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Catholic Church.

[Testerian catechism]. [Catecismo Testerino]

[Mexico]: [s.n.], [ca. 1791]

Physical Description: [13] leaves ; 16 cm. (8vo)

Call number: Codex/ Ind/ 26

Accession number: 69-109

Notes: Ms. codex. Manuscript catechism in Testerian hieroglyphs written on watermarked European paper. Includes glosses in Mazahua, with some in Spanish. The name Maria Manuela appears on verso of leaf 11, but her role is unclear. Contents: Todo fiel christiano; Pater noster; Ave Maria; Credo; Salve Regina; Decalogue; Commandments; Sacraments; Articles of religion; Works of mercy; Confession; with Declarations of the “Nombres señal del cristiano” of the Creed, the Decalogue, and the Sacraments, all in questions and answers. 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. See Ann Whited Normann, Testerian codices: hieroglyphic catechisms for native conversion in New Spain (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1985), 211-216, 266-274.

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Languages: Mazahua

Genre: Catechisms and Creeds

Region: Spanish America