1688 Historical Account

Francisco de Florencia.
La estrella del norte de México, aparecida al rayar el día de la luz evangélica en este Nuevo Mundo….  En la historia de la milagroso imagen de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de México, que se apareció en la manta de Juan Diego.
Madrid: en la imprenta de Lorenzo de San Martín, 1785. (AFD3691)

The Jesuit Francisco de Florencia (1619–1695) represented the ecclesiastical cabildo of Mexico’s mid-seventeenth-century petition to the Vatican for papal recognition of the devotion to Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Although the petition was denied, Pope Clement IX (b. 1600, pont. max. 1667–1669) did decree a full jubilee for the Virgin of Guadalupe.  Nearly a century later, in 1754, Pope Benedict XIV (b. 1675, pont. max. 1740–1758) declared the Virgin of Guadalupe to be the Patroness of New Spain.

In Florencia’s account of the apparition, first printed in Mexico in 1688, the author describes the early apparitions of the Virgin and provides additional information from investigations in Mexico and several other testimonials. This Madrid 1785 edition includes four engraved plates which illustrate the Virgin’s interactions with Juan Diego, culminating in her appearance on the tilma presented to Bishop Zumárraga.