jones, p-manuel payno bibliotecas de mexico

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"Indispensable in a Civilized Society": Manuel Payno's "Las bibliotecas

de México"

Phillip Jones

Libraries & the Cultural Record, Volume 42, Number 3, 2007, pp. 268-290

(Article)

Published by University of Texas Press

DOI: 10.1353/lac.2007.0043

For additional information about this article

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L&CR/Manuel Payno’s “Las bibliotecas de México” 268

“Indispensable in a Civilized Society”:Manuel Payno’s “Las bibliotecas de México”

Phillip Jones

This article combines history, biography, and the translation of a nineteenth-century primary source to consider the role of Manuel Payno, a Mexicangovernment official and noted writer, in establishing his country’s nationallibrary. Profiles of Mexican library history and of Manuel Payno provide

context for the appended English translation of Payno’s 1869 article,“Las bibliotecas de México: La gran biblioteca y la pequeña biblioteca deMéxico,” in which he requests continued government funding to completethe Biblioteca Nacional. Payno’s own writing reveals the merit of his effortin the nearly half-century campaign to found this intellectual and culturalsymbol of an emerging nation.

Standing watch outside the reading room of the Fondo Reservado,the special collections annexed to the Biblioteca Nacional in MexicoCity, are monuments of José María Luis Mora, Valentín Gómez Farías, Antonio Martínez de Castro, and Benito Juárez—presidents and gov-ernment officials credited with principal roles in the forty-year effort tofound Mexico’s National Library, an institution that rose fitfully followingMexico’s independence from Spain in 1821.1 Hardly less important tothe founding of the library than the men in bronze was their contem-porary Manuel Payno—novelist, former Mexican finance minister, and journalist exiled for his writings on the Mexican-American War. Payno, who loved libraries to the extent that he frequently published under

the pseudonym El Bibliotecario (The Librarian), in a single 1869 articleoffered to Mexico’s leaders and citizens a vision of what their BibliotecaNacional should be—and largely became.

Commonly drawn on but infrequently attributed to its author, ManuelPayno’s work describes the transformation of the former Church of San Agustín into the Biblioteca Nacional. At the same time, in ornate andaffable prose, it documents Payno’s passion for and part in foundingthe long-awaited library for the people of Mexico. Following a study ofthe parallel and eventually converging paths of the Biblioteca Nacional

Libraries & the Cultural Record , Vol. 42, No. 3, 2007©2007 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819



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and Manuel Payno, I present his remarkable article in its entirety in anEnglish translation.2

The Path from Amoxcalli to the Biblioteca Nacional

While the effort to establish the Biblioteca Nacional marks the begin-ning of library history in modern Mexico, book culture is clearly evident inearlier periods of the nation’s history. Prior to the arrival of Hernán Cortésat Veracruz in 1519, the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica for morethan a millennium had transmitted their culture through codices—earlymanuscripts written in pictographs on folded paper sheets made of plantfiber or animal hide. However, almost all codices and the amoxcallis , theterm for pre-Hispanic libraries in the indigenous language Nahua, weredestroyed during the Spanish conquest.3 During the three hundred yearsof Spanish colonialism (1521–1821) book collections were found in NewSpain’s Catholic seminaries and convents as well as in private libraries

scattered throughout the colony. Typically, ecclesiastical libraries held works of Catholic or church-sanctioned theology, philosophy, and his-tory. Private libraries, while reflecting personal interests, held survivingcodices and were rich in bibliographic jewels, since Mexico City was the

Figure 1. Manuel Payno. In Los Hombres Prominentes De México edited by IreneoPaz (México [City]: Imprenta y Litografía de “La Patria,” 1888), 100.




site of the first printing press in the New World (1539). Early librariesof note included the Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla—the preeminentseventeenth-century library—and that of the Real y Pontificia Universi-dad de México (Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico) in MexicoCity. Founded during the colonial period, Mexico’s first public library was the Biblioteca Turriana, named for the priests Luis and CayetanoTorres, who founded it in the Catedral de México in Mexico City in1788. With the exception of the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, early Mexicanlibraries lacked sufficient space for patrons, and no colonial library metthe 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 culturesthroughout the New World. After Mexico’s Wars of Independence(1810–21) the nation still struggled with poverty and illiteracy. Those who lived distant from Mexico City in provincial cities, rural towns, andIndian pueblos had little access to education or currents of culture of-fered by museums and libraries. Beginning in 1824, three years afterindependence, the topic of libraries began to receive attention in a fewstate legislatures: 1824 in Puebla, 1825 in Oaxaca, 1835 in Toluca, andlater in Chihuahua and Zacatecas.5 What became clear from these early

efforts was the need for a national library, a collection located in thecapital city in which the nation’s bibliographic history and continuingoutput could be gathered and made available to all persons.

As early as 1828 a plan for a national library was presented to Mexico’sNational Congress; this effort was not realized due to inadequate fed-eral funding and quickly changing presidential administrations andpriorities. Between May 1833 and August 1855 the Mexican presidencychanged hands thirty-six times, with the average term being about seven

months. This roster included two emperors and numerous military dic-tators as well as elected presidents in a succession of conservative andliberal leadership.6 As Mexico vacillated between elected and militaryleaders and struggled with economic instability, repeated efforts weremade to establish a national library. In 1833 President Valentín GómezFarías appointed a group of leaders to draft laws and regulations forpublic instruction in the Federal District; from this body, headed by JoséMaría Luis Mora, came official recommendations that a national publiclibrary be established. The library of Mexico City’s Colegio de Todos

los Santos was selected to house the books and manuscripts gatheredfrom numerous religious and private libraries as well as books printeddomestically and abroad. Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789–1851),



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a diplomat and successful Mexican playwright, was appointed directorof the Biblioteca Nacional and allotted an annual book and periodicalbudget of 3,000 pesos. Gorostiza also gathered private monetary dona-tions for the library, some of which came from his own earnings in thetheater.7 However, political moderates viewed the project as too liberal,and the decree creating the Biblioteca Nacional was annulled by thebody that had penned it.

More decrees followed in support of the Biblioteca Nacional, someissued by government officials, others by presidents. In 1846 a decreeappeared at the request of José María Lafragua (1813–75), secretary offoreign relations and a future director of the Biblioteca Nacional, call-ing for a national and public library; again, the undertaking faltered,this time due to the expenses of Mexico’s war with the United Statesand the poorly organized federal treasury. In October 1851 articles be-gan appearing in Mexico City’s newspapers—principally in the liberalpublication El Siglo Diez y Nueve —calling for renewed attention to the

matter of a national library.8 This coverage included feature articlessummarizing Lafragua’s degree of 1846, brief reminders and updateson the project’s status, and even a Spanish translation of a piece from an

Figure 2. Interior of Church of San Agustín, 1860. In Rafael Carrasco Puente,Historia de la Biblioteca Nacional de México (México: Secretaría de Relaciones

Exteriores, Departamento de Información para el Extranjero, 1948), 67.




English-language paper profiling national libraries throughout Europe.Conservative support for a national library was less common but didappear in an editorial in the newspaper El Universal in August 1854.

Not long afterward, in the late 1850s, the federal government re-stricted the power of the Catholic Church through reform laws and anew constitution that secularized much of Mexican society. Accordingly,the Real y Pontificia Universidad de México was closed, and the books,monies, and property of the suppressed university’s library were trans-ferred to the Biblioteca Nacional. Yet as the newly appointed director, José Fernando Ramírez (1804–71), began preparing the facility andcollections, conservatives revolted against the Constitution of 1857, which resulted in abandonment once again of the effort to found the

national library. During Mexico’s imperial era (1863–67), known also as the FrenchIntervention, Emperor Maximilian, an Austrian, envisioned an impe-rial rather than a national library. After first naming José María Benítez(1800–1872) director, Maximilian later appointed Agustín Fischer to thepost. Fischer is noted primarily for having received an excessive salaryand having done mostly as Maximilian wished—for instance, boxing andtransporting the Biblioteca Nacional’s collections to locations outside theuniversity.9 Sadly, during this period and the years immediately following,

the exodus of Mexico’s rich collections of books, manuscripts, maps, andcodices to Europe and the United States began. Particularly notable wasthe seven-thousand–item collection of publisher and bookseller José María Andrade that Maximilian had purchased for the imperial library. Follow-ing Maximilian’s execution in 1867 and the chaotic reemergence of theMexican Republic, Andrade’s collection was shipped to Leipzig, Germany,for auction. Three thousand items from this collection eventually becamepart of the library of Hubert Howe Bancroft in San Francisco.10

President Benito Juárez’s administrations showed sustained interest ina national library. In 1861, preceding the French Intervention, he hadissued a decree ordering that the Biblioteca Nacional be located withinthe Universidad de México (formerly the Real y Pontificia Universidadde México). After the return of the governance of Mexico to Mexicanhands, in 1867 a decree from Antonio Martínez de Castro, Juárez’ssecretary of justice and public education, requested that the BibliotecaNacional be moved to the former Church of San Agustín near MexicoCity’s zócalo , or central square.

Also in 1867 press coverage on the Biblioteca Nacional resumed.These brief newspaper articles—most written by the library’s director, José María Benítez—updated readers on the library’s move from the



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Universidad de México to San Agustín. On January 29, 1869 an an-nouncement appeared in El Monitor Republicano noting that the Biblio-teca Nacional was housed in two adjacent buildings and finally open. Forthe public a general collection of 13,000 volumes was held in the Capilladel Tercer Orden (Chapel of the Third Order). The main structure ofthe Church of San Agustín housed the principal collection of 116,000 volumes and was soon to be opened as well.

The Path of Manuel Payno to the Biblioteca Nacional

Writings on the history of Mexico’s Biblioteca Nacional are found inlimited number and primarily in Spanish; sources on the personal and

professional history of Manuel Payno y Flores are even more scarce.11

The most extensive source on Payno’s life, Manuel Payno et “Los bandidos

de Río Frío” (1979), is a biographical and literary study written in Frenchby Payno’s bibliographer, Robert Duclas.12

One difficulty in researching Payno is simply determining the year ofhis birth: the beginning pages of Duclas’s study show this to be Febru-ary 1820, while reference works, journal articles, and portions of bookspublished in Mexico and the United States state that Payno was born in June 1810.13 Whichever date is cited, sources invariably note the proxim-

ity of Payno’s birth to the beginning or conclusion of the Mexican Warsof Independence (1810–21), an event all sources consider to presagethe 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 acomfortable home and encouraged their son’s studies—Manuel excelledin history—and his interest in writing. Payno began professional life atage fourteen in the capital city’s customhouse, where his friend and the

future Mexican poet and statesman, the young Guillermo Prieto, also wasemployed.14 Payno and Prieto were later sent to Matamoros to help foundthe frontier Maritime Customhouse; there, Payno soon rose to the posi-tion of auditor. Following a series of military appointments, Payno heldgovernment and diplomatic posts such as general collector of delinquenttaxes and Mexican secretary to the republics of South America; he was,however, most successful as Mexico’s ministro de hacienda , or secretary offinance, intermittently in several midcentury presidential administra-tions. Payno is known for his attempts to consolidate Mexico’s foreign

and internal debts, and his career in federal government is recordedin his writings, such as Memoria de hacienda 1845 . He also served in themilitary during the Mexican-American War (1846–48) and oversaw the




Figure 3. Plan for converting Church of San Agustín to the Biblioteca Nacionalde México. The nave was transformed into a reading room. Some side chapels(E) were converted into study spaces for researchers and others into smallersections of the library. In Luis González Obregón, The National Library of México,1833-1910, trans. Alberto María Carreño (México, 1910).



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Mexican government’s secret courier service between Veracruz andMexico City.15 Later, Payno was forced into exile during Santa Anna’sfinal administration for his role as contributor to and editor of Apuntes

para la historia de la guerra entre México y los Estados Unidos (1848), laterpublished 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’stranslator, Albert C. Ramsey, referred to the book as a “literary curiosity”and “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 President Ignacio Comonfort’ssecretary of finance. Considering some liberal reform measures of the

1850s too radical and likely to lead the nation to anarchy, Payno aban-doned Comonfort and joined a coup d’état in late 1857. Thereafter,he was excluded from government financial appointments and servedonly as an advisor.17 Although he eventually did recognize Maximilian’simperial regime, Payno at one time opposed foreign intervention and was imprisoned for this view. Displeased with spending he consideredill planned and wasteful, Payno criticized imperial practices and pres-ence in Cuentas y gastos de la Intervención y del Imperio (1867). PresidentBenito Juárez used Payno’s book to help repeal imperial debt.18

Following publication of Cuentas , Payno turned his attention to journal-ism and writing fiction. Within and outside his homeland Payno becameknown 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 andnewspapers devoted to politics and literature, including El Museo Mexicano (1843–45, founded with Guillermo Prieto), Revista Científica y Literaria de

México (1845–47), and El Federalista (1871–77), which he founded withfellow novelist, journalist, and diplomat Ignacio Altamirano. Duclas notes

that Mexican writers of the nineteenth century, hesitant to openly expresspolitical 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 workpseudonyms 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, Paynoalso achieved success as a writer of novels, short stories, and travelsketches. Tardes nubladas , a collection of Payno’s literary writings between

1839 and 1845, appeared in 1871. Payno created the serialized novelin Mexico with his works El fistol del diablo (1845–46) and Los bandidos

de Río Frío (1889–91). The latter, written and first published in Spain, is




considered his major work. American critic Jefferson R. Spell referred toPayno as “an interpreter of Mexican life.” His literary work, known for itsdepiction of mid-nineteenth-century Mexico, the manners and customsof its people in both urban and rural settings, is frequently comparedto that of countryman José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi and CharlesDickens.20 Literary critics often describe Payno’s major creative work asromantic and naturalistic. Spell observed that Payno’s literary writings,related to his interest in the national library, advocated 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 theeducation of women.”21 Such a vision was the source of Payno’s work in journalism, government, diplomacy, military service, and teaching; thisforce, expressed so memorably in his stories and novels, is also evidentin his writing to aid the founding of Mexico’s Biblioteca Nacional.

Symbols that “Clamor”: Payno’s Writings on the Biblioteca Nacional

In November 1868 the Mexico City newspaper El Semanario Ilustrado published a front-page article by Manuel Payno entitled “La gran bib-lioteca nacional” in which Payno argued for additional federal funding

Figure 4. Reading room, Biblioteca Nacional de México. In Rafael Carrasco Puente,Historia de la Biblioteca Nacional de México (México: Secretaría de Relaciones




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to complete the restoration of San Agustín and its transformation fromchurch to library. The following May the article was expanded and re-printed as “Las bibliotecas de México: La gran biblioteca y la pequeñabiblioteca 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 more than two dozen articles betweenthe late 1850s and 1870.22 To the original newspaper piece were addednarrative checklists of proposed design and architectural changes for

sections of the main church building; Payno also provided brief descrip-tions of the small library’s facility and mission. The journal’s editor,identified only as R.R., also appended a document prepared by LibraryDirector Benítez profiling the collection’s size and provenance. Rosa María Fernandez de Zamora, a former director of the BibliotecaNacional de México and a scholar of Mexican library history, refers toPayno’s requests for funding as “clamors, the demands of a famous writer”and not necessarily representative of the Biblioteca Nacional’s admin-

istration.23

Indeed, Payno’s requests appear to have received no directresponse. Although the small library opened to the public in early 1869,the Biblioteca Nacional was not inaugurated until April 1884, fifteen years after the article’s reprinting. Yet Payno’s name and sometimes florid

Figure 5. Exterior of La Biblioteca Nacional de México. In Rafael Carrasco Puente,Historia de la Biblioteca Nacional de México (México: Secretaría de Relaciones





nineteenth-century rhetoric clearly drew attention to the four-decade ef-fort to establish this cultural institution for independent Mexico. Usinghis skills as a journalist and novelist and his experience as a finance of-ficial, Payno wrote the longest and most detailed piece on the BibliotecaNacional to date, and his article is a compelling presentation of the workalready accomplished and the final planning by librarians and govern-ment officials, architects, and craftsmen. Most important, however, is thefact that Payno advocated 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, generalreaders as well as members of the government. Through much of hisarticle Payno used the pronoun “we” and so aligned himself with those

persons responsible for planning the library as well as with the peopleof Mexico City and the nation. As shown in figure 4, the BibliotecaNacional came to be much as Payno described it.

The Church of San Agustín remained home to the Biblioteca Nacionaluntil 1979, when the main collections were moved to a new facility onthe campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)in the southern reaches of Mexico City, sharing a generous and modernfacility with the Hemeroteca Nacional (National Serials Library) andthe Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas (Institute of Bibliographic

Research).24 The former church still housed the Fondo Reservado whenan earthquake struck Mexico City in 1985, leaving San Agustín unsafefor occupancy. Afterward a facility was constructed adjacent to the newBiblioteca Nacional for the special collections. As of 2006 the Churchof San Agustín has remained empty, although a parish church bearingthe same name shares the city block.

Beginning in the late 1860s, Payno gradually descended from theheights of federal government service. Before his death in 1894 he

served as professor of history at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (Na-tional Preparatory School) and wrote Compendio de la historia de México ,a popular text on Mexican history published in multiple editions. Hisfinal diplomatic posts were in Paris and Santander, Spain, during the1880s. He returned to Mexico City shortly before his death.

Payno’s writings on the Biblioteca Nacional in November 1868 and May1869 command attention because of the clarity of his vision for and his de-scription of the library that came to be. Despite the fact that he never again wrote about the library, his writing on his country’s history and education

system indicates that he saw clearly the need for a grand national institu-tion, a symbol of cultural achievement, in which the literary production ofhis countrymen could be both collected and opened to his fellow citizens.



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That Payno is commonly quoted on the Biblioteca Nacional yet infrequentlycited in books and articles published in Mexico on the institution suggestsnot simply a lack of proper source attribution but rather that his writinghas entered the realm of established knowledge. When assessing Payno’srole in founding his country’s most important library, it is necessary to con-sider that he was an artist whose fiction is termed romantic and celebratesthe Mexican people. It is also necessary to recall that Payno understoodthe power of symbols. If his writing on behalf of the Biblioteca Nacionalde México did not bring immediate response, Payno certainly could haveimagined readers in his time and thereafter considering and eventuallyresponding to his words. His article, presented here in its entirety, is a basic,contemporary text on Mexico’s Biblioteca Nacional.

Manuel Payno’s impact on the Biblioteca Nacional may appear moreproverbial than tangible, but he should not remain unheralded. Rather,he too deserves a monument—one of recognition and praise.

“The Libraries of Mexico: The Main Library and

the Small Library of Mexico”

[Original editor’s note:] In El Semanario Ilustrado , volume 2, which hassince ceased publication, an article was included concerning the main

library under construction in the Church of San Agustín. We reproduceit here, adding relevant material up until the present as well as news onthe adjacent small library open to the public and frequented daily bya multitude of students and persons in pursuit of learning. As agreedupon by La Sociedad, this is one of a series of articles to be publishedin the Boletín concerning the history and status of all establishments ofpublic instruction, hospitals, prisons, and shelters in Mexico.—R.R.25

The Main Biblioteca Nacional

The history of libraries is truly the history of civilization. Never will areader 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 inone place such a treasure of human understanding. A library is a marvel with which we can familiarize ourselves and yet still not comprehend. All aspectsof human intelligence, otherwise abstract and indefinable, are contained within this material apparatus that to our eyes may seem so simple and so

ordinary. Sheets of paper and black characters are a mystery for those whocannot read, are a greater mystery to those who do read, and yet are mostmysterious for those who reflect on the marvel of the word and thereby




achieve thought. The alphabet, another marvel, makes eternal both thoughtand word, preserving in living substance the man of genius, even as thesefragile pages will in centuries be reduced to dust—such are the thoughtsthat come to my pen upon writing this single word: “LIBRARY.” That such an institution is indispensable in a civilized society, asnecessary as food, no one doubts. Thus, what should be done is notto collect books without taste, with neither criterion nor discernment,in humble, dark quarters distant from the center of cities, but to erecta dignified, grand monument to inspire the august ideals of scholar-ship and of scientific inquiry. In Mexico City, formerly, there were thelibraries 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 useand the spare instruction given to novices. The reform laws suppressingthe religious orders, the university and the municipal councils couldnot, however, suppress the libraries. The government assumed controlof the libraries, nevertheless, and charged first D. Ramón Alcaraz andthen D. Fernando Ramírez, both persons of requisite learning andexperience, 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 facilityto another location.27 In reality, nothing was being accomplished; onthe contrary, other than providing that librarian an overly generoussalary, it seems a good portion of the books were misplaced, with littleindication of who was responsible for such negligence. The first thought of Señor D. Antonio Martínez de Castro upon as-suming leadership of the Ministry of Justice was to finish organizing thelibrary; however, finding an appropriate site proved difficult. The former

Church of San Agustín, reduced to a blacksmith’s shop during the Frenchoccupation of the capital, was chosen, and the necessary steps were un-dertaken for its acquisition. During the reform period the property hadbeen transferred to D. Antonio Escandón.28 This first obstacle overcome,it was then necessary to acquire funds for the costly work that had to bedone. Flooded and long closed, the church’s interior appeared a ruin,and in the atrium and outside grounds a sewer had formed that infestedthe most central and lovely part of the city. The expenses for cleaningand repairing the building were considerable. It occurred then to Señor

Martínez to designate as allowable by law the monies received by thepublic treasury from the estate of the late D. Eustaquio Barrón; arrangedalso and decreed according to the government’s authority were staff for



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the facility to oversee both building and collections, and all this was ac-complished in a timely manner. The vision that had seemed so difficultto realize was finally taking clear and tangible form. These seeminglyinsignificant details truly comprise the history of the library’s foundingand are a fitting elegy to the civil servant who strove and successfullyovercame long-standing obstacles to realize a project known to be goodand necessary, one that even Maximilian himself could not advance.

From Señor Martínez also came the well-considered idea that nec-essary work be done by Mexicans, as much to encourage and rewardlearned persons and workers as allow us to take pride in the finishedbuilding as an example of Mexico’s advances in the fine arts and a testa-ment 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 sub-mitted by Vicente Heredia and Eleuterio Méndez, two young architecturestudents from the Academia de San Carlos, were approved.29 The print ofthe façade accompanying this article gives an idea of the architects’ con-ception as well as the grand beauty of the work once it was completed. On December 31, 1867 the general budget was approved, and on Janu-ary 13, 1868 work was begun and included comfortable living quarters forthe librarian. Below we will make note—which will prove interesting—of

the cost of this celebrated work. Not only should the savings be notedbut also the care with which Señor Martínez de Castro strove to allocatethe funds at his disposal: that this expense would affect the daily revenueof the public treasury seems to have been his ever-present concern.

Budget for the masonry work 26,429 [pesos]Chapel and living quarters 3,392Razing of the towers 656

Carpentry 19,303Painting of doors and staircase 309Ironwork 4,794Tinwork, without window glass 240 Window glass 527 Window bars 1,664Marble floor 10,000Total 67,314

D. Antonio Franco was contracted for the carpentry work and D. TeodoroFlores for the tinwork, two skilled craftsmen who have built reputationsand small fortunes through years of honesty and fine work.




The architects have economized with the sand, the chiluca , and the jarcia from 8 to 50 percent.30 With the window bars, for instance, the blacksmith will have to reduce his costs. The most modest of homes repaired or builteach day in Mexico costs more than 60,000 [pesos]. The budget not onlyreflects 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 bemade through the consideration and prudence of Señor Mariscal.31

The work, then, such as the public can already judge, presents anappearance of grandeur and majesty, appropriate for the use to whichthe building is destined. But since we have concerned ourselves withparticulars and details, we can be permitted to note that much work

remains and that this task will fall to the successor of Señor Martínezde Castro and to the representatives of the nation, that they not leavethis monument incomplete and refuse that the necessary funds be spentotherwise.

With the help of the architects we have prepared the following esti-mate for use of the remaining funds:

Cost of main and side facades, 20,000 [pesos] statues, and busts

Sixteen interior statues 10,000Reading room and lobby decorations 10,000 Allegoric paintings 25,000Destruction of the cupola’s lantern 400Garden with two fountains, seats, 10,000 plants, and treesTotal 75,400

Roughly 80,000 [pesos], which added to the amount outlined earliertotals approximately 140,000 to 150,000, an insignificant, meager, andscant amount compared with the majesty of the monument, with itsusefulness to a city as important as Mexico’s capital, and with the fameand admiration those supporting Señor Martínez’s plan will receiveupon the work’s completion. Before moving to another topic, we will speak candidly regardingseveral matters. From the samples we have seen, the floor of Mexicanmarble purchased from Señores Cardeña and Company seems magnifi-

cent but unfortunately is also unsuitable and unhealthy. It should beassumed that persons use a library to read and to write and will likelyneed to do so for hours. In a building so spacious without the warmth



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of fireplaces or the full sun, the cold is going to be insufferable. If rugsor carpets are placed over the marble, the flooring will lose its beauty;these coverings, too, will be an additional expense and still will notfree the reading room of its sepulchral chill. The marble from SeñoresCardeña and Company could replace the rough-finished slabs foundin 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 visitednumerous European museums and libraries, and, truly, in none have wefound 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 planof the former Church of San Agustín is a Latin cross within a rectangle

running north to south. Along the perimeter are twelve chapels andtwo rooms to the sides of what was formerly the apse. The main nave’slength, including the choir, is 64 meters; its width, between the pilas-ters topped by arches that divide the vault, is 12 meters 21 centimeters.The height of these arches’ keystones from the floor is 24 meters 14centimeters. The barrel vault above the cross is bordered with lunettesand is divided by six arches; the crossing of the transept is topped by acupola whose height from the ground, not including its lantern, is 35.22meters 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 ofarches, each leading to one of the twelve chapels; above these archesare windows, the nave’s main light source; higher yet is the vault withelliptical skylights as a secondary source of light.

In general, and apart from these details, the building belongs to anarchitectural style originating in the Lombardy region of northern Italytoward 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 churchesthese supports are formed by groups of Doric-Roman pilasters runningfrom the floor to a vaulted ceiling, subduing the buildings’ lower horizontallines. The pilasters display Renaissance details, the period from which SanMiguel of Pavia takes inspiration. San Miguel de Pavia burned in 1689.

The Church of San Agustín’s architectural style—spare and classic—hasbeen 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 beenenclosed 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 both to lessen the building’s weight andto allow for the elegant aspect now shown in the accompanying print; inthe spaces remaining, offices for the paleographers have been fashioned.To alter the shape of the cross characteristic of Christian churches, thebuilding’s arms have been separated by extending the arches of the mainreading room to the apse, or the rear of the building.

Two large windows, one in the rear and the other in the former choirarea, will give sufficient light to the main reading room. The cupola willdisappear under a new vault, creating an open, airy reading room litby a large skylight and not the windowed turret that, due to its weightand deteriorated state, will necessarily be removed—all indicated in

the budget. The remaining eight side chapels will function both asstudy spaces for researchers and as sections of the Biblioteca; large andbeautiful skylights made in the center of the ceiling’s vaults will provideabundant lighting. Massive bookshelves will be placed at the entrancesof the study areas and will contribute to the reading room’s uniformappearance as a library. This, generally, is a physical description of the Biblioteca. Interestedpersons can, with this article in hand, walk through the building andcorrect our assessments. The spiritual essence, that is to say, the soul of

this beautiful and magnificent body, should be yet more beautiful andmagnificent. And the honor of accomplishing this task will fall upon SeñorD. José María Lafragua, the director, and to Dr. Benítez, the librarian.

Close to 200,000 volumes can be placed in the bookcases alreadycontracted; more shelving can be added so that the Biblioteca Nacional would contain 300,000 to 350,000 volumes, making it truly a library of firstrank. At present, 150 volumes have been added from the collections offormer libraries. It is necessary to speak honestly regarding these books:

many of these volumes are unacceptable, as they are works no one hasread—including the authors themselves. Keeping representative volumesfor curiosity and for study will certainly suffice. Señor Lafragua will ordersome 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, andthis would be hardly enough for such a vital expense. It is essential forthe Biblioteca to hold as many modern publications as can be obtainedon history, literature, languages, sciences, and arts; to subscribe to themost 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 asthe good and intelligent people of the district’s wish to learn.



285

I would venture to suggest that as a means of gathering funds theestates of Señoras Pérez Gálvez, Rosas, and Benavente be considered. An arrangement with the executors that doubtless they would consentto would lead to the same result Señor Martínez de Castro obtainedearlier. With no need to draw from operating funds, there would besufficient 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

As the work on the Biblioteca Nacional was being finished, the Capilla

del Tercer Orden was readied to house books from the Catedral as wellas other available books. The site was cleaned, painted white, and a woodfloor installed, and in spite of the obstacles presented by the atrium, thelibrary was opened to the public under the direction of the former librar-ian, Dr. D. José María Benítez. The small library appears far from luxuri-ous or imposing, but it cannot be denied that, despite the aged shelvingand simply painted walls decorated only with plaster, soon noticed are itscharacter, 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 provensuperior to his many obstacles: he has managed to arrange and readyfor public use the books of the former Catedral library, those from thelibrary of the late Dr. Arrillaga, as well as an intriguing collection oncebelonging to D. Juan Suárez y Navarro and later purchased by D. IgnacioCumplido.33 Additionally, Señores Lafragua and Mariscal have acquiredmodern works and have already made these available to the public. Spa-cious tables, plentiful seating, good light, pleasant temperatures, and a

variety of printed works; such are the advantages to be enjoyed in thesmall library, which 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 indicatedin the following document from Señor Benítez; with opportunity, thesebooks will be distributed to the two libraries. If it is clear that some vol-umes have been misplaced, it is also clear that all possible fruit shouldbe taken from the former convent libraries, choosing the best collectionsand selling or exchanging others in Mexico or in Europe, as overseen

by Señor Lafragua, director of the library. Once the main building isfinished, 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 beone of the most frequented and fashionable attractions of the capital.Let us imagine for a moment the completed wall fountain, its streamsof water, orange trees, flowers, vining plants, elegant iron seating, smallmarble fountains, and we will have a type of tale from the thousand andone nights. The widow’s child, the military veteran, the student, andeven the impetuous boy will look with pleasure and pride upon this newfacility; they will consider well spent the modest 70,000 to 80,000 pesosneeded to make it as we imagine, even doubling the sum if necessary.

So that the Biblioteca Nacional fulfills its objective, it is necessarythat Señor Lafragua, in accordance with the appropriate governmental

ministry, subscribes to all periodicals as well as literary, historical, andscientific publications from England, Germany, France, Spain, andthe United States. In this way all the advances in human learning willbe made available to us for the truly trifling sum of 50 to 60 pesos amonth. It is our hope that an undertaking so useful and clearly for thecommon good will be actively sponsored by the legislature and by thegovernment, for which both will be the deserving recipients of praisefrom enlightened and thoughtful men the world over.

May 15, 1869M. Payno

[Appendix to Original Article]

Statement Showing the Number and Origin of VolumesHeld by the Biblioteca Nacional

Volumes comprising the Biblioteca Nacional located at the Universidad:FromConvent of Santo Domingo 6,511

Stolen from Santo Domingo, afterward 360 recovered by the police

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



287

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 10,652Total 90,964

Volumes later received:From

La Catedral 10,210

Cármen del Desierto 867Total 11,077

FromThe Jesuits 11,695

Volumes purchased 2,835 Volumes received by donation 60

Summary

FromLa Universidad 90,964

Catedral and Cármen del Desierto 11,077 The Jesuits 11,695 Purchased 2,835 Received by donation 60Total volumes 116,631

NotesBefore the library of the Universidad was closed, the assis-tant director, D. Lino Ramírez, took works on arithmeticand algebra to Andrade’s bookstore for sale

50

Señor Lino Ramírez donated books for student prizes tothe Ministry [of Public Works]

50

By order of the government, duplicate copies were givento La Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística

86

Both Fernando and Lino Ramírez bought duplicate copies 396Upon the closing of the library of the Universidad theMinistry of Public Works reclaimed works it had donated

832




Books sold to outside parties with funds submitted toTreasurer D. José María Durán

136

Books returned to Father Morandi by order of the Minis-

try of Justice

92

The former reading room of the Universidad was knownas Las Sibilas (The Sibyls). As no chest of books bearingthis mark was found among all those collected, thesebooks are suspected missing

10,652

Total 12,294

Comparison

Total volumes, according to the previous statement 116,631

Volumes presumed missing 12,294

Volumes held by the Biblioteca Nacional 104,337

Chests of books from the storeroom of the former National Mint havealready been moved to the Palace of Justice, where five storerooms nowhold 930 such containers. The storage space of the small reading roomin the Biblioteca Nacional in San Agustín has 190 more chests, for atotal 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

Notes

1. José María Luis Mora (1794–1850) was appointed to the first administrationof Valentín Gómez Farías (1781–1858), Mexican president in 1833, 1834, 1847;

Antonio Martínez de Castro (1825–80) served as minister of justice and publiceducation under Benito Juárez (1806–72), president from 1858 to 1872 ( Dicciona- rio Porrúa: Historia, biografía y geografía de México , 5th ed.). Information on personsmentioned by Payno but not identified with entries in this study’s endnotes arenot available in standard sources of Mexican history and biography. In most casesPayno provides context to help readers appreciate the roles of these persons.

2. Payno published two articles to promote the creation of the BibliotecaNacional: “La gran Biblioteca Nacional,” El Semanario Ilustrado: Enciclopedia deconocimientos útiles (Mexico City), November 13, 1868, which appeared threemonths before the small library of the Biblioteca Nacional opened to the

public; his second article, “Las bibliotecas de México: La gran biblioteca y lapequeña biblioteca de México,” Boletín de la Sociedad de Geografía y Estadística dela República Mexicana (May 1869): 3–14, is more substantial and widely knownand is translated for the present study.



289

3. Juan Angel Vázquez Martínez, La función social del tlacuilo, los amoxtlis ylos amoxcallis (Mexico City: 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 deMéxico,” in Historia de las bibliotecas nacionales de Iberoamérica: Pasado y presente , ed. Asociación de Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica (Mexico City: UniversidadNacional Autónoma de México, 1995), 327.

6. Michael C. Meyer, William L. Sherman, and Susan L. Deeds,Course of Mexi- can History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 324. This trend of short-lived presidential administrations endured into the early twentieth century.

7. Romero and Berenzon Gorn, “Biblioteca Nacional de México,” 328.8. With the exception of Payno’s article from El Semanario Ilustrado of No-

vember 13, 1868, all newspaper articles related to the history of the 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 deMéxico: Testimonios y documentos para su historia , 1st ed. (Mexico City: UniversidadNacional 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 (Mexico City, 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 deMéxico no. 20 (1994): 53–56, and Alejandro Villaseñor y Villaseñor, “Apuntesbiográficos del autor,” in Novelas cortas by Manuel Payno (Mexico City: Imp. de V. Agüeros, 1901), v–xvii.

13. Robert Duclas, Manuel Payno et “Los bandidos de Río Frío” (Mexico City: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 (Mexico City: Imprenta y Litografia de “LaPatria,” 1888), 101–4.

16. Albert C. Ramsey, preface to The Other Side: Or, Notes for the History of theWar between Mexico and the United States by Ramón Alcaraz et al., trans. and ed. 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 (Mexico City: 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, knowntoday as the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI),provides federal and state-level information via its website at http://www.inegi.gob.mx.

23. Rosa María Fernández de Zamora, e-mail message to author, April 6,2006. Fernández de Zamora is former director of the Biblioteca Nacional deMéxico, professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies atthe Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and a researcher at the CentroUniversitario de Investigaciones Bibliotecológicas in Mexico City.

24. See Biblioteca Nacional, http://biblional.bibliog.unam.mx/bib/biblioteca.html.

25. “R.R.” was the editor of the Boletín de la Sociedad de Geografía y Estadísticade la República Mexicana .

26. In an 1851 letter Ramírez offered both his personal assets of $16,000

and book collections of nearly 7,500 volumes toward the founding of a nationallibrary; additionally, Ramírez—a bibliophile lawyer and judge from the city ofDurango—sought the appointment of “librarian for life.” Ramírez’s library wasstrong 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 IgnacioComonfort appointed Ramírez the second director of the Biblioteca Nacional(González Obregón, The National Library of México, 1833–1910 , 19–21).

27. Maximilian’s librarian was Agustín Fischer (Fernández de Zamora, per-sonal communication).

28. Antonio Escandón (1824–77), a businessman and philanthropist con-nected to the México–Veracruz railroad, had acquired the abandoned churchto resume Catholic services. However, for his partisanship to Maximilian’s re-gime Escandón faced a fine of $80,000, which he settled with the return of thechurch to the federal government (González Obregón, The National Library ofMéxico, 1833–1910 , 33).

29. Vicente Heredia (1830?–86) had careers as an architect and later profes-sor at the Escuelas de Bellas Artes in Mexico City; Eleuterio Méndez (1830–92) worked as an engineer and professor for the Escuela Nacional de Ingeniería( Diccionario Porrúa ).

30. Chiluca refers to a Mexican stone commonly used in construction; jarcia is a rope made of natural fibers.31. Mariscal was a lawyer and justice who directed the Escuela Nacional

de Jurisprudencia and presided over the Tribunal of the Federal District andTerritories at the time of Payno’s article ( Enciclopedia de México , 14th ed., s.v.“Mariscal, Ignacio”).

32. Located on Mexico’s City’s main square, the present Palacio Nacionaldates from 1693 and serves as a seat of the Mexican government.

33. Basilio Manuel Arrillaga (1791–1867) was a Jesuit administrator andintellectual renowned for his vast learning and personal library of over 12,000

volumes; Juan Suárez y Navarro (1813–67) served as a senior military officialunder Santa Anna; and Ignacio Cumplido (1811–87) was a printer and typog-rapher whose workshops issued the periodicals El Siglo Diez y Nueve and El MuseoMexicano ( Diccionario Porrúa ).

jones, p-manuel payno bibliotecas de mexico

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