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Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci (also Botterini) 1698,
Sondrio Sondrio (; ; ; archaic or ; ) is an Italian city, ''comune'' and administrative centre for the province of Sondrio, located in the heart of the Valtellina. , Sondrio counted approximately 21,876 inhabitants. In 2007, Sondrio was named the Alpine ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
– 1749,
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
) was a historian,
antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artefacts, archaeological and historic sit ...
and ethnographer of
New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...
, the Spanish Empire's dominions in North America.


Early life

Born in Italy of noble parentage, Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci studied in
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
and lived in
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and
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. He was a knight of the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
. Forced to flee Austria because of the war with Spain, Boturini arrived in Spain via England and Portugal. In Madrid he met the Condesa de Santibáñez, oldest daughter of the Condesa de Moctezuma, who authorized him to collect a pension due her, as a descendant of the Aztec Emperor
Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin . ( – 29 June 1520), retroactively referred to in European sources as Moctezuma II, and often simply called Montezuma,Other variant spellings include Moctezuma, Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Moteuczoma, Motecuhzoma, Motē ...
, from the royal treasury in New Spain.


In New Spain

Boturini went to New Spain in 1736, where he remained eight years, exploring remote regions and, in the words of Prescott, "living much with the natives, passing his nights sometimes in their huts, sometimes in caves, and the depths of the lonely forests." During those years he assembled a vast collection of paintings, maps, manuscripts and native codices. He copied more than 500 pre-Columbian inscriptions and made his own drawings of monuments and sculptures, and he investigated the history of the apparition of the
Virgin of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic Church, Catholic Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, J ...
on the hill of
Tepeyac Tepeyac or the Hill of Tepeyac, historically known by the names Tepeyacac and Tepeaquilla, is located inside Gustavo A. Madero, D.F., Gustavo A. Madero, the northernmost ''Alcaldía'' or borough of Mexico City. According to the Catholic traditio ...
. He traveled widely and on his travels brought together the largest collection of Mexican antiquities assembled to that time by a European. Not only did he intend to write the history of the Virgin of Guadalupe, but he also had plans to crown her image with a gold crown. For that purpose he sought donations from the bishops and from the public. This brought him to the attention of the colonial government, which was suspicious of the motives of a foreigner making this proposal. On 2 June 1744 after an investigation, the recently arrived viceroy in 3 November 1742, Pedro Cebrián, 5th Count of Fuenclara, had him imprisoned and impounded his collection. He was accused of entering New Spain without license from the
Council of the Indies A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nati ...
and of introducing papal documents without a royal permit.


Vindication

After eight months in prison, Boturini was sent to Spain. He fell into the hands of pirates, who eventually released him at
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
. From there he traveled to
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, in miserable conditions. In Madrid he met
Mariano Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia Mariano is a masculine name from the Romance languages, corresponding to the feminine Mariana. It is an Italian, Spanish and Portuguese variant of the Roman Marianus which derived from Marius, and Marius derived from the Roman god Mars (see al ...
, another passionate collector of Indian antiquities. Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia offered Boturini a place to live and financial support, and got the Council of the Indies to reconsider his case. Boturini was absolved. The king named him royal chronicler of the Indies, ordered that his collection be returned to him, and extended an invitation for him to return to New Spain. Boturini, however, declined to return to New Spain, and his collection was never restored. It appears that he was granted recompense and a stipend to work on his projected history of the colony. In Madrid he wrote a history of ancient Mexico, unpublished at the time of his death in 1755. The library at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe is named for him.


The Boturini Collection

The collection was formed between 1736 and 1744, to serve as the basis of a projected ''Historia de América Septentrional''. It consisted of many valuable documents, the majority of them of Indian provenance. Among these were hieroglyphic paintings that had belonged to Juan de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, a descendant of the rulers of Texcoco. Ixtlilxotchitl bequeathed these documents to Don
Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora (August 14, 1645 – August 22, 1700) was one of the first great intellectuals born in the Americas - Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico City). He was a Criollo people, criollo patriot, exalting New Spain ...
. The collection was confiscated by Viceroy Pedro Cebrián y Agustín at the time of Boturini's arrest in 1743. It was deposited in the office of the secretary of the viceroyalty. The documents were neglected there for years and suffered considerable pilferage. The subsequent viceroy,
Juan Francisco de Güemes, 1st Count of Revillagigedo Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas () (16 May 1681, Reinosa, Cantabria – 27 November 1766, Madrid) was a Spanish general, governor of Havana, captain general of Cuba, and viceroy of New Spain (from 9 July 1746 to 9 November 1755). Ear ...
, granted the historian and antiquary Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia (Boturini's friend from Madrid) the paintings and documents he solicited for his own studies. On Fernández de Echeverría y Veytia's death, they passed to Antonio de León y Gama. He died in 1802, and the collection passed to his heirs. Shortly thereafter, 16 paintings were obtained by
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...
during his visit to Mexico in 1802–03. He published them in ''Vues des cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes d'Amérique''. The originals of these are now in the
Berlin State Library The Berlin State Library (; officially abbreviated as ''SBB'', colloquially ''Stabi'') is a universal library in Berlin, Germany, and a property of the German public cultural organization the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (). Founded in ...
. Part of the remainder of the collection may have passed to Father José Pichardo, an amateur antiquarian. , beginning in 1827 or shortly thereafter, obtained important parts of the collection from a variety of sources. He sold his collection to Eugène Goupil, who was of French and Mexican descent. This part of the collection passed by donation or purchase to the National Library in Paris, where it remains, under the name ''Aubin-Goupil Collection''. Shortly after Mexican independence, the rest of the original collection was transferred to the library of the university, and from there in 1823 to the Conservatory of Antiquities. Later the collection was housed in the National Library. Currently it is in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.


Writings

*''Oratio ad Divinam Sapientiam'' (unedited). *''Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la América Septentrional''. Madrid, 1746; Mexico City, 1871. *''Catálogo del Museu Indiano''. Mexico City, 1871. *''Historia general de la América Septentrional por el caballero Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci''. Madrid, 1948. *''Idea of a New General History of North America: An Account of Colonial Native Mexico by Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci''. (Author), Stafford Poole (Translator), Susan Schroeder(Foreword) University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.


References

* "Boturini Benaducci, Lorenzo," ''Enciclopedia de México'', v. 2. Mexico City, 1996, . * Ballesteros Gailbrois, Manuel, ''Los papeles de don Lorenzo Boturini Benaducci'', Madrid, 1947. * Bayle, Constantino, "El caballero Boturini y la fracasada coronación de la Virgen de Guadalupe en México", ''Estudios Eclesiásticos''. Madrid, 1923.
Ødemark, John - On Boturini and Vico


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boturini Benaducci, Lorenzo 1698 births 1753 deaths Italian Mesoamericanists Historians of Mesoamerica Historians of Mesoamerican art Scholars of the Aztecs 18th-century Mesoamericanists Immigrants to New Spain Knights of the Holy Roman Empire