New Spain: Real Audiencia (Sala del Crimen)

Certificamos en la mejor y mas bastante forma, que el derecho Nos permite [&c.]. Produced in Mexico. Dated 9 August to 14 September 1773 on papel sellado. 10 signatures, 21 rúbricas. Documents of proceedings brought before the Alcaldes del crimen by Juan José [Mathias] de la Peña y Brizuela (physician and member of the Protomedicato, d. 1789) and Manuel García (physician and surgeon to the Real Cárcel and the Recogidas) complaining of the lack of drugs, food and bedcoverings in the infirmary for the prostitutes of the Casa de Recogimiento de Santa Maria Magdalena. The case appeared variously before Domingo de Valcárcel [1700?-1780], Gamboa (perhaps Francisco Javier de Gamboa [1717-94]), Diego de Madrid, and Rojas. The Audiencia documents include 6 receipts for court compensation against disbursements by Peña and others on behalf of the Recogidas, and make provision for future administration of the Casa and for its financial support from the funds of the expelled Jesuits.

1773

7 ll 32 x 22 cm. Incomplete.

Purchased 1962.

The Casa was founded in 1692 by Francisco Zaraza, Alcalde del crimen, and was closed in 1862. [See Porrua (1964-66) under Gamboa, Peña y Brizuela, Recogidas, Valcárcel; and, Gazeta de Mexico, 1788-89, 3, p. 225 (20 January 1789), and WMS/Amer.9 for Peña y Brizuela].

At Wellcome Collection: see WMS/Amer.9 for Peña y Brizuela. See also Porrua (1964-66) under Gamboa, Peña y Brizuela, Recogidas, Valcárcel; and, Gazeta de Mexico, 1788-89, 3, p. 225 (20 January 1789).

Described in: Robin Price, An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).

Formerly part of the Guerra Collection.