Bibl Palafoxiana

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Angela M.H. Schus-

A Nw Wr Mar Rr

BibliotecaPalafoxiana

Upon entering the massive carved wooden doors o the Palaoxiana

Library, one is struck by the rich Old World scent o ne urniture andleather-bound books. The morning sun beams through the windows o

a high vaulted ceiling, playing o the voluptuous baroque ornament othe three-tiered bookcase that envelops the room. Narrow staircases

and walkways provide access to the stacks, their shelves lined with early

editions o Vitruvius, Homer, and Seneca, commentaries on Canon Law, and treatisesdevoted to all manner o scientic inquirymost bound in goatskin, their titles renderedin sepia script.

Savoring the librarys seemingly timeless ambiance, it is hard to imagine that only ive

years ago, this great repository o learning in the heart o historic Puebla de los Angeles,Mexico, lay in ruin, rocked by an earthquake at 3:42 on the aternoon o June 15, 1999.

The quake, which measured 6.7 on the Richter scale and damaged many o the citysamed historic buildings, sent a wave along the librarys south wall, cracking its masonry

and causing its bookcases to ripple and old. Stacks on the north wall, anchored bythe more substantial architecture o the Colegio de San Juan y San Pedro, buckled

and sheered under the dierential strain, sending myriad rare volumes tumbling to theground. In less than a minute, centuries o scholarship collapsed in a massive heap o

dust. Still urther destruction would come three months later, when a second quakestruck on September 30.

[Books] are entertaining, useful, enjoyable, and soothing.If they are tiring, they can be set aside.

If they are relaxing, they can be continued.They always teach in silence,

they reprimand without hurting.Juan de Palafox (16001659)

by Angela M.H. Schuster

eatured photography by Jrge Perez de Lara


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Since 2001, however, the Palaoxiana Library has been the subject o an ambitiousrestoration campaign that has returned the institution to its colonial grandeur and,

perhaps more important, has enhanced its ability to withstand uture seismic activity towhich the region is prone. Spearheaded by Alejandro Montiel, Pueblas undersecretary

or culture, and carried out under the rubric Palafoxiana Library in the Third Millennium,the project is a collaborative eort underwritten by World Monuments Fund through its

Robert W. Wilson Challenge to Conserve our Heritage; Fomento Cultural Banamex, thephilanthropic division o Mexicos largest bank; and a substantial commitment rom the

Ministry o Culture or the State o Puebla.

Founded in 1646, the Palaoxiana Library began as a personal collection o some 5,000volumes bequeathed to the Colegio de San Juan y San Pedro by Juan de Palaox y

Mendoza, then Bishop o Puebla and by all accounts one o the more colorul intel-lectual and cultural igures o seventeenth-century New Spain. Born at Fitera in Navarra,

Spain, on June 24, 1600, Palaox was the bastard son o Jaime de Palaox, uture Marquiso Ariza, and a young Aragonese widow, Ana de Casanata y Esps. He would not carry

the Palaox name, however, until his ather oicially recognized him as his son in 1609.Soon ater, the young Palaox began to enjoy lie in the company o Spains nobility and

pursue a ormal education. Ordained as a Jesuit priest in 1629, Palaox was known or hiserudition, which attracted the attention o Philip IV. Under his aegis Palaox held several

important posts, serving on the kings war council and council o the Indies. A decade ater

his ordination, Palaox was appointed to the Episcopal See in Puebla, and it was there thathis passion or books, his jewels as he oten called them, took on epic proportions.

A quintessential polymath, Palaox was at once a theologian, proliic writer, politicalcommentator, patron o the arts, and a deender o the rights o New Spains indigenous

peoples. According to one o his biographers, historian Ricardo Fernndez Gracia othe University o Navarra, Palaox was ahead o his time in his progressive views toward

pastoral care, irmly believing that priests should be more like mothers than athers totheir parishioners, and under no circumstances like lords. His views were a welcome

change in light o the atrocities inlicted on New World inhabitants by clericsmost notably

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A pAiR of eARthquAkes

thAt stRuck pueblA iN JuNe

ANd septeMbeR 1999 cAused

coNsideRAble dAMAge to the

coloNiAl libRARy ANd its

extRAoRdiNARy holdiNgs.


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Diego de Landain the early years o the Spanish conquest. Intellectually insatiable,Palaox eagerly learned the languages o his congregants. His library is rich in volumes in

Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean, Sanskrit, and a host o Prehispanic languages, includingMixtec and Totonac.

On September 5, 1646, Palaox gave his library to the Colegio de San Juan y San Pedro,which he himsel had ounded, on the condition that its volumes be made available to

the general public rather than limited to the inquiries o ecclesiasts and seminarians aswas then common practice. More than a century would pass beore the collection would

ind a permanent home.In 1772, Bishop Francisco de Fabin y Fuero broke ground or the baroque cloistered

building that now houses the library, having augmented its collection with books con-iscated rom the Jesuits upon their expulsion in 1767. To these were added still more

volumes donated by ellow bishops, various religious institutions, and private individuals.Completed in 1773, the library occupies a 43-meter-long vaulted hall on the buildings

second loor. The bishop had its walls itted with two tiers o bookshelves made principallyo cedar, ayacahuite pine, and coloyote wood; he also acquired the splendid mid-our-

teenth-century retablo o the Madonna o Trapani, painted in by the Sicilian master NinoPisano, which graces its western wall.

By the mid-nineteenth century, however, the librarys holdings had swelled to more than41,000 volumes, requiring the addition o a third tier o bookcases to accommodate the

acquisitions. Ironically, the added weight o this third tier o bookcases would contribute

in large part to the damage the library sustained during the 1999 earthquake.

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eakened by age and insect inestation, the lower levels o the bookcase weresimply no match or the quake, says Mexico City-based conservator Norma

Laguna, as we ascend one o several narrow staircases that lead to the secondtier. According to Laguna, who guided the restoration o the bookcases over an 18-month

period, it was critical that reconstruction o the bookcases would enhance their ability towithstand uture seismic activity. We knew rom the pattern o destruction and subse-

photos clockWise fRoM

Above left: A coNseRvAtoR

cleANs A MetAl scReeN iN the

bookcAse. the stAcks WeRe

disAsseMbled foR coNseRvAtioN

While the buildiNg itself WAs

stAbilized. lARge loAd-beARiNg

cANtileveRed Joists ANchoRed

iN the WAlls NoW suppoRt the

thiRd tieR of the bookcAse,

eliMiNAtiNg the Weight plAced

oN the oRigiNAl stAcks.


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ReAsseMbled, pAlAfoxiANAs

bookcAse hAs beeN eNgiNeeRed

foR futuRe seisMic Activity

With cANtileveRed Joists

suppoRtiNg the thiRd level ANd

A buffeR zoNe to AbsoRb shock.

A cRAftsMAN, left, ReAsseMbles

A WoodeN flouRish dAMAged

iN the quAke. iN AdditioN to

coNseRviNg ANd RestoRiNg

WoodWoRk, huNdReds of

eNAMeled shelf tAgs, Above,

hAd to be cleANed of soot ANd

oxidAtioN ANd RepAiRed.

quent engineering assessments o the library that we had to drastically reduce, inot altogether eliminate, the weight o the third tier on the lower stacks.

Prior to any work on the bookcases, however, the building itsel had to be struc-turally stabilized and repaired. The quakes had caused large cracks to develop in

the vaults and walls, particularly over the window bays, damage exacerbated shortlythereater by heavy rainall. It was eared that without immediate intervention, the

building would likely collapse in the event o a subsequent quake. Architecturalconservators rom Mexicos Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia began

the task o restructuring the building, relaying the oundations o its walls and but-tresses, and repointing the entire structure. Cracks in the ceiling and walls were

lled and the whole building was later waterprooed.Once the library building had been restoreda process that took more than

two yearsLaguna began the task o rebuilding its bookcases. Laguna and herteam devised an innovative scheme to support the third tier and its walkway with

a series o large, cantilevered joists anchored in the wall, rather than having themrest on the stacks below.

What had once been load-bearing columns on the second tier, she says, arenow just decorative elements. As we saunter along the walkway, it is possible to

discern the placement o the joists underoot. During uture quakes, the original

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bookcases will move with the oor while the top tier will travel with the wall; a cosmeticallyhidden buer zone has been placed between the two to absorb any dierential strain.

Throughout the reconstruction, our goal has been to integrate as much original material aspossible, she says, adding that some 80 percent o it was cedar, a wood that is an ideal host

to voracious xylophagous insects. Where necessary, we have replaced damaged elementswith pine, which is more resistant to inestation. What had not succumbed to inestation

had been damaged by water inltration, which had caused warping and cracking. Althoughclose inspection reveals distinct dierences in the wood grain o the stacks, particularly on

the third level, the quality o the joinery is such that is difcult to discern old rom new.More than 40 artisans worked on the bookcase restoration, careully disassembling the

stacks, conserving their individual elements, crating new ones where necessary, and treat-ing the whole ensemble with natural varnish and insecticides. In addition, all o the metal

elementsenameled signage and shel tags, pulls, and hingeswere also conserved.

A third phase o work continues with the complete cataloguing and conservation o thevolumes themselves, which now number 41, 556, as well as the creation o an online digitalarchivea massive undertaking underwritten by Banamex. Recently, a plan has been pro-

posed to renovate an adjacent room to accommodate numerous volumes that do not t in

the library.In concert with the library restoration, Laguna and her team developed a maintenance

program so that conservation is an ongoing process. According to Judith Fuentes Aguilar,the assistant director or the library, eorts are also underway to establish an endowment

or the institution so that its uture is not at the mercy o ever-changing governments.Since its reopening in 2003, the Palaoxiana Library has hosted several extraordinary

exhibitions: Libros Prohibidos, which highlighted the censorship o texts in the librarys col-lection once thought to be heretical or exhibit amoral behavior, and the Art of Navigation,

which is now on view.For those nding themselves in Puebla, less than a two-hour drive rom Mexico City, the library

is an absolute must-see. For more on the library and its exhibitions, see www.bpm.gob.mx n

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AMoNg the MoRe iNteRestiNg voluMes iN the

libRARys collectioNARe those thAt WeRe

ceNsoRed eitheR becAuse they WeRe coNsideRed

heReticAl oR becAuse they coNtAiNed coNteNt

thought to RepReseNt AMoRAl behAvioR. the

folio, Above left, WRitteN by sixtus of sieNA,

beARs iNteRpRetAtioNs of the holy bible

thAt WeRe At odds With the cAtholic chuRch

While the pAge At Right, depictiNg NeW WoRld

iNhAbitANts, coNtAiNs Nudity. A fouRteeNth

ceNtuRy pAiNtiNg of the MAdoNNA of tRApANi

by the siciliAN MAsteR NiNo pisANo, fAciNg pAge,

gRAces the libRARys WesteRN WAll. Above it is A

sMAll oil depictiNg thoMAs AquiNus.


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Bibl Palafoxiana