Two 18 th century Guaraní devotional manuscripts. From the Jesuit missions in Paraguay through Guaraní families to Wilhelm von Humboldt.

In this article, we present two Guaraní manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Manuscript amer. 12, and Manuscript amer. 13, now in possession of the Biblioteka Jagiellońska in Krakow, Polonia. The two manuscripts have been in the 19th century in the collection of Ignaz Franz W. M von Olfers (1793-1871), ambassador to Brazil 1826-1828, bought in Brazil at the request of Wilhelm von Humboldt, a friend of Olfers for his linguistic studies. They are both devotional manuscripts, the first one a version of Explicacion de el catecism, by Nicolás Yapuguay, printed in the Paraguayan Jesuit reducciones (missions) in 1724 with some devotional exercices of daily mental prayers added. The second manuscript is a compilation of various texts, a Guaraní translation of a Catecism, by Gerónimo de Ripalda, as we see comparing this version with a manuscript in the British Library. Added to this part we find a translation of some José de Acosta sermons from the Tercero cathecismo y exposicion de la Doctrina Christiana, por Sermones … Los Reyes [i.e., Lima]: by the printer Antonio Ricardo, 1585, and another part of Sermons, by unknown authors (one “Padre Anselmo” is mentioned in a marginal note). These manuscripts have been conserved on place, as they have been in use even in post-jesuitical times, in one manuscript we have the mention of an Indigenous: Izidro Taropé // Mestre da musica and the Mission Santo Ângelo, today in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. We shortly present these manuscripts as important sources for devotional education probably among the members of Cofradías (congregations).