Alabado sea el santisimo sacramento patente de la Cofradia del Santisimo Sacramento De la Santa Iglesia Catedral de Duramgo, fundada con Autoridad Real, Pontifica y Ordinaria.

(Broadside.) (Indulgences.) (Cofradia de Durango.)

Alabado sea el santisimo sacramento patente de la Cofradia del Santisimo Sacramento De la Santa Iglesia Catedral de Duramgo, fundada con Autoridad Real, Pontifica y Ordinaria.

Description: Broadside confraternity membership certificate, printed on one side only; woodcut monstrance device, floral decorations and woodcut typographical border on three sides; ink manuscript insertions and signatures of society officials on recto, signed and dated on verso, 425 x 315 mm, quarter-folded, otherwise fine.

Publication Details: Durnago N.p. 1799

Notes: An exceptionally clean late eighteenth-century Mexican broadside certificate, issued by one of the confraternities of Durango.This broadside relates to the cathedral church of Durango, in central Mexico, which was built at the end of the seventeenth century. Confraternities, which have been an organisational model of Spanish church congregations since at least the fourteenth century, flourished in New Spain. They promoted the notion of remission from purgatory through indulgences; membership of a cofradia ensured - amongst other things - that one's soul would be prayed for after death. The c...moreAn exceptionally clean late eighteenth-century Mexican broadside certificate, issued by one of the confraternities of Durango.This broadside relates to the cathedral church of Durango, in central Mexico, which was built at the end of the seventeenth century. Confraternities, which have been an organisational model of Spanish church congregations since at least the fourteenth century, flourished in New Spain. They promoted the notion of remission from purgatory through indulgences; membership of a cofradia ensured - amongst other things - that one's soul would be prayed for after death. The certificate allows the name of the member to be entered by hand, and also omits the last letter of the word hermano/a - allowing the scribe to indicate whether this is a brother or sister of the confraternity. In this case, it is sister Juana Maria Belarques that agrees to pay her half a real per week. The rules of membership are here laid out, including the benefits to members that participate fully in the life of the confraternity; for example, members enjoy one hundred days of indulgence for each burial they attend. The certificate is dated April 11 1799, and signed by the rector, senior brother, and secretary of the confraternity.Owing to their ephemeral nature, such certificates are scarce; we can find no other copy. HIDE