A native of Madrid, Tomas López y Vargas (1731-1802) studied map-making in Paris, publishing his first map of the Gulf of Mexico with Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla in 1755. López returned to Madrid and wrote a two-volume work, Principios Geográficos, and in 1795, became first chief of the Geographical Office under the secretary of state.

Scope and contents:

The Guatemala Collection contains the following items:

1. "Apuntamiento en derecho por la Iglesia Cathedral de Goathemala, y su Cabildo, en el pleyto de el remate de los diezmos," 30 pp. The manuscript is dated at Guatemala, July 28, 1714, and is signed illegibly, though possibly reading "El Alcalde publico de la Madríe Soriano Paniagua." Since the leaves are numbered 90 to 104, the manuscript is evidently a portion of a longer work.

2. Tomás López y Vargas, "Descripcion de la Provincia de Guatemala," 22 pp. Holograph manuscript signed by López and dated at Madrid, December 18, 1773, with a folding manuscript map of the country by the author.

The "Descripcion" and the map of Guatemala are not mentioned by Gabriel Marcel in the bibliography appended to his biographical sketch of López, Revue Hispanique 16 (1907), 137-243.

Provenance:

Purchased, 1937

M-729
Recat. 7/98 rsc

Subject index to the Guatemala Collection

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