Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (also Botterini) 1698,
Sondrio
Sondrio (; lmo, Sùndri; rm, Sunder; archaic german: Sünders or ; la, Sundrium) is an Italian city and ''comune'' and Provincial Capital located in the heart of the Valtellina. , Sondrio counts approximately 21,876 inhabitants (2015) and it is ...
,
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 ...
– 1749,
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 ...
) was a historian,
antiquary
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
and
ethnographer
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
of
New Spain
New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...
, the
Spanish Empire's colonial dominions in North America.
Early life
Born in Italy of noble parentage, Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci studied in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and lived in
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into provi ...
and
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
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, timezone = CET
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. He was a knight of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
. Forced to flee Austria because of the war with Spain, Boturini arrived in Spain via England and Portugal. In Madrid he met the Condesa de Santibáñez, oldest daughter of the Condesa de Moctezuma, who authorized him to collect a pension due her, as a descendant of the Aztec Emperor
Moctezuma II
Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ( – 29 June 1520; oteːkˈsoːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sĩn̥), nci-IPA, Motēuczōmah Xōcoyōtzin, moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin variant spellings include Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecu ...
, from the royal treasury in New Spain.
In New Spain
Boturini went to New Spain in 1736, where he remained eight years, exploring remote regions and, in the words of
Prescott, "living much with the natives, passing his nights sometimes in their huts, sometimes in caves, and the depths of the lonely forests." During those years he assembled a vast collection of paintings, maps, manuscripts and native codices. He copied more than 500 pre-Columbian inscriptions and made his own drawings of monuments and sculptures, and he investigated the history of the apparition of the
Virgin of Guadalupe
Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...
on the hill of
Tepeyac
Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names Tepeyacac and Tepeaquilla, is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost ''delegación'' or borough of Mexico City. According to the Catholic tradition, it is the site where ...
. He traveled widely and on his travels brought together the largest collection of Mexican antiquities assembled to that time by a European.
Not only did he intend to write the history of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but he also had plans to crown her image with a gold crown. For that purpose he sought donations from the bishops and from the public. This brought him to the attention of the colonial government, which was suspicious of the motives of a foreigner making this proposal.
On 2 June 1744 after an investigation, the recently arrived viceroy in 3th november 1742,
Pedro Cebrián, 5th Count of Fuenclara, had him imprisoned and impounded his collection. He was accused of entering New Spain without license from the
Council of the Indies
The Council of the Indies ( es, Consejo de las Indias), officially the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies ( es, Real y Supremo Consejo de las Indias, link=no, ), was the most important administrative organ of the Spanish Empire for the Amer ...
and of introducing papal documents without a royal permit.
Vindication
After eight months in prison, Boturini was sent to Spain. He fell into the hands of pirates, who eventually released him at
Gibraltar
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, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
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, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
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. From there he traveled to
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 ...
, in miserable conditions. In Madrid he met
Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia
Mariano is a masculine name from the Romance languages, corresponding to the feminine Mariana (disambiguation), Mariana.
It is an Italian, Spanish and Portuguese variant of the Roman Marianus which derived from Marius (name), Marius, and Marius d ...
, another passionate collector of Indian antiquities. Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia offered Boturini a place to live and financial support, and got the Council of the Indies to reconsider his case. Boturini was absolved. The king named him royal chronicler of the Indies, ordered that his collection be returned to him, and extended an invitation for him to return to New Spain. Boturini, however, declined to return to New Spain, and his collection was never restored. It appears that he was granted recompense and a stipend to work on his projected history of the colony.
In Madrid he wrote a history of ancient Mexico, unpublished at the time of his death in 1755. The library at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is named for him.
The Boturini Collection
The collection was formed between 1736 and 1744, to serve as the basis of a projected ''Historia de América Septentrional''. It consisted of many valuable documents, the majority of them of Indian provenance. Among these were hieroglyphic paintings that had belonged to Juan de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a descendant of the rulers of
Texcoco. Ixtlilxotchitl bequeathed these documents to Don
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora
Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (August 14, 1645 – August 22, 1700) was one of the first great intellectuals born in the New World - Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico City). He was a criollo patriot, exalting New Spain over Old. ...
.
The collection was confiscated by
Viceroy Pedro Cebrián y Agustín at the time of Boturini's arrest in 1743. It was deposited in the office of the secretary of the viceroyalty. The documents were neglected there for years and suffered considerable pilferage.
The subsequent viceroy,
Juan Francisco de Güemes, 1st Count of Revillagigedo
Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas ( es, Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas, primer conde de Revillagigedo) (16 May 1681, Reinosa, Cantabria – 27 November 1766, Madrid) was a Spanish general, governor of Havana, captain general of ...
, granted the historian and antiquary Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia (Boturini's friend from Madrid) the paintings and documents he solicited for his own studies. On Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia's death, they passed to
Antonio de León y Gama
Antonio de León y Gama (1735–1802) was a Mexican astronomer, anthropologist and writer. When in 1790 the Aztec calendar stone (also called sun stone) was discovered buried under the main square of Mexico City, he published an essay about it ...
. He died in 1802, and the collection passed to his heirs. Shortly thereafter, 16 paintings were obtained by
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
during his visit to Mexico in 1802-03. He published them in ''Vues des cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes d'Amérique''. The originals of these are now in the
Berlin State Library
The Berlin State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany and a property of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is one of the larg ...
.
Part of the remainder of the collection may have passed to Father José Pichardo, an amateur antiquarian. , beginning in 1827 or shortly thereafter, obtained important parts of the collection from a variety of sources. He sold his collection to
Eugène Goupil
Charles Eugène Espidon Goupil (14 December 1831 – 24 October 1896) was a French Mexican philanthropist and collector.
In 1889 he bought Joseph Marius Alexis Aubin's collection of 384 Mesoamerican manuscripts. On 14 May 1864, he married August ...
, who was of French and Mexican descent. This part of the collection passed by donation or purchase to the National Library in Paris, where it remains, under the name ''Aubin-Goupil Collection''.
Shortly after Mexican independence, the rest of the original collection was transferred to the library of the University, and from there in 1823 to the Conservatory of Antiquities. Later the collection was housed in the National Library. Currently it is in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
Writings
*''Oratio ad Divinam Sapientiam'' (unedited).
*''Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la América Septentrional''. Madrid, 1746; Mexico City, 1871.
*''Catálogo del Museu Indiano''. Mexico City, 1871.
*''Historia general de la América Septentrional por el caballero Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci''. Madrid, 1948.
*''Idea of a New General History of North America: An Account of Colonial Native Mexico by Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci''. (Author),
Stafford Poole
The Reverend Stafford Poole, C.M., (March 6, 1930 – November 1, 2020) was a Catholic priest and a research historian. He was formerly a professor of history at, and later served as President of, the former St. John's Seminary College (closed ...
(Translator), Susan Schroeder(Foreword) University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
References
* "Boturini Benaducci, Lorenzo," ''Enciclopedia de México'', v. 2. Mexico City, 1996, .
* Ballesteros Gailbrois, Manuel, ''Los papeles de don Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci'', Madrid, 1947.
* Bayle, Constantino, "El caballero Boturini y la fracasada coronación de la Virgen de Guadalupe en México", ''Estudios Eclesiásticos''. Madrid, 1923.
Ødemark, John - On Boturini and Vico
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boturini Benaducci, Lorenzo
1702 births
1753 deaths
Italian Mesoamericanists
Historians of Mesoamerica
Historians of Mesoamerican art
Aztec scholars
18th-century Mesoamericanists
Italian emigrants to Spain