The Medieval Holdings of the Hispanic Society of America: A Brief History and Update

Abstract

Founded in 1904 by American scholar, philanthropist and collector, Archer M. Huntington, The Hispanic Society of America was established on the premise of a passion and curiosity for Hispanic and Latin American art, cultures and history. The Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books houses approximately 15,000 books printed before 1701 (250 of which are incunables), 16,000 books printed between 1701–1830, and roughly 200,000 manuscripts, letters, and documents. Although the bulk of the collection was formed by Huntington in the early 1900s, the Society has never ceased to expand its collections in all areas. It remains true to its founder's aims, as stated in the founding deed: "a library, museum and educational institution, free entry, open to the public, containing objects of artistic, historical and literary value and interest," whose objective would be "The promotion of the study of the language, literature and history of Spain and Portugal and other countries where Spanish and Portuguese are spoken."

On reading Israel Burshatin's description of the Hispanic Society's holdings of medieval manuscripts, one is struck by the note of enthusiasm, even excitement, in his text at the idea of having this material made available for study. One supposes that the same excitement must have seized the staff of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, headed by Miss Clara L. Penney, when in 1955, upon the death of Archer M. Huntington, founder of the Hispanic Society, the complete contents of his private library were made available for incorporation into the Society's collections. Among the many treasures "discovered" therein were: a 1528 Cromberger edition of Celestina, a translation of Boccaccio's Caída de príncipes produced in Bruges in 1476, forty-one letters written by Francisco de Goya to his friend Martín Zapater, the bulk of the Golden Age poetry manuscripts catalogued by Antonio Rodríguez-Moñino, a manuscript copy of Miguel de Cervantes's play Numancia, and most of the manuscript material that had belonged to José Sancho Rayón and which had come to the Society when Huntington purchased the library of the Marqués Jerez de los Caballeros.¹

The bulk of the collection was purchased by Huntington in the period of 1890–1920. Although his goal for the Society was to present a panorama of Hispanic arts and cultures, "a poem in a museum" that encompassed all aspects of the arts, Huntington was a bibliophile at heart. While he relied heavily on the advice of art connoisseurs for his purchases of paintings and drawings, most of the acquisitions of books and manuscripts were based on his own research, knowledge, and active fieldwork. In a notable trip to Europe in 1900 he purchased, on the 28th of May in the Librería de Murillo (Madrid), one of only two known copies of the incunable of Oliveros de Castilla (Burgos, 1499) and a manuscript copy—the only known copy on vellum—of Pedro López de Ayala's Libro de la caça de las aves (fig. 1). Exactly one month later in London, in the bookshop of Bernard Quaritch,

Fig 1.

Decorated folio from Pedro López de Ayala's Libro de la caça de las aves, fol. 1r; fifteenth century; The Hispanic Society of America, New York, MS B2583. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America.

Fig 2.

Decorated incipiunt from the Horae beatae Marie secundum usum curie romane, fol. 2r; ca. 1458; The Hispanic Society of America, New York, MS B251. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America.

he bought thirteen items, including a 1499 edition of Juan de Mena's Obras and Coronación, a copy of the Siete partidas (Seville, 1491), and a manuscript book of hours on black vellum, the Horae beatae Marie secundum usum curie romane, made for María de Aragón, ca. 1458 (fig. 2). The acquisition in 1902 of the Jerez collection, considered the best library of Spanish literature in private hands, was among the last that Huntington made in person. Sensing that knowledge of his interest in any object translated into higher prices being demanded by dealers, he changed his acquisition policy.² And so, in 1904, he turned to the German bookdealer, Karl W. Hiersemann based in Leipzig, and most books and manuscripts purchased after that year were acquired from this source.

The books and manuscripts that were acquired from Hiersemann account for about one third of the library's holdings (in the case of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books, approximately 3,000 manuscripts) (Codding). The vast majority of these was purchased in the years of 1904–15, although some items were acquired from Hiersemann between 1916-20, most notably the manuscript Memorias y aniversarios del monasterio de San Pedro de Cardeña (fig. 3). But the purchases arrived in such vast quantities that the cataloguing staff was overwhelmed, leading to the decision to "catalogue" the manuscripts acquired from Hiersemann by simply clipping the description from the dealer's catalogue and pasting it onto an index card (the fichas alluded to by Burshatin). We are not sure if a decision was made to concentrate on the cataloguing of the printed material, but the truth of the matter is that most of the manuscript material remained catalogued in the rudimentary fashion mentioned above or completely uncatalogued. By the mid-1960s, Miss Penney had produced three catalogues of the pre-1701 printed material, whilst nothing similar had been produced for the manuscript collection.

Fig 3.

Section of the text referring to the dates on which El Cid and his wife Doña Ximena should be honored (lines 9–15); Memorias y aniversarios del monasterio de San Pedro de Cardeña, fol. 15r.; thirteenth-fifteenth centuries; The Hispanic Society of America, New York, MS NS 7/1. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America.

Theodore S. Beardsley, Jr. was appointed director of the Hispanic Society in 1965. Recognizing the need for having detailed catalogues of the Society's manuscript holdings available, he oversaw the completion of Rodríguez-Moñino's three-volume catalogue of the Society's collection of Golden Age poetry manuscripts and provided the impetus (and sought the funding) for the catalogues of the Society's collection of Golden Age drama manuscripts and medieval manuscripts. It is this latter group for which the funding mentioned in Burshatin's article was sought; compiled by Charles B. Faulhaber, the catalogue was issued in two parts, in 1983 and 1993.

Faulhaber, then Professor of Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley, was "convinced" (xlv) to undertake the task and for two years, 1978–1980, he worked assiduously cataloguing the collection. As he states in the introduction to the catalogue, the conventional cut-off date of 1501 was employed in determining medieval vs. post-medieval manuscripts, although later transcriptions (within reason) of medieval texts were also included. Faulhaber chose not to include liturgical manuscripts and to not include a smattering of manuscripts written in languages in which he adjudged himself not competent to catalogue (xxiv-xxv).³ It is interesting to note that Burshatin mentions the developing technological advances being made at the Seminary of Medieval Spanish Studies, housed at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, since both projects intersected in 1978 when Prof. John J. Nitti, at the request of Beardsley, built the computer and provided the software that Faulhaber was to employ in the cataloguing project. In total, Faulhaber describes 664 individual manuscripts, both bound codices and documents. Gradually from 1985–1995, the catalogue records for the non-Latin-language manuscripts were incorporated into the various branches of Philobiblon, itself an extension of the Bibliography of Old Spanish Texts (BOOST) first published by the Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, the publishing arm of the aforementioned Seminary of Medieval Spanish Studies.

Since the completion of the catalogue compiled by Faulhaber, few manuscripts from the medieval period have been added to the collection. This is understandable given that the Society has at least one example of practically every type of manuscript document issued in the Iberian kingdoms: letters signed by reigning monarchs, fueros, signos rodados, cartas de desafío, cartas partidas por abc, cartas de ejecutoria, literary texts, cancioneros, liturgical and religious texts, papal letters and bulls, etc. Of the major gaps in the Society's collections, one would note the lack of an example of a Commentarium in Apocalypsin (Beatus) although there is a letter indicating that Huntington was offered one such manuscript in 1910 by Lionel Harris of the Spanish Art Gallery (London). We do not know why Huntington declined the offer to buy (probably due to the price), but at least the manuscript ended up in New York, having been acquired by J. Pierpont Morgan in the same year. Likewise, the Society does not possess an illustrated Spanish manuscript chronicle or Libro de caballería although it does hold a very fine French manuscript of the same nature whose plot evolves in Castile: Livre du tres chevalereux conte d'Artois et de sa femme fille du conte de Boulloinge (France, ca. 1476) (fig. 4).

The Society has added only six manuscripts to its medieval holdings since 1993, the date of publication of the second part of the Faulhaber catalogues. The manuscripts are:

• 1) Pedro I. Signo rodado, confirming privilege of Alfonso XI to city of Cartagena (Valladolid, 28 Oct. 1351 [era 1389]). Acquired in 1995. Hispanic Society of America, B2281.

• 2) An agreement, in Latin, ending an eighty-three-year dispute over the jurisdiction of twenty-five churches, directing that Jerónimo Aznar, Bishop of Calahorra, be compensated by the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla (Santa María de Navarrete, 11 Dec. 1246). Acquired in 1996. This manuscript is noteworthy because it still has the pendant wax seals of the two adjudicating bishops. Remarkably, the seals are still attached to the document with the original silk cords and are wrapped in the original hemp padding and protective linen bag. Hispanic Society of America, B2887.

• 3) Royal decree, signed "Yo el Rey" (Ferdinand V), prohibiting the making and wearing of Moorish clothing (Seville, 20 June 1511). Acquired in 2001. Hispanic Society of America, B1693.

• 4) Testament, in Latin, of Bernat Guillem of the Order of the Knights Templar who is about to embark on a Crusade (Santa Colomba [Cataluña], 1148). Acquired in 2004. Hispanic Society of America, B4558.

• 5) Contract for the tomb of doña Mayor Guillén de Guzmán by Juan Gonçalves and Juan Pérez (24 July 1276 [1314]). Acquired in 2009. The manuscript has been edited and published by David Arbesú. Hispanic Society of America, B4559.

• 6) "Carta ejecutoria a favor de Rodrigo de Montoya," issued by Juana of Castile (Valladolid, 20 May 1511). Acquired in 2017. Noteworthy because of the key-hole shaped box constructed to hold it. Hispanic Society of America, Ex 1511 Vd.

Fig 4.

Jousting scene; Liure du tres cheualereux conte d'Artois et de sa femme fille du conte de Boulloinge, fol. 15r.; ca. 1476. The Hispanic Society of America, New York, MS B1152. Courtesy of The Hispanic Society of America.

If by the publication of a catalogue of its medieval holdings the Hispanic Society was hoping to attract more researchers to its collections, then I am not sure that it was entirely successful. This was due, in part, to the rather limited access to and restrictive terms of use of the manuscript material that was in force in the Hispanic Society from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s. The appointment of Mitchell A. Codding as director in 1995 was the first step in the relaxing of these restrictions, and access to the holdings of the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books is now easier than ever. The last ten years have seen a steady increase in the number of readers present in the Reading Room or requesting digital images. That said, it is disappointing to note that very few of them are USA-based scholars or students, and of those that do come, most are working on familiar topics, Celestina, for example. This is not to say that there is nothing new to be learned about such an important work; it is a text that keeps on giving. But I am not sure that there is much more to be discovered from analyses of the text in its printed manifestations. However, I am convinced that somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of pages that were written in the period 1490–1520, for example, there exists some reference that will shed new light on the author or text. The problem is that it requires time, patience, and, usually, some expertise in paleography to uncover such nuggets of information.

Unfortunately, it appears that these three things are in short supply in today's publish-or-perish world of academic research, particularly the ability to read documents in their original form. I have witnessed students abandoning projects or curtailing their scope when presented with manuscripts written in a clear cursive gothic hand. As a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, I had the good fortune to study the history of the Spanish language with Professor John Nitti, and medieval literature with Professor Brian Dutton, both of whom stressed the importance of being able to read documents in their original form. It helped, also, that both had significant projects involving transcription underway: Nitti was always recruiting students and professors to transcribe texts for the Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language (DOSL) project, and Dutton for his cancionero project.

From 2002–2012, I was invited to teach a semester-long course on paleography and textual editing at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. The goal was to introduce students not only to the joy (and despair) of editing texts from original sources but also to present an overview of the development of textual transmission and the history of the book. Since we worked almost exclusively from manuscripts owned by the Hispanic Society, the students had the opportunity to see in person the texts we had transcribed in class, an experience which left an impression on many of them. No longer were they looking at an image of a letter signed by the Catholic Monarchs, for example, but rather the actual artifact, signed "Yo el rey /Yo la Reyna," in front of them for (careful) handling and study. Many of these students went on to become high school teachers or university lecturers or professors in the New York area and now bring their classes back so that their students too can have a similar experience. In a world where the touch and feel of even a modern book is alien to many high school students, it is increasingly important that students and researchers, both current and future, have access to original materials.

Ironically, I think that while certain skills (e.g., paleographic expertise, bibliographic research, working knowledge of Latin) are in decline among younger researchers and graduate students, the topics they choose to work on are more ambitious in scope and more interdisciplinary in nature. This, of course, is a very welcome development, driven in part by the vast array of archival resources that are available online, a fresh way of looking at things, and the desire to make connections beyond the boundaries of genre, geography, and chronology. But, sadly, the skillset they require is not being taught in most of the universities in the United States. This gap is filled in part by online tutorials in paleography and by short summer workshops sponsored on an occasional basis by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; other workshops, such as the Rare Book School based at the University of Virginia and Philobiblon, organized by Óscar Perea Rodríguez, are orientated more towards bibliographic description and codicology, but even these require some expertise in paleography.

While interest in the humanities is in decline across the board, it seems that the area of medieval and early modern studies has been affected to a greater degree than other areas of study.⁴ It is clear that institutions like the Hispanic Society can play an important role in supporting and promoting interest in these fields. While the Hispanic Society is fully committed to presenting a wide range of its manuscripts and early printed books in a digital library, it is equally committed to maintaining the physical access to original materials that has proven to be a useful teaching tool to many institutions. Apart from individual readers, the Society has hosted "show and tell" presentations for groups from all over the eastern United States on topics as narrowly focused as medieval bookmarks or as all-encompassing as a history of the written word. The rich collections of the library are supplemented by the museum collection: one can read a document about the construction of a medieval tomb, and then go into the museum and see one. Students of the concept of convivencia can find a mudéjar baptismal font, Alhambra silks, a bible in a mudéjar binding among many other examples of Hispano-Islamic art. It is this opportunity to view related library and museum objects under the same roof that makes the Hispanic Society of America a unique research center for scholars.