Details

Subject(s)

• Carvajal, Luis de 1567?-1596 [Browse]
• Crypto-Jews—Mexico—Biography [Browse]
• Inquisition—Mexico [Browse]

Related name

• Archivo General de la Nación (Mexico). Manuscript. Ramo de la Inquisición 1489 [Browse]

Summary note

Composite of texts in his hand gathered loosely into one volume, consisting of 1) Carvajal's Autobiography (Memorias) with name Joseph Lumbroso, 2) Maimonides' Thirteen Principles of Faith, followed by the Decalogue, and 3) Psalter headed "Modo de llamar a dios".

Notes

• Portion of volume foliated 1-46.
• Sources indicate that these items belong to the Archivo General de la Nación (AGN, Mexico), volume 1489 of the Ramo de la Inquisición. The items were listed as lot 387 in Swann Galleries sale number 2420 (June 21, 2016) and were through the efforts of Leonard Milberg, Class of 1953, repatriated to Mexico.
• "Luis de Carvajal the Younger (ca. 1567-1596), was the nephew of Luis de Carvajal y de Ia Cueva, the governor of Leon, Mexico. The Carvajals are the best known conversos ("New Christians") in colonial Mexico, largely owing to Luis the Younger's testimony at his trial before the Inquisition in 1595. He denounced more than 120 individuals as crypto-Jews--people who secretly practiced their old faith while publicly purporting to follow another faith--including members of his own family. He and many of his family were burned at the stake in 1596. These three bound documents, recently recovered after going missing from the National Archive of Mexico more than seventy-five years ago, are believed to be the only extant writings by a Jew in Mexico during the Spanish colonial period. They include Carvajal's autobiography (written under the pseudonym Joseph Lumbroso), the principles of the faith, the Ten Commandments, and a prayer manual drawn from the Old Testament." -- brochure published for exhibition "The First Jewish Americans" at the New-York Historical Society (October 2016-March 2017).
• Digital images made at the New-York Historical Society of the originals owned by the Government of Mexico and loaned for the exhibition "The First Jewish Americans" (October 2016-March 2017).

Language note

Text chiefly in Spanish, with some Latin and romanized Hebrew.

Other format(s)

Also available in an electronic version.

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