossed as the Mexican Academy of the Spanish Language; acronym AML) is the Assoc ...

. In 1893 he was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of History and also of the Spanish Association of Writers and Artists. In 1895 he was received as an honorary member of the Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology, and as a correspondent of the Paris Societe des Americanist. In 1898 he also obtained a diploma of honorary membership of the

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

Publications

In the Anales del Museo Nacional de Arqueología he published "Ensayos sobre los símbolos cronológicos de los mexicanos", 1892; "Estudio sobre la historia de la medicina en México", 1896; "Lingüística de la República Mexicana", 1886; "Códice indiano del Sr. Sánchez Solís", 1888; "Los trabajos lingüísticos de don Miguel Trinidad Palma", 1897; "Notas arqueológicas y cronológicas al estudio de interpretación del Códice Borgiano hecho por José Lino Fábrega", 1899-1900; "Lista de los pueblos principales que pertenecieron a Texcoco", 1897; " Utilidad de la lengua mexicana en algunos estudios literarios", 1897; "División territorial de la Nueva España en el año de 1636", 1912; "Escritura pictórica, el códice Kingsborough", 1912. Another, very significant publication that he brought together, utilizing military records and dispatches, and a host of other historic sources, is
Las guerras con las Tribus Yaqui y Mayo del estado de Sonora, Mexico."
Mexico, 1905. It is one of two major sources that cover the

Yaqui Wars The Yaqui Wars, were a series of armed conflicts between New Spain, and its successor state, the Mexican Republic, against the Yaqui Natives. The period began in 1533 and lasted until 1929. The Yaqui Wars, along with the Caste War against the Ma ...

. A number of editions of major works on the history of Mexico appeared after his death, including the following titles: Historia y conquista espiritual de Yucatán, de fray Bernardo de Lizana, México, 1892; Biblioteca nahua, 6 v., Florencia, 1899-1909; Historia de las cosas de la Nueva España de fray Bernardino de Sahagún (Primeros memoriales, Códice matritense del Real Palacio y Códice de la Real Academia de la Historia, textos de los informantes de Sahagún), 3 v., Madrid, 1906-1907; Papeles de Nueva España, 7 v., Madrid-México, 1905; Códice Mendocino, México, 1925; Crónica de Nueva España, del doctor don Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 3 v., Madrid-México, 1914-1936; Epistolario de la Nueva España, 16 v., México, 1939-1942. Some of his other contributions include: Los libros de Anáhuac, México, 1895; Comentario al Códice Borbónico, Florencia, 1905.

Assessment of his work and career

Del Paso y Troncoso is a major figure in Mexican historiography, tirelessly tracking down manuscript materials in archives in Mexico and throughout Europe. He was "certainly the most erudite Mexican specialist of his era, uthe allowed this deep knowledge to impede rather than advance his own direct contribution. He published just a fraction of what he had collected, since he meticulously edited and annotated the primary texts. A number of his works appeared after his death in "subprofessional dress...in untrustworthy editions" published by others. Some of Del Paso y Troncoso's work was widely considered to have published under another's name. By contrast, Mexican historian

Silvio Zavala Silvio Arturo Zavala Vallado (February 7, 1909 – December 4, 2014) was a Mexican historian who was considered to be a pioneer in law history studies and Mexico’s institutions. Biography Early life Silvio Zavala was born on February 7, 1909 i ...

capably edited and published 16 volumes of Del Paso y Troncoso's ''Epistolario de Nueva España'' (1939–42).

References

* Carrera Stampa, Manuel. "Misiones mexicanas en archivos europeos." PAIGH, Comisión de Historia, Pub. 8, pp. 4–55. Mexico, 1949. * Carrera Stampa, Manuel. "Don Francisco Paso y Troncoso." Academia Mexicana de la Historia, ''Memorias'' 22:153-67, 209-10, 304-05, 1963. * Cline, Howard F. "Selected Nineteenth-Century Mexican Writers on Ethnohistory" in ''Handbook on Middle American Indians, Guide to Ethnohistorica Sources'', Part 2, Howard F. Cline, volume editor, Austin: University of Texas Press 1973, section on Francisco del Paso y Troncoso pp. 391–403. * Galindo y Villa, Jesús. Don Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, su vida y sus obras." Museo Nacional de Antropología, ''Anales' ep. 4, 1:305-568. Mexico 1922. * González Obregón, Luis. "Don Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, sabio arqueológico y lingüista mexicano." BNMex Boletín 12:167-79. 1919, reprinted in ''Cronistas e historiadores'', Mexico 1939. * Jiménez, Arturo, "Los restos de Del Paso y Troncoso reposan en una capilla del Ivec

La Jornada ''La Jornada'' (''The Working Day'') is one of Mexico City's leading daily newspapers. It was established in 1984 by Carlos Payán Velver. The current editor ''(directora general)'' is Carmen Lira Saade. ''La Jornada'' has presence in eight sta ...

1998/11/28 * León-Portilla, Miguel. ''Bernardino de Sahagún, First Anthropologist'', Mauricio J. Mixco (trans.) Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 2002. *

Miguel León-Portilla Miguel León-Portilla (22 February 1926 – 1 October 2019) was a Mexican anthropologist and historian, specializing in Aztec culture and literature of the pre-Columbian and colonial eras. Many of his works were translated to English and he was ...

, ''Semblanzas de Académicos'' ortraits of Academicians Ediciones del Centenario de la Academia Mexicana. México, 1975. * Mendizábal, Miguel O. "Francisco del Paso y Troncoso" in ''Obras Completas'', pp. 417–20. * Palacios, Juan Enrique. "Don Francisco del Paso y Troncoso: Su magna labor de arqueología e historia." Museo Nacional de Antropología, ''Anales'' ep. 4, 1:581-88. *

Bernardino de Sahagún Bernardino de Sahagún, OFM (; – 5 February 1590) was a Franciscan friar, missionary priest and pioneering ethnographer who participated in the Catholic evangelization of colonial New Spain (now Mexico). Born in Sahagún, Spain, in 1499, he ...

. Primeros Memoriales (ca. 1558-61).

Thelma D. Sullivan Thelma Dorfman Sullivan (18 August 1918—11 August 1981) was an American paleographer, linguist and translator, regarded as one of the foremost scholars in the 20th century of the Classical Nahuatl language. Significant works include a compen ...

(English trans. and paleography of Nahuatl text), with H.B. Nicholson, Arthur J.O. Anderson,

Charles E. Dibble Charles E. Dibble (18 August 1909 – 30 November 2002) was an American academic, anthropologist, linguist, and scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. A former Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Utah, Dibble retire ...

Eloise Quiñones Keber Eloise Quiñones Keber is Professor Emeritus of Art History at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, where she specializes in Pre-Columbian and early colonial Latin American art. She earned her Ph.D from Columbia University in 1984. Writi ...

, and Wayne Ruwet (completion, revisions, and ed.) , series=Civilization of the American Indians series. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1997. * Zavala, Silvio. ''Francisco del Paso y Troncoso: Su misión en Europa, 1892-1916.'' Mexico 1938.

External links