Junipero Serra's library in Carmel Mission BW

by RicardMN Photography

Title

Junipero Serra's library in Carmel Mission BW

Artist

RicardMN Photography

Medium

Photograph

Description

Junipero Serra's library in Carmel Mission. California'ss first library.

California mission libraries played an integral role in daily life, dispensing not only theological, but practical advice as well, in matters such as agriculture, architecture, medicine, history, and geography. California's "first library" at Mission Carmel was compiled from among the handed-down and well-circulated volumes of Mexico City's San Fernando Apostolic College (which administered the Upper California missions), its Mexican missions, and its originally Jesuit Lower California missions. By 1778, the library consisted of around thirty books, arranged according to size on a new "bookcase with four shelves from larger to smaller, lined in redwood." The library grew to approximately fifty books by Junipero Serra's death in 1784, and to 302 when it was first cataloged in 1800 by his successor, Rev. Fermin de Lasuen. At that time each book was numbered at the top of its spine, indicating bookcase number and shelf position. This mission's 1834 secularization inventory listed 179 titles (404 individual books), which were soon dispersed after the mission's abandonment in 1852. The majority were stored at various Monterey locations until 1949, when 229 of its original titles of the 1770-1842 library were returned. The library now totals approximately 600 volumes, including the personal collection of Monterey's pastors from 1850-1930, displayed in the niche on the right. (From http://www.letsgoseeit.com)

Mission San Carlos Borromeo del rio Carmelo, also known as the Carmel Mission, is a Roman Catholic mission church in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
The mission was the headquarters of the Alta California missions headed by Father Junipero Serra from 1770 until his death in 1784. It was also the seat of the second presidente, Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen. The mission buildings had fallen into disrepair by the mid-19th century, but were restored beginning in 1884. It remains a parish church today. It is the only one of the California Missions to have its original bell tower dome.

Junipero Serra, (November 24, 1713 - August 28, 1784) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who founded a mission in Baja California and the first nine of 21 Spanish missions in California from San Diego to San Francisco, which at the time were in Alta California of the Las Californias Province in New Spain. He began in San Diego on July 16, 1769, and established his headquarters near Monterey, California at Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo.
The missions were primarily designed to convert the natives. Other aims were to integrate the neophytes into Spanish society, and to train them to take over ownership and management of the land. As head of the order in California, Serra not only dealt with church officials, but also with Spanish officials in Mexico City and with the local military officers who commanded the nearby presidios (garrisons).

Uploaded

August 22nd, 2019

Statistics

Viewed 658 Times  -  Last Visitor from Wilmington, DE on 04/24/2024 at 2:23 AM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags