DHQ: Digital humanities quarterly

Abstract

In 2010, the José María Lafragua Historical Library (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla) and the Franciscan Library (Universidad de las Américas Puebla-Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico) published the “Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego” (CCMF). Marcas de fuego (fire brands) are burned imprints made with a heated iron instrument that capture the distinctive seal of a book’s owner on one or several of the volume’s edges. The use of marcas de fuego to claim ownership over books proliferated mainly in conventual libraries during the Colonial period in Mexico. The first priority of CCMF was to go online with an initial selection of 120 marcas de fuego from various convents, institutions, and individuals, in order to show the variety of provenance that can be found in the print and manuscript collections of colonial libraries. Arriving at this first stage of the project did not present exceptional complications since it started as a collaboration between only two institutions. As other libraries joined, however, it became necessary to work systematically to standardize provenance as well as the names of authors. The complexities of standardization and international collaboration are examined in this article, as well as our experiences trying to make the catalog a reliable instrument for other institutions that hold books that bear marcas de fuego. This article considers the inception and development of the project to date, looking in particular at the experience of coordinating the efforts of multiple institutions in different countries. We offer this essay as a case study and analysis that may serve for other similar projects, especially in Latin America.