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“Indispensable in a Civilized Society, as Necessary as Food:” A Consideration of Manuel Payno’s ‘Monumental’ Effort to Found the Biblioteca Nacional de México
by
Phillip Jones
1111 6th Ave. Grinnell, IA 50112-1690
Office phone: 641-269-3355 Fax: 641-269-4283 [email protected]
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This article combines history, biography and the translation of a nineteenth-century primary source to consider the role of Manuel Payno, a Mexican government official and noted writer, in establishing his country’s National Library. Included first are profiles of Mexican library history and of Manuel Payno which provide context for the appended English translation of Payno’s 1869 article requesting continued government funding to complete the Biblioteca Nacional. It is, however, Payno’s own writing that reveals the merit of his entrée into the nearly half-century effort to found this intellectual and cultural symbol for an emerging nation. 3
“Indispensable in a Civilized Society, as Necessary as Food:” A Consideration of Manuel Payno’s ‘Monumental’ Effort to Found the Biblioteca Nacional de México.
Standing watch outside the reading room of the Fondo Reservado, the special collections
annexed to the Biblioteca Nacional in Mexico City, are monuments of José María Luis Mora,
Valentín Gómez Farías, Antonio Martínez de Castro, and Benito Juárez—government officials
and presidents credited with principal roles in the forty-year effort to found Mexico’s National
Library, an institution arising fitfully following Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821.1
The role taken by Manuel Payno—a successful journalist and novelist and former Mexican finance minister—did not lead to one of the four government decrees created by these his contemporaries, yet Payno’s voice and vision offered to both Mexico’s leaders and citizens an image of what their Biblioteca Nacional should be and, largely, became. Glints from Payno’s life reveal his affinity for libraries and that he is, indeed, a worthy subject for the library historian:
Payno was exiled from Mexico for his writings on the Mexican American War—thereby personifying intellectual freedom—and frequently published journalism under the pseudonym El
Bibliotecario, or The Librarian. To appreciate the parallel and eventually converging paths of the
Biblioteca Nacional and Manuel Payno, the histories of Mexico’s libraries and the man should first be considered. And as the clearest explanation of Payno’s role is the often-quoted article he published in May of 1869 describing the transformation of the former Church of San Agustín to the Biblioteca Nacional, an English translation of this piece is appended.2 Payno’s writing
provides a glimpse into nineteenth-century Mexico, rendered in prose both ornate and affable,
and many of his judgments remain relevant for the contemporary reader. However, Manuel
Payno’s 3500 words best demonstrate his passion and his part in founding a library long awaited. 4
The Path from Amoxcalli to the Biblioteca Nacional
While the effort to establish the Biblioteca Nacional marks the beginning of library history
in modern Mexico, book culture is clearly evident in earlier periods of the nation’s history. Prior
to the arrival of Hernán Cortés at Veracruz in 1519, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica had
for more than a millennium transmitted their culture through codices—early manuscripts written in pictographs on folded paper sheets made of plant fiber or animal hide. However, almost all codices and the amoxcallis, the term for pre-Hispanic libraries in the indigenous language
Nahuatl, were destroyed during the Spanish conquest.3 During the three hundred years of
Spanish colonialism (1521-1821), book collections were found in New Spain’s Catholic seminaries and convents as well as private libraries scattered throughout the colony. Typically, these ecclesiastical libraries held works of Catholic or church-sanctioned theology, philosophy, and history; the private libraries, while reflecting personal interest, held surviving codices and were rich in bibliographic jewels as Mexico City was the site of the first printing press in the new
world (1539). Early libraries of note included the Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla —the
preeminent seventeenth-century library—and that of the Real y Pontificia Universidad de
México (Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico) in Mexico City. Founded during the colonial period, Mexico’s first public library was the Biblioteca Turriana, named for the priests
Luis and Cayetano Torres who founded it in the Catedral de México in Mexico City in 1788.
With the exception of the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, early Mexican libraries lacked sufficient space for patrons, and no colonial library met the growing demand for modern works—secular and scientific—printed within Mexico and abroad.4
Education in Colonial Mexico was provided by the Catholic Church to create a native clergy
and to spread Spanish and Christian cultures throughout the new world. After Mexico’s Wars of 5
Independence (1810-1821), the nation still struggled with poverty and illiteracy as persons
distant from Mexico City in provincial cities, rural towns and Indian pueblos had little access to
education or currents of culture offered by museums and libraries. Beginning in 1824, three years
after independence, the topic of libraries began to receive attention in a few state legislatures:
1824 in Puebla, 1825 in Oaxaca, 1835 in Toluca and later in Chihuahua and Zacatecas.5 What became clear from these early efforts was the need for a national library--that is a collection located in the nation’s capital, home to both country’s bibliographic history and future, and open to all persons. As early as 1828, a plan for a national library was presented to Mexico’s National
Congress; this effort was not realized due to inadequate federal funding and quickly-changing presidential administrations and priorities. Between May 1833 and August 1855, the Mexican presidency changed hands thirty-six times, with the average term being about seven-and-a-half months. This roster included two emperors, numerous military dictators, as well as elected presidents--each caught in a succession of conservative and liberal leadership, and this trend of short-lived presidential administrations endured into the early twentieth century.6
As Mexico vacillated between elected and military leaders and struggled with economic instability, repeated efforts were made to establish a national library. In 1833, President Valentín
Gómez Farías appointed a group of leaders to draft laws and regulations for Public Instruction in the Federal District; from this body, headed by José María Luis Mora, came official recommendations that a national public library be established. The library of Mexico City’s
Colegio de Todos los Santos was selected to house the books and manuscripts gathered from numerous religious and private libraries as well as books printed domestically and abroad.
Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789-1851), a diplomat and successful Mexican playwright, was appointed director of the Biblioteca Nacional and allotted an annual book and periodical budget 6
of $3,000.∗ Gorostiza also gathered private monetary donations for the Library—some of which
came from his own earnings in the theater.7 However political moderates viewed the project as
too liberal, and the decree creating the Biblioteca Nacional was annulled by the body who had
penned it.
More decrees followed in support of the Biblioteca Nacional, some issued by government
officials, others by presidents. In 1846, a decree appeared at the request of José María Lafragua
(1813-1875), Secretary of Foreign Relations and a future director of the Biblioteca Nacional,
calling for a national and public library; again, the undertaking faltered—now due to the
expenses of Mexico’s War with the United States and the poorly organized federal treasury. As
early as October of 1851, articles began appearing in Mexico City’s newspapers—principally in
the liberal publication El Siglo Diez y Nueve—calling for renewed attention to the matter of a
national library.8 This coverage included feature articles summarizing Lafragua’s degree of
1846, brief reminders and updates on the project’s status, and even a Spanish translation of a piece from an English-language paper profiling national libraries throughout Europe.
Conservative support for a national library was less common but did appear in an editorial in the newspaper El Universal in August of 1854. In the late 1850s, the federal government restricted the power of the Catholic Church through reform laws and a new constitution which secularized much of Mexican society. Accordingly, the Real y Pontificia Universidad de México, founded and run by the Roman Catholic Church, was closed, and the Biblioteca Nacional received the books, monies and property of the suppressed University’s library. Yet as the newly appointed director, José Fernando Ramírez (1804-1871), began preparing the facility and collections,
∗ All $ amounts given in Mexican pesos of the time. 7
conservatives revolted against the Constitution of 1857 and the effort to found the Library was once again abandoned.
During Mexico’s Imperial Era—the period spanning 1863-1867 known also as the French
Intervention—the Austrian Maximilian reigned as emperor and envisioned an imperial rather than a national library. After first naming José María Benítez (1800-1872) director, Maximilian later appointed Agustín Fischer to the post. In scholarship on the history of the Biblioteca
Nacional, Fisher is noted primarily as having received an excessive salary and to have done mostly as Maximilian wished—boxing and transporting the Biblioteca Nacional’s collections to locations outside the University, for instance.9 It was during this period that the exodus began of
Mexico’s rich collections of books, manuscripts, maps and codices to Europe and the United
States. Maximilian had purchased the notable 7,000-item collection of publisher and bookseller
José María Andrade for the imperial library; however, following Maximilian’s execution in 1867
and the chaotic reemergence of the Mexican Republic, Andrade’s collection was shipped to
Leipzig, Germany for auction. Three thousand items from this collection eventually became part
of the library of Hubert Howe Bancroft in San Francisco.10
President Benito Juárez’s administrations showed sustained interest in a national library: it
had issued a decree in 1861 ordering again that the Biblioteca Nacional be located within the
Universidad de México (formerly the Real y Pontificia Universidad de México); and in a decree
from 1867, Antonio Martínez de Castro—Juárez’s Secretary of Justice and Public Education—
requested that the Biblioteca Nacional be moved to the former Church of San Agustín near
Mexico City’s zócalo, or central square. Also in 1867, press coverage on the Biblioteca Nacional
resumed. These brief newspaper articles—most written by library’s director, José María
Benítez—updated readers on the Library’s move from the Universidad de México to San 8
Agustín. On January 29, 1869, an announcement appeared in El Monitor Republicano noting that the Biblioteca Nacional was finally open and housed in two adjacent buildings: for the public, a general collection of 13,000 volumes was held in the Capilla del Tercer Orden (Chapel of the
Third Order); housed in the Church of San Agustín and to be opened soon after was the principal collection of 116,000 volumes. 9
The Path of Manuel Payno to the Biblioteca Nacional
Writings on the history of Mexico’s Biblioteca Nacional are found in limited number and
primarily in Spanish; sources on the personal and professional history of Manuel Payno y Flores
are almost nonexistent—as was noted by Julio Rafael Castañeda in a 1953 Master’s thesis and is
still the case.11 The most extensive source on Payno’s life, Manuel Payno et “Los bandidos de
Rio Frío”(1979), is a biographical and literary study written in French by Payno’s bibliographer,
Robert Duclas.12 A representative difficulty in researching Payno is simply determining the year
of his birth: the beginning pages of Duclas’s study show this to be February of 1820 while
reference works, journal articles, as well as portions of books published in Mexico and the
United States state that Payno was born in June of 1810.13 Whichever date is cited, sources invariably note the proximity of Payno’s birth to the beginning or conclusion of the Mexican
Wars of Independence (1810-1821), an event all sources consider to presage the passions of his life and work.
Duclas and all other sources list Payno’s birthplace as Mexico City. His parents, Manuel
Payno y Bustamente and Josefa Flores, provided a comfortable home and encouraged their son’s studies—Manuel excelled in history—and his interest in writing. Payno began professional life at age fourteen in the capital city’s customs house, an occurrence not unusual for the time period
and due to his success in school and the fact his friend the young Guillermo Prieto—the future
Mexican poet and statesman—was also an employee.14 Payno and Prieto were later sent to
Matamoros to help found the frontier Maritime Customs House; here, Payno soon rose to the
position of auditor. Following a series of military appointments, Payno held government and
diplomatic posts such as General Collector of Delinquent Taxes and Mexican Secretary to the
Republics of South America; he was, however, most successful as Mexico’s ministro de 10
hacienda, or secretary of finance, intermittently in several mid-century presidential
administrations. Payno is known for his attempts to consolidate Mexico’s foreign and internal
debts, and his career in federal government is recorded in writings such as Memoria de hacienda
1845. He also served in the Mexican military during the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
and oversaw the Mexican government’s secret courier service between Veracruz and Mexico
City.15 Later, Payno was forced into exile during Santa Anna’s final administration for his role as
contributor and editor to Apuntes para la historia de la guerra entre México y los Estados
Unidos (1848), later published in the United States as The Other Side: or, Notes for the History of the War Between Mexico and the United States (1850). The U.S. edition’s translator, Albert C.
Ramsey, refers to the book as a “literary curiosity,” “the first Mexican historical production which has been deemed worthy of translation into the English language.”16
Following the Ayutla Revolution (1854) and the fall of Santa Anna, Payno returned to
Mexican public life as Ignacio Comonfort’s secretary of finance. Payno considered some liberal reform measures of the 1850s too radical and likely to lead the nation to anarchy; as a result, he took part in a coup d’état in late 1857. Thereafter, he was excluded from government financial appointments serving only as advisor.17 Although he eventually did recognize Maximilian’s
imperial regime, Payno had opposed foreign intervention and was imprisoned for this view.
Displeased, however, with spending he considered ill-planned and wasteful, Payno criticized
imperial practices and presence in Cuentas y gastos de la Intervención y del Imperio (1867); and
President Benito Juárez used Payno’s book to help repeal imperial debt.18 From this point
onward, Payno turned his attention to journalism and writing fiction.
Within and outside his homeland, Payno is known best as a man of letters rather than as a
statesman or military leader. As a journalist, he helped establish and wrote for numerous journals 11
and newspapers devoted to politics and literature, including El Museo Mexicano (1843-1845—
founded with Guillermo Prieto), Revista Científica y Literaria de México (1845-1847) and El
Federalista (1871-1877), founded with fellow novelist, journalist and diplomat Ignacio
Altamirano. Duclas notes that Mexican writers of the 19th century, hesitant to openly express
political views, frequently published under one or more pseudonyms. Payno signed his name to writings on history, archaeology, politics, travel, economics, geography and philology, reserving for his literary work pseudonyms such as Yo (I or Me), Fidel (Faithful), El Mismo (Himself), and, on eleven occasions, El Bibliotecario (The Librarian).19
One of the founders of the Mexican Academy of Literature, Payno also achieved success as a writer of novels, short stories and travel sketches. Tardes nubladas, a collection of Payno’s literary writings between 1839 and 1845, appeared in 1871. Payno created the serialized novel in
Mexico with his works El fistol del diablo (1845-46) and Los bandidos de Río Frío (1899-1891),
the latter—written and first published in Spain—is considered his major work. American critic
Jefferson R. Spell refers to Payno as “an interpreter of Mexican life” and his literary work—
known for depictions of mid-19th century Mexico, the manners and customs of its people in both
urban and rural settings—is frequently compared to that of countryman José Joaquín Fernández
de Lizardi20 and Charles Dickens. Literary critics often describe Payno’s major creative work as
romantic and naturalistic. Of interest to the present study, Spell observes that Payno’s literary
writings advocate for “a society that will care for the worthy poor [and provide] adequate
training which would enable the lower classes to make an honorable living, and even the
education of women.”21 Such a vision was the source of Payno’s work in journalism,
government, diplomacy, military service, and teaching; and this force, expressed so memorably 12
in his stories and novels, is also evident in his writing to aid the founding of Mexico’s Biblioteca
Nacional.
Symbols that Clamor: Payno’s Writings on the Biblioteca Nacional
In November of 1868, the Mexico City newspaper El Semanario Ilustrado—bearing the subtitle “Encyclopedia of Useful Knowledge”—published a front page article by Manuel Payno entitled “La gran biblioteca nacional” requesting additional federal funding to complete the restoration of San Agustín and its transformation from church to library. The following May, the article was expanded and reprinted as “La gran biblioteca y la pequeña biblioteca de México” in the federal government’s Boletín de la Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística de la República
Mexicana, a cultural and scientific journal for which Payno wrote over two dozen articles between the late 1850s and 1870.22 To the original newspaper piece were added narrative
checklists of proposed design and architectural changes for sections of the main church building;
Payno also provided brief descriptions of the small library’s facility and mission. The journal’s
editor, identified only as R.R., also appended a document prepared by Library Director Benítez
profiling the collection’s size and provenance.
Rosa María Fernández de Zamora and Manuel Rojas, researchers at the Centro Universitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas in Mexico City, refer to Payno’s requests for funding as
“clamors, the demands of a famous writer” and not necessarily representative of the Biblioteca
Nacional’s administration.23 Indeed, Payno’s requests appear not to have received a direct
response: though the small library opened to the public in early 1869, the Biblioteca Nacional
was inaugurated in April of 1884, fifteen years after the article’s reprinting. Yet, Payno’s name
and sometimes florid nineteenth-century rhetoric only could have drawn attention to the four-
decade effort to establish this cultural institution for independent Mexico. Using his skills as a 13
journalist and novelist and his experience as a finance official, Payno wrote the longest and most
detailed piece on the Biblioteca Nacional to date, and his article is a compelling presentation of
work accomplished and final planning by librarians and government officials, architects and
craftsmen. Most important, however, is that Payno advocates for the completion of the
Biblioteca Nacional. The venue for Payno’s article, a newsweekly from the nation’s capital,
allowed him to reach persons likely to support the Library—that is, general readers as well as
members of the government. Through much of his article, Payno uses the pronoun “we” and so
aligns himself with those persons responsible for planning the Library as well as with the people of Mexico City and the nation. And as the accompanying photographs show, the Biblioteca
Nacional came to be much as Payno describes it.
Payno’s articles from November 1868 and May 1869 are of note simply because he is the author. Before publishing these two articles, Manuel Payno had not written on Mexico’s
libraries, and, although he would later write on related topics such his country’s history and educational system, he did not again publish on libraries. However, that Payno is commonly quoted yet infrequently cited in books and articles published in Mexico on the Biblioteca
Nacional suggests not simply a lack of proper source attribution but that his writing has entered
the realm of established knowledge. When assessing Payno’s role in founding his country’s most
important library, it is necessary to consider that he was an artist whose fiction is termed
romantic and celebrates the Mexican people. It is also necessary to recall that Payno understood
the power of symbols. If his writing on behalf of the Biblioteca Nacional de México did not
bring immediate response, Payno certainly could have imagined readers in his time and
thereafter considering and eventually responding to his words—as do the present article and translation. 14
Through the late 1860s, Payno gradually descended from the heights of federal government; during this time, he served as professor of history at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (National
Preparatory School) and wrote Compendio de la historia de México, a popular text on Mexican history published in multiple editions. His final diplomatic posts were in Paris and Santander during the 1880s, and he returned to live in Mexico City shortly before his death in 1894. The
Church of San Agustín was home to the Biblioteca Nacional until 1979 when the main
collections were moved to a new facility on the campus of Universidad Nacional Aútonoma de
México (UNAM) in the southern reaches of Mexico City. The former church still housed the
Fondo Reservado when an earthquake struck Mexico City in 1985 leaving San Agustín unsafe
for occupancy. Afterward, a facility was constructed adjacent to the new Biblioteca Nacional for
the special collections. Today, the Church of San Agustín remains empty, although a parish
church bearing the same name shares the city block. While Payno is remembered best for his
literary work and San Agustín has suffered, the Biblioteca Nacional has flourished as it, the
Hemeroteca Nacional (National Serials Library) and the Instituto de Investigaciones
Bibliográficas (Institute of Bibliographic Research) occupy a generous and modern facility on
UNAM’s campus.24 In sum, Manuel Payno’s impact on the Biblioteca Nacional may appear more proverbial than tangible, but he should not remain unheralded. Rather, he, too, deserves a monument, and his should be recognition and praise. 15
“The Main Library and the Small Library of Mexico”
In El Semanario Ilustrado, volume 2, which has since ceased publication, an article was
included concerning the main library under construction in the Church of San Agustín. We
reproduce it here, adding relevant material up until the present as well as news on the adjacent
small library open to the public and frequented daily by a multitude of students and persons in
pursuit of learning. As agreed upon by La Sociedad, this is one of a series of articles to be
published in the Boletín concerning the history and status of all establishments of public
instruction, hospitals, prisons and shelters in Mexico.—RR. 25
The Main Biblioteca Nacional
The history of libraries is truly the history of civilization. Never will a reader be heard to say that the barbarous peoples of Polynesia, of North America, of Asia or of the North Pole had any intention of assembling in one place such a treasure of human understanding. A library is a marvel with which we can familiarize ourselves and yet still not comprehend. All aspects of human intelligence, otherwise abstract and indefinable, are contained within this material apparatus which to our eyes may seem so simple and so ordinary. Sheets of paper and black characters are a mystery for those who cannot read, are a greater mystery to those who do read, and yet are most mysterious for those who reflect on the marvel of the word and, thereby, achieve thought. The alphabet, another marvel, makes eternal both thought and word, preserving in living substance the man of genius, even as these fragile pages will in centuries be reduced to dust—such are the thoughts that come to my pen upon writing this single word: “LIBRARY.”
That such an institution is indispensable in a civilized society, as necessary as food, no one doubts. Thus, what should be done is not to collect books without taste, with neither criterion nor 16
discernment, in humble, dark quarters distant from the center of cities, but to erect a dignified,
grand monument to inspire the august ideals of scholarship and of scientific inquiry. In Mexico
City, formerly, there were the libraries of the Catedral and the Universidad and those of the
convents. The first two of these were intended for public use but were open only certain hours;
the convent libraries were for [the Church’s] private use and the spare instruction given to
novices. The reform laws suppressing the religious orders, the University and the municipal
councils could not, however, suppress the libraries. The government assumed control of the
libraries, nevertheless, and charged first D. Ramón Alcaraz and then D. Fernando Ramírez, both
persons of requisite learning and experience, with collecting and caring for the books.26
During the Imperial Era, Maximilian appointed as librarian a foreigner, perhaps an Austrian, and several projects were undertaken to improve the library such as gathering dispersed books and moving the facility to another location.27 In reality, nothing was being accomplished; on the
contrary, other than providing that librarian an overly generous salary, it seems a good portion of
the books were misplaced with little indication of who was responsible for such negligence.
The first thought of Señor D. Antonio Martínez de Castro upon assuming leadership of the
Ministry of Justice was to finish organizing the library; however, finding an appropriate site
proved difficult. The former Church of San Agustín, reduced to a blacksmith’s shop during the
French occupation of the capital, was chosen and the necessary steps undertaken for its
acquisition. During the reform period, the property had been transferred to D. Antonio
Escandón.28 This first obstacle overcome, it was then necessary to acquire funds for the costly work that had to be done. Flooded and long closed, the Church’s interior appeared a ruin, and in
the atrium and outside grounds a sewer had formed which infested the most central and lovely
part of the city. The expenses for cleaning and repairing the building were considerable. It 17
occurred then to Señor Martínez to designate as allowable by law the monies received by the
public treasury from the estate of the late D. Eustaquio Barrón; arranged also and decreed
according to the government’s authority were staff for the facility, to oversee both building and
collections, and all this was accomplished in a timely manner. The vision, which had seemed so difficult to realize, was finally taking clear and tangible form. These seemingly insignificant details truly comprise the history of the Library’s founding and are a fitting elegy to the civil
servant who strove and successfully overcame longstanding obstacles to realize a project known
to be good and necessary, that even Maximilian himself could not advance.
From Señor Martínez also came the well-considered idea that necessary work be done by
Mexicans, as much to encourage and reward learned persons and workers as allow us to take pride in the finished building as an example of Mexico’s advances in the fine arts and a testament to our good taste in design.
Various drawings and plans were developed to repair the building and, whenever possible, change its appearance as a church. Ultimately, plans submitted by D. Vicente Heredia and D.
Eleuterio Méndez, two young architecture students from the Academia de San Carlos, were
approved. 29 The print of the façade accompanying this article gives an idea of the architects’
conception as well as the grand beauty of work once completed.
On December 31, 1867 the general budget was approved, and on January 13, 1868 work was begun and included a comfortable living quarters for the librarian. Below, we will make note— which will prove interesting—of the cost of this celebrated work. Not only should the savings be noted but also the care with which Señor Martínez de Castro strove to allocate the funds at his disposal: that this expense would affect the daily revenue of the public treasury seems to have been his ever-present concern. 18
Budget for the masonry work $26,429
Chapel and living quarters 3,392
Razing of the towers 656
Carpentry 19,303
Painting of doors and staircase 309
Ironwork 4,794
Tinwork, without window glass 240
Window glass 527
Window bars 1,664
Marble floor 10,000
Total $67,314
D. Antonio Franco was contracted for the carpentry work and D. Teodoro Flores for the
tinwork, two skilled craftsmen who have built reputations and small fortunes through years of
honesty and fine work.
The architects have economized with the sand, the chiluca, and the jarcia from eight to fifty
percent.30 With the window bars, for instance, the blacksmith will have to reduce his costs. The
most modest of homes repaired or built each day in Mexico costs more than $60,000. The budget not only reflects but resonates with the honorable frugality of the public servants who administer it. Yet, this is likely harmful to the Mexican artisans who would benefit, and it seems certainly
just that an equitable correction be made through the consideration and prudence of Señor
Mariscal.31
The work, then, such as the public can already judge, presents an appearance of grandeur
and majesty, appropriate for the use to which the building is destined. But since we have 19
concerned ourselves with particulars and details, we can be permitted to note that much work
remains, and that this task will fall to the successor of Señor Martínez de Castro and to the
representatives of the nation, that they not leave this monument incomplete and refuse that the
necessary funds be spent otherwise.
With the help of the architects, we have prepared the following estimate for use of
remaining funds:
Cost of main and side facades, statues and busts $20,000
Sixteen interior statues 10,000
Reading room and lobby decorations 10,000
Allegoric paintings 25,000
Destruction of the cupola’s lantern 400
Garden with two fountains, seats, plants and trees 10,000
Total $75,400
Roughly $80,000, which added to the amount outlined earlier totals approximately $140 to
$150,000, an insignificant, meager and scant amount compared with the majesty of the
monument, with its usefulness to a city as important as Mexico’s capital, and with the fame and
admiration those supporting Señor Martínez’s plan will receive upon the work’s completion.
Before moving to another topic, we will speak candidly regarding several matters. From the samples we have seen, the floor of Mexican marble purchased from Señores Cardeña and
Company seems magnificent, but unfortunately is also unsuitable and unhealthy. It should be assumed that persons use a library to read and to write and will likely need to do so for hours. In a building so spacious without the warmth of fireplaces or the full sun, the cold is going to be insufferable. If rugs or carpets are placed over the marble, the flooring will lose its beauty; these 20
coverings, too, will be an additional expense and still will not free the reading room of its sepulchral chill. The marble from Señores Cardeña and Company could replace the rough- finished slabs found in the palace’s corridors; 32 in the Biblioteca, a mosaic floor of Mexican
woods could be installed by many of our able craftsmen. We have visited numerous European
museums and libraries and, truly, in none have we found a marble floor. We have consistently
opposed this use of marble as it seems in all ways impractical.
Now we will say something of the building. The general floor plan of the former Church of
San Agustín is a Latin cross within a rectangle running north to south. Along the perimeter are
12 chapels and two rooms to the sides of what was formerly the apse. The main nave’s length, including the choir, is 64 meters; its width, between the pilasters topped by arches which divide the vault, is 12 meters 21 centimeters. The height of these arches’ keystones from the floor is 24 meters 14 centimeters. The barrel vault above the cross is bordered with lunettes and is divided by six arches; the crossing of the transept is topped by a cupola whose height from the ground, not including its lantern, is 35.22 meters and whose diameter is 13.40 meters. The elevation of the central nave is divided in three parts: the lower part is defined by a series of arches, each leading to one of the twelve chapels; above these arches are windows, the nave’s main light source; higher yet is the vault with elliptical skylights as a secondary source of light.
In general, and apart from these details, the building belongs to an architectural style originating in the Lombardy region of northern Italy toward the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh centuries, the most notable example of which is the famous Church of
San Miguel de Pavia. This lineage is seen in the use of vertical and horizontal lines as well as the configuration and distribution of supports. In both churches, these supports are formed by groups of Doric-Roman pilasters running from the floor to a vaulted ceiling, subduing the buildings’ 21 lower horizontal lines. The pilasters display Renaissance details, the period from which San
Miguel of Pavia takes inspiration. San Miguel de Pavia burned in 1689.
The Church of San Agustín’s architectural style—spare and classic—has been preserved with only slight modifications for its new public use. Now completely separate from the main reading room, a lobby has been constructed in the lower choir area. Four of the side chapels have been enclosed with partitions, two of these combined as space for the custodian, the porter and as the location of an elegant stairway to the upper choir area, now the collection of rare manuscripts and the office of paleography. The Church’s towers were razed to both lessen the building’s weight and for the elegant aspect now shown in the accompanying print; in the spaces remaining, offices for the paleographers have been fashioned. To alter the shape of the cross characteristic of Christian churches, the building’s arms have been separated by extending the arches of the main reading room to the apse, or the rear of the building.
Two large windows, one in the rear and the other in the former choir area, will give sufficient light to the main reading room. The cupola will disappear under a new vault creating an open, airy reading room lit by a large skylight and not the windowed turret that, due to its weight and deteriorated state, will necessarily be removed—all indicated in the budget. The remaining eight side chapels will function as both study spaces for researchers and as sections of the Biblioteca; large and beautiful skylights made in the center of the ceiling’s vaults will provide abundant lighting. Massive bookshelves will be placed at the entrances of the study areas and will contribute to the reading room’s uniform appearance as a library.
This, generally, is a physical description of the Biblioteca. Interested persons can, with this article in hand, walk through the building and correct our assessments. The spiritual essence, that is to say the soul of this beautiful and magnificent body, should be yet more beautiful and 22
magnificent. And the honor of accomplishing this task will fall upon Señor D. José María
Lafragua, the director, and to Dr. Benítez, the librarian.
Close to 200,000 volumes can be placed in the bookcases already contracted; more shelving
can be added so that the Biblioteca Nacional would contain 300 to 350,000 volumes, making it
truly a library of first rank. At present, 150 volumes have been added from the collections of
former libraries. It is necessary to speak honestly regarding these books: many of these volumes
are unacceptable as they are works no one has read—including the authors themselves. Keeping
representative volumes for curiosity and for study will certainly suffice. Señor Lafragua will
order some books from Europe as part of the Biblioteca’s next purchase; yet, we believe the
amount set aside for this does not exceed $2,000 and this would be hardly enough for such a vital
expense. It is essential for the Biblioteca to hold as many modern publications as can be obtained
on history, literature, languages, sciences and arts; to subscribe to the most important foreign
newspapers, and to have also popular works and collections of prints, images of landscapes and
monuments, etc., etc. Thus, soon apparent will be both the Biblioteca’s usefulness as well as the good and intelligent people of the district’s wish to learn.
I would venture to suggest that as a means of gathering funds, the estates of Señoras Pérez
Gálvez, Rosas and Benavente be considered. An arrangement with the executors, that doubtless
they would consent to, would lead to the same result Señor Martínez de Castro obtained earlier.
With no need to draw from operating funds, there would be sufficient revenue to finish the
construction and to buy the necessary volumes, thus ensuring that such a celebrated and
important facility would be of interest to all people.
The Small Library 23
As the work on the Biblioteca Nacional was being finished, the Capilla del Tercer Orden
was readied to house books from the Catedral as well as other available books. The site was
cleaned, painted white and a wood floor installed, and in spite of the obstacles presented by the
atrium, the library was opened to the public under the direction of the former librarian, Dr. D.
José María Benítez. The small library appears far from luxurious or imposing, but it cannot be
denied that despite the aged shelving and simply painted walls decorated only with plaster, soon noticed are its character, its order, its cleanliness—all excusing the lack of adornments, reliefs and other elegant details that are expected and truly necessary in such a building. Señor Benítez’s industry and persistence have proven superior to his many obstacles: he has managed to arrange and ready for public use the books of the former Catedral library, those from the library of the late Dr. Arrillaga, as well as an intriguing collection once belonging to D. Juan Suárez y Navarro and later purchased by D. Ignacio Cumplido.33 Additionally, Señores Lafragua and Mariscal
have acquired modern works and have already made these available to the public. Spacious
tables, plentiful seating, good light, pleasant temperatures and a variety of printed works; such
are the advantages to be enjoyed in the small library, that is open every day with few
interruptions, and can be visited without exception by all persons.
The books collected to the present and their origins are indicated in the following document
from Señor Benítez; with opportunity, these books will be distributed to the two libraries. If it is
clear that some volumes have been misplaced, it also clear that all possible fruit should be taken
from the former convent libraries, choosing the best collections and selling or exchanging others
in Mexico or in Europe, as overseen by Señor Lafragua, director of the Library. 24
Statement Showing the Number and Origin of Volumes Held by the Biblioteca Nacional
Volumes comprising the Biblioteca Nacional located at the Universidad:
From Convent of Santo Domingo 6,511 Stolen from Santo Domingo, afterward recovered by the police 360 La Profesa 5,020 La Merced 3,071 San Pablo 1,702 San Agustín 6,744 San Francisco 16,417 San Diego 8,273 San Fernando 9,500 El Cármen (three convents) 18,111 Porta-Cœli 1,431 Aranzazú 1,190 Ministry of Public Works 832 Ministry of Foreign Relations 435 Ministry of Justice 715 La Universidad 10,652
Total…………90,964
Volumes later received:
From La Catedral 10,210 Cármen del Desierto 867
Total…………11,077
From The Jesuits 11,695
Volumes purchased 2,835 Volumes received by donation 60
Summary
From La Universidad 90,964 Catedral and Cármen 25
del Desierto 11,077 The Jesuits 11,695 Purchased 2,835 Received by donation 60
Total volumes……...116,631
Notes
Before the library of the Universidad was closed, the assistant director D. Lino Ramírez took works on arithmetic and algebra to Andrade’s bookstore for sale.……………..50
Señor Lino Ramírez donated books for student prizes to the Ministry [of Public Works]……………..50
By order of the government, duplicate copies were given to La Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística..……………86
Both Fernando and Lino Ramírez bought duplicate copies……..396
Upon the closing of the library of the Universidad, the Ministry of Public Works reclaimed works it had donated……….832
Books sold to outside parties with funds submitted to Treasurer D. José María Durán.…………136
Books returned to Father Morandi by order of the Ministry of Justice……………..92
The former reading room of the Universidad was known as Las Sibilas (The Sibyls). As no chest of books bearing this mark was found among all those collected, these books are suspected missing………....10,652
Total………….12,294
Comparison
Total volumes, according to the previous statement……….116,631
Volumes presumed missing….....12,294
26
Volumes held by the Biblioteca Nacional…..104,337
Chests of books from the storeroom of the former National Mint have already been moved to the Palace of Justice, where five storerooms now hold 930 such containers. The storage space of the small reading room in the Biblioteca Nacional in San Agustín has 190 more chests, for a total of 1,120. Some of these containers have been damaged in transit, and these books remain locked in the storerooms’ cupboards.
Mexico City, April 12, 1869—José María Benítez
Once the main building is finished, the smaller library will be dedicated to the reading interests of women and young girls. In it will be found moral works, literature, poetry and even the arts and sciences as appropriate for the fairer sex. Here, both the useful and the pleasant will be found, and the site will soon be one of the most frequented and fashionable attractions of the capital. Let us imagine for a moment the completed wall fountain, its streams of water, orange trees, flowers, vining plants, elegant iron seating, small marble fountains, and we will have a type of tale from the thousand and one nights. The widow’s child, the military veteran, the student and even the impetuous boy will look with pleasure and pride upon this new facility; they will consider well spent the modest 70 to 80 thousand pesos needed to make it as we imagine, even doubling the sum if necessary.
So that the Biblioteca Nacional fulfills its objective, it is necessary that Señor Lafragua, in accordance with the appropriate governmental ministry, subscribes to all periodicals as well as literary, historical and scientific publications from England, Germany, France, Spain, and the
United States. In this way, all the advances in human learning will be made available to us for the truly trifling sum of 50 to 60 pesos a month. It is our hope that an undertaking so useful and clearly for the common good will be actively sponsored by the legislature and by the government, for which both will be the deserving recipients of praise from enlightened and thoughtful men the world over. 27
May 15, 1869.
M. Payno 28
Endnotes
1. Diccionario Porrúa: Historia, biografía y geografía de México, 5ª ed., indicates that José María Luis Mora (1794-1850) was appointed to the first administration of Valentín Gómez
Farías (1781-1858), three-time Mexican President in 1833, 1834, 1847; Antonio Martínez de Castro
(1825-1880) served as Minister of Justice and Public Education under Benito Juárez (1806-1872),
President from 1858-1872.
Please note: persons mentioned by Payno but not identified with entries in this study’s endnotes are not included in standard sources of Mexican history and biography. In most cases, Payno provides context to help readers appreciate the roles of these persons, likely well-known figures in mid-19th century Mexico.
2. Payno published two articles to aid the creation of the Biblioteca Nacional: "La gran Biblioteca
Nacional," El Semanario Ilustrado: Enciclopedia de conocimientos útiles (Mexico City), November
13, 1868, which appeared three months before the Biblioteca Nacional opened to the public; his second article, "Las bibliotecas de México: La gran biblioteca y la pequeña biblioteca de México,”
Boletín de la Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística de la República Mexicana (May 1869): 3-14, is more substantial and widely known and is translated for the present study.
3. Juan Angel Vázquez Martínez, La función social del tlacuilo, los amoxtlis y los amoxcallis
(México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, 1995), 57.
4. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 18th ed., s.v. “Mexico, Libraries in.”
5. Ignacio Osorio Romero and Boris Berenzon Gorn,"Biblioteca Nacional de México," in
Historia de las bibliotecas nacionales de Iberoamérica: Pasado y presente, ed. Asociación de
Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica, 327 (México, D.F: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de
México, 1995). 29
6. Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, and Susan L. Deeds, Course of Mexican History, (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 324.
7. Romero and Berenzon Gorn, "Biblioteca Nacional de México,” 328.
8. With the exception of Payno’s article from El Semanario Ilustrado of November 13, 1868, all newspaper articles related to the history of Biblioteca Nacional cited in this study are reprinted in
María del Carmen Ruiz Castañeda, Luis Mario Schneider, and Miguel Ángel Castro, eds. La
Biblioteca Nacional de México: Testimonios y documentos para su historia, 1st ed. (México, D.F.:
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, Biblioteca
Nacional, Hemeroteca Nacional, 2004).
9. Luis González Obregón, The National Library of México, 1833-1910, trans. Alberto María Carreño
(México, 1910), 30.
10. Romero and Berenzon Gorn, "Biblioteca Nacional de México,” 333.
11. Julio Rafael Castañeda, “La contribución de Manuel Payno a las letras mexicanas” (master’s thesis, Stanford University, 1953), 3.
12. Two other helpful biographical sources on Payno, both in Spanish, are María del Carmen Ruiz
Castañeda, “Manuel Payno (1820-1894)," Biblioteca de México no. 20 (1994): 53-56 and Alejandro
Villaseñor y Villaseñor, “Apuntes biográficos del autor." In Novelas cortas, by Manuel Payno
(México: Imp. de V. Agüeros, 1901), v-xvii.
13. Robert Duclas, Manuel Payno et "Los bandidos de Río Frío" (México: Institut Français d'Amérique Latine, 1979), 17-19.
14. Ibid., 31.
15. Ireneo Paz, J. L. Regagnon, and José Francisco Godoy, "Manuel Payno," in Los hombres prominentes de México, 101-104 (México: Imprenta y Litografia de "La Patria"), 1888. 30
16. Albert C. Ramsey, preface to The Other Side: Or, Notes for the History of the War between
Mexico and the United States, by Ramón Alcaraz and others, trans. and ed. by Albert C. Ramsey
(New York: J. Wiley, 1850), v.
17. Encyclopedia of Mexico, ed. Michael S. Werner (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), s.v. “Manuel
Payno.”
18. Ibid.
19. Robert Duclas, Bibliografía de Manuel Payno, ed. Miguel Ángel Castro and Arturo Gómez
(México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas,
1994), 21.
20. J.R. Spell, "The Literary Work of Manuel Payno," Hispania 12, no. 4 (1929): 347, 350.
21. Ibid., 354.
22. Founded in 1833, La Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística de la República Mexicana was charged with researching and disseminating information regarding the nation’s geography, history and demography. The organization, known today as the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e
Informática (INEGI), provides federal and state-level information via its WWW page at http://www.inegi.gob.mx/.
23. Rosa María Fernández de Zamora, e-mail message to author, April 6, 2006.
24. See Biblioteca Nacional, http://biblional.bibliog.unam.mx/bib/biblioteca.html.
25. La Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística de la República Mexicana and its Bulletin (Boletín).
26. González Obregón, The National Library of México, 1833-1910, 19-21 discusses Ramírez’s efforts to found and lead the Biblioteca Nacional. In a letter from 1851, Ramírez offered both his personal assets of $16,000 and book collections of nearly 7,500 volumes toward the founding of a national library; additionally, Ramírez—a bibliophile lawyer and judge from the city of Durango— 31 sought the appointment of “librarian for life.” Ramírez’s library was strong in law, history, literature, travel, and Mexican manuscripts and rare books, yet his proposal was not considered by the government; as with so many other valuable Mexican book collections, Ramírez’s library was later sold in London. His effort and interest were memorable, however, as in 1857 President Ignacio
Comonfort appointed Ramírez the second director of the Biblioteca Nacional.
27. Fernández de Zamora, pers. comm., identifies Maximilian’s librarian as Agustín Fischer.
28. González Obregón, The National Library of México,1833-1910, 33 states that Antonio Escandón
(1824-1877), a businessman and philanthropist connected to the México-Veracruz railroad, had acquired the abandoned church to resume Catholic services. However, for his partisanship to
Maximillian’s regime Mr. Escandón faced a fine of $80,000, which he settled with the return of the church to the federal government.
29. Diccionario Porrúa: Vicente Heredia (1830?-1886) had careers as an architect and later professor at the Escuelas de Bellas Artes in Mexico City; Eleuterio Méndez (1830-1892) worked as an engineer and professor for the Escuela Nacional de Ingeniería.
30. Chiluca refers to a Mexican stone commonly used in construction; jarcia is a rope made of natural fibers.
31. Enciclopedia de México, 14th ed., s.v. “Mariscal, Ignacio” provides a profile and brief list of biographical sources on Mariscal, a lawyer and justice who directed the Escuela Nacional de
Jurisprudencia and presided over the Tribunal of the Federal District and Territories at the time of
Payno’s article.
32. Located on Mexico’s City’s square, the present Palacio Nacional dates from 1693 and serves as a seat of the Mexican government.
33. Diccionario Porrúa: Basilio Manuel Arrillaga (1791-1867) was a Jesuit administrator and 32 intellectual renowned for his vast learning and personal library of over 12,000 volumes; Juan Suárez y Navarro (1813-1867) served as a senior military official under Santa Anna; and Ignacio Cumplido
(1811-1887) was a printer and typographer whose workshops issued the periodicals El Siglo Diez y
Nueve and El Museo Mexicano.