Autos de la Capellanía de Doña Maria del Campo

Front Page to Autos de la Capellanía de Doña Maria del Campo. (click on image for a closer look)

The Autos de la Capellanía de Doña Maria del Campo is a bound collection of official documents written between 1602 and 1835 in Mexico City. When it first entered the special collections at the Coates Library, the catalog described it as “wills, etc of early prelates.” To this day, much of the book's content, what the documents discuss, and why someone felt the need to bind them all together still remains a mystery. One obstacle in solving this mystery is that its handwritten Spanish text has yet to be translated and transcribed. This, however, does not stop us from learning from this incredible book! While text may often feel like the only way to understand a book, there is so much we can learn from the non-textual elements of the book.