Pestilence and headcolds: encountering illness in colonial Mexico

The Temazcal, or Mesoamerican Steambath Source: Codex Magliabechiano, fol. 77r. ms. Banco Rari 232 (ex Magl. XIII, 3), Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, Italy. By permission of the Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali della Repubblica Italiana.

Ex-voto to San Miguel. Source: Anonymous, 1750. Private collection, Mexico City.

Photograph of smallpox victim, with and without disease, 1896. Source: Gloucester smallpox album, 1896.

The Physician Source: Florentine Codex, Vol. III, Book 10, fol. 20. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Italy.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Zapopan. Source: Anonymous, n/d. Collection of INAH – Hidalgo, Colonial Museum (10-213313), Actopan, Mexico. By permission of Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico.

The Cook Source: Florentine Codex, Vol. III, Book 10, fol. 38. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Loreto In Mexico City of July 21 of 1787, the priest Br. D. Nicolas Calvo fell gravely ill from malignant dysentery, and because some of the tissue of the last intestine had separated, a sure and certain death was feared by the doctors attending him; but having sincerely implored to the Santissima Virgin, he regained his health perfectly, with much admiration from the doctors, so much for the brevity of his recovery, as for the circumstances of it. And in recognition of this benevolence he offers the Santissima Virgin this retablo, in memory of it.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Soledad. Source: Anonymous, 1789. Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photograph by author.

Ex-voto to Our Lady of Tulantongo. Source: Anonymous, 1774. Collection of María and Gonzalo Méndez. Zapata, Mexico D.F.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Soledad. Source: Anonymous, 1785. Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photograph by author.

Ex-voto to San Miguel. In the month of June, 1783, Doña Jasinta Cahacho was suffering, without hope of human remedy. She prayed to San Miguel for his intervention and drank water from his well … the moment she drank, she was cured, thanks to God forever.

Mesoamerican bodies were directly linked to the various cosmic forces. Here different body parts are coupled with the signs representing the twenty days of the ritual calendar. Source: Codex Vaticanus Latinus, 3738, pl. 73. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Italy.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Soledad. Source: Anonymous, 1746. Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photograph by author.

Epidemic of 1544–45 Source: Codex Telleriano-Remensis, fol.46v. Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris.

Nahuas infected with smallpox. Source: Florentine Codex, Vol. III, Book 12, fol. 54. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence.

Anonymous ex-voto, 18th-century, Mexico Source: Private collection, Mexico.

Ex-voto Source: Ex-voto, anonymous, 1799. Collection of Roberto Rochín Naya, Mexico City, Mexico. Photograph by Roberto Rochín Naya.

Ex-voto to Our Lady of Sorrows and to San Sebastian On December 2, 1761, Doña Luisana Grande Acxotlan of Cholula was sick in bed with smallpox, very dangerously so. With great devotion, she called upon Nuesta Señora de los Dolares and on San Sebastián along with the holy San Miguelito, and later she was cured of the disease, and for these marvels and for giving her health and life, she had this painted in thanks.

The Midwife Source: Florentine Codex, Vol. II, Book 6, fol. 129. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, Italy.

Ex-voto to the Virgin of Soledad. Source: Anonymous, 1743. Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by author.