“A Most Extraordinary Man”: Alexandro Favián’s Letters to Athanasius Kircher, 1661-1674

This thesis is an annotated translation of seventeenth century letters composed in early colonial Mexico and posted to Europe by the novohispano Alexandro Favián. An active reader of the German Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher’s encyclopedic works about scientific curiosities, Favián wrote eleven letters totaling over one hundred handwritten pages between 1661 and 1672; my annotated translation includes eight of them in their entirety. The letters were sent from Puebla de los Ángeles, near Mexico City, to Rome during the last few decadent years of King Philip IV’s reign and, following his death in 1665, during the regency of his wife Mariana of Austria for their son Charles II. These were years of economic recession for many European states and, for Spain, a period of political uncertainty. For New Spain, after the corrupt viceroy Juan de Leyva y de la Cerda was recalled to Spain for his abuses, a relatively stable viceregal term began with the Marquis of Mancera (r.1664-1673) whose court in Mexico City was famously visited by criollo intellectuals Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora (1645-1700) and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695).

Favián’s long-overlooked letters are worthy of study for two main reasons. On the one hand, because they give readers an insight to the trials and tribulations of a cleric of a certain social standing but who, despite the relative wealth and comfort of his upbringing in colonial New Spain, was denied opportunities for professional advancement. The customs and appointment practices of the Spanish empire excluded most non-Europeans from advancing in professional roles which might wield any kind of political influence as the higher church posts did (Arias, 2003). On the other hand, his collection of letters is notable because not only do they discuss books about early modern science, but also describe curious machines such as self-playing organs, binoculars, and geared alarm clocks. Thus, Favián’s correspondence could be read as a fine example of how Kircher’s works were received and used in the Americas. Indeed, the collection of letters suggests that Favián sought to distinguish himself locally, in New Spain, as a collector of scientific materials motivated by educational objectives.

This project makes three significant contributions. First, I examine how fluid positionality within a metropole-periphery dynamic was leveraged by colonial writers to negotiate the exchange of scientific ideas and objects with other figures more centrally situated. Second, I offer a case study of reader reception for Kircher’s prolific output. Finally, I make a seventeenth-century colonial author’s words available in English with a scholarly apparatus for the first time. This thesis consists of two main sections: in the first are notes about Favián’s letters and their translation, and in the second are the translations themselves as well as annotations followed by a bibliography.