2025 Poster Session

The conservation and digitization assessment of the Huntington Library’s Mexican Primeros Libros collection revealed that 15 of 54 early Novo-Hispanic publications bear marcas de fuego—epigraphic or figurative marks burned into the edges of books with a hot iron tool. These irreversible branding marks are believed to have originated in the mid-sixteenth century to assert ownership and prevent book theft in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Marcas de fuego offer invaluable insight into the provenance and ownership history of viceregal Novo-Hispanic collections, shedding light on the fate of conventual and private secular libraries following their dissolution and nationalization in the nineteenth century. Drawing on her expertise in Spanish American materials, the conservator initiated a collaboration with the Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego (CCMF), a digital platform dedicated to cataloging and analyzing fire-branded printed works displaced worldwide, thus reconstructing fragmented viceregal collections. Following CCMF guidelines, Verónica used a Nikon D810 with normal and raking illumination to photograph each firebrand, processing the images in Adobe Lightroom. She captured images of the title pages and provenance notes (e.g., friar names, convent locations, and poem fragments) and took measurements of the firebrands in millimeters to aid in their identification. Comparing this data against the CCMF database, the provenance of the books was traced—identifying the city, religious order, institution, and original owner. The survey revealed that the Franciscan Order once owned 10 out of the 14 fire-branded Huntington books. The most common placement for the marks was at the head edge, found on 7 books; 3 books bore brands at the tail; 2 featured marks on both the head and tail, and 1 book had brands on all three edges. Notably, only one book bore a firebrand on the title page. Of the 15 fire-branded volumes, 10 could be traced to specific cities and convents, while the others featured unidentifiable marks due to various factors: 2 books had charred firebrands that could not be recovered by raking illumination or Photoshop, 1 firebrand was incomplete as the textblock was pulled apart from a major work, and 1 book displayed only a faint brand under a gilded edge due to trimming. This later finding revealed the practice of partially removing firebrands during the trimming, edge gilding, and rebinding of volumes into nineteenth- and twentieth-century book structures. The evidence of provenance erasure suggests that other rebound Mexican Primeros Libros may have had their firebrands removed through intentional or common rebinding processes, leading to the physical loss of historical information. Research from the Huntington’s records, supported by curatorial consultations, confirms that the volumes were acquired between 1911 and 1926 with the existing binding alterations, indicating they had been rebound before Henry Huntington’s acquisition from North American collectors. These findings demonstrate that firebrands are crucial for understanding the migration of Novo-Hispanic early printed works into local and international collections, including the Huntington’s. The project also serves as a model for U.S. cultural heritage institutions to engage with initiatives like CCMF, emphasizing the significance of bilingual scholarship and the unique material characteristics of Latin American collections, which often differ from their European counterparts. Moreover, this research underscores the importance of international partnerships and highlights the essential role of conservators in the meticulous examination of global heritage, advocating for in-depth studies and equitable preservation practices for reconstructing and documenting fragmented cultural histories.