Lorenzo Boturini and his memories from incarceration

Abstract

During his years of stay in New Spain (1736-1743), the Italian Lorenzo Boturini managed to gather the widest collection of pre-Hispanic and colonial documents. With these documents, and under the inspiration of the Virgin of Guadalupe (which was also his key to rewriting American history), he published the Idea o Ensayo de una nueva Historia General de la América Septentrional [1746], outline of a great history of the Indies that he would never be able to conclude. Disagreements with the authorities and accusations interrupted this project, and motivated the dramatic events that marked his life: the dispersion of his collection, prison and exile. Eight months he spent in prison, during which he tried in vain to defend himself, before he was definitively deported. As a last resort to obtain his freedom and recover his confiscated collection, during this period he wrote six letters in Latin, addressed to King Philip V, which will be analyzed in this work.