Provenance marks in the books of Procesa Sarmiento, as vestiges of 19th century education in Argentine and Chile

Abstract

Procesa Sarmiento (1818-1899) was one of the first Argentine women who, during the second half of the 19th century, practiced her professions as an artist and educator in both Argentina and Chile. Currently, her educational work is an aspect that has received limited analysis. The objective of this case study is to analyze qualitatively the meaning of the provenance marks on the books of her personal library and that of her husband, Benjamin Lenoir, a collection inherited by her daughters Sofia and Victorina, which over the years became part of the Casa de Sarmiento library (Sarmiento’s House library) (San Juan, Argentina). The indexical paradigm (Ginzburg, 1994) invites us to reflect on these visible traces in the volumes in order to elaborate certain hypotheses about the personal recognition intended by their owners or their heirs. On the other hand, we analyze how the context of custody of these books acts on the cultural relevance they acquire from their incorporation into public collections. In this sense, those inscriptions function as indexical traces of the events between centuries, also offering provisional data on the history of the personal and public library, and the possible path of the texts. In conclusion, we note that this bibliographic collection, which functioned as an instrument of education, offers us a privileged access to the private lives and memories of its owners, as well as the possibility of reconstructing key aspects of the historical moment in which these volumes circulated.