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

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. 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 de México," in which he requests continued government funding to complete the Biblioteca Nacional. Payno's own writing reveals the merit of his effort in the nearly half-century campaign to found this intellectual and cultural symbol of an emerging nation.