LEÓN, Martin de.

A remarkably well-preserved copy of the very scarce third edition of this manual for missionaries in Mexico. Martin de León was a most important C17 Dominican ‘nahuatlato’, i.e., an interpreter between the Spanish missionaries and the Nahuatl-speaking people (even translating the work of Thomas á Kempis), probably born and raised in New Spain. First published in 1614 for the use of the convent of S. Domingo de Mexico, ‘Manual’ went through a second edition in 1617; all are remarkably rare, as is frequently the case with practical manuals intended for intense everyday use. The chapters focus on specific rituals, for which they provide instructions for the actions and behaviour (e.g., how to hold a baby at christening) as well as the priest’s rubrics and the community’s response. The section on baptism has the ritual lines in Latin and the instructions in Spanish. The second, on marriage for ‘the Indios of New Spain, Peru and the Philippines’, alternates instructions in Spanish and ritual formulae in Nahuatl or Spanish (according to the language spoken by the betrothed) and Latin (for the priest). The third section, on the extreme unction, instructs the priest in Spanish on the Latin lines he should pronounce when blessing each body part of the dying person, referring to the specific sin it encourages. The early owner of this copy revised the lines for the unction of the feet adding, in place of Amen, ‘et ardores lividinis’ (i.e., ‘libidinis’ pronounced by a Spanish speaker), i.e., the fire of passion. The phrase comes in fact from the following section, on the unction of the navel, which the owner circled and marked ‘omittitur’. The section on burial includes specific instructions for christened children under 7, and is followed by another on prayers against tempests and hail, the blessing of fields and vines, with prayers against pests, and others on the feasts of the liturgical year (with a table). A very scarce, important work for the history of Mexican missions.