Indian Languages Database

Record Details

 

Catholic Church.

[Testerian catechism]. [Catecismo Testerino

[s.n.]: [s.n.], [17--]

Physical Description: [28] leaves; 16 cm. (8vo)

Call number: Codex/ Ind/ 24

Accession number: 30257

Notes: Ms. codex. This manuscript catechism in Testerian hieroglyphs is without glosses, and it is unclear which Indian language group it was prepared for. See Ann Whited Normann, Testerian codices: hieroglyphic catechisms for native conversion in New Spain (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985), p. 283-291. Written on watermarked European paper; bound up in string; housed in green cloth case with label: Testerian catecism: Mexico 18th cent. In the early period of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, before religious instructors had learned the languages of the indigenous peoples, they used pictorial stories describing basic teachings to spread the Christian Gospel. These catechisms were called Testerians, after Father Jacobo de Testera, a Franciscan priest who pioneered this method of teaching.

To access digital facsimile copy of book, click here.

Languages:

Genre: Catechisms and Creeds.

Region: Spanish America