93
Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit Missionary 
Marcus Antonius Kappus, A  D  1708: Re-
discovery of a Lost Poem and its Cultur-
al-Historical Significance
Tomaž Nabergoj
Abstract
Jesuit Marcus Antonius Kappus (1657–1717), born in Kamna Gorica (north-western 
Slovenia), set sail for the New World in 1687. He spent the next thirty years as a mis-
sionary among the indigenous Ópata people in the far northwest of Mexico, then part of 
the Spanish colony of New Spain. In 1708, he wrote a poem entitled Enthuʃiaʃmus ʃive, 
ʃoLeMnes LVDI PoëtICI MetrIs, pro DVrante anno 1708 ChronographICIs sVb PyroMaChIa 
DepICtI, which was published in Mexico City. The poem consisting of 276 hexameters 
in Latin, each printed as a chronogram, was devoted to Louis Philip of Bourbon, the 
newly-born Prince of Spain (1707–1724). For a long time, only the title of the poem 
was known, and it was even thought to be lost, as no exemplar could be found in either 
American or European libraries or archives. Janez Stanonik devoted a special study to the 
poem, published in Acta Neophilologica in 1995. The author of this article, prompted 
by Stanonik’s research on Kappus, then came across a copy of the poem in 2021 during 
an online search in the Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia in Bilbao. Enthusiasmus is of great 
significance for understanding Kappus’ missionary and political activities, as well as his 
literary and artistic capabilities. The article in this issue of the journal discusses the fate 
of the long-hidden poem, the historical circumstances of its creation, and provides an 
overview of its content, message and cultural-historical significance within the political 
and social context of contemporary New Spain and more broadly of the Spanish empire 
during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Envisaged for the forthcoming 
ACTA NEOPHILOLOGICA  UDK: 821.124(=163.6).09-1Kappus M.A.
DOI: 10.4312/an.58.2.93-152 UDK: 27-76-051(7=163.6):929Kappus M.A.
94 Tomaž Nabergoj
issue is a transcription of the poem together with its English translation accompanied by 
a linguistic and literary-historical study, as well as a synthesis of the current knowledge on 
this extraordinary work by Kappus.
Keywords: Marcus Antonius Kappus, Jesuit, missionary, poem in Latin, chronograms, 
prince Louis Philip of Bourbon, celebrations of 1708, Mexico City, New Spain, printing 
house of the Rodríguez Lupercio family
INTRODUCTION: JESUIT KAPPUS IN NEW SPAIN AND THE 
REDISCOVERY OF HIS LOST POEM 
Jesuit Marcus Antonius Kappus (1657–1717) was born in Kamna Gorica near 
Radovljica (north-western Slovenia). In 1687, he set sail from Cádiz for the New 
World and spent the second half of his life as a missionary in the far north-
west of Mexico, then part of the Spanish colony of New Spain. In the remote, 
partly mountainous, but mostly arid or semi-arid regions of Sonora, he worked 
among the indigenous Ópata people, directing missions in Cucurpe, Mátape and 
Arivechi. His work was part of the global evangelising project of the Society of 
Jesus. It was also an integral part of the colonisation processes in present-day 
Mexico, which the Spanish Crown pursued after having conquered the Aztec 
state in the 16th century and subjugated the native peoples.1 
As a collaborator of Eusebius Franciscus Kino, the renowned Tyrolean mis-
sionary, cartographer and explorer (1645–1711), Kappus assisted in the explora-
tion of new areas in the little-known Pimería Alta (northern Sonora and southern 
Arizona), on the frontier with resistant peoples such as the Pima and the Apache. 
He also played an important role in exploratory expeditions and the transmission 
of new geographical knowledge on California. This arid and inhospitable land on 
the Pacific was of great strategic significance to the Spanish Crown as a base for 
maritime routes to Asia, both to China and especially to the Spanish Philippines. 
At that time, California was erroneously regarded as an island (although cartogra-
phers in the 16th century had already correctly depicted California as a peninsula, 
but this knowledge was then lost). The Spanish conquerors, and particularly Jesuit 
missionaries, in the 16th and 17th centuries were eager to explore the coasts and 
interior of California, and to establish outposts, settlements and missions there. 
In his role as royal cartographer, Kino explored California between 1683 and 
1 The bibliography on this period of Spanish colonial or Mexican history, as shaped by the Jesuits, is 
extensive; here is a selection of recent monographs that discuss Sonora and are related to Kappus: 
Hausberger 1995; idem 2000; Clossey 2010 [2008]; Navajas Josa 2009; Yetman 2012; Classen 
2013.
95Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
1685.2 His expeditions to the Gulf of California resulted in a new map depicting 
Baja California as a peninsula, entitled Passo por tierra a la California. In 1701, 
Kappus sent it to an acquaintance in Vienna. The map was published in 1707 in 
the German journal Nova litteraria Germaniae aliorumque Europae regnorum anni 
MDCCVII collecta as a significant contribution to new geographical knowledge in 
Central Europe.3 
Kappus assumed various responsibilities alongside his missionary work, but 
mainly served as rector of a mission district or collegium at the seat of a mission. 
From 1715 until his death, he also served as visitador of all the Sonoran missions, 
which was the highest office within the Jesuit mission system in Sonora. In his 
work and legacy, he ranks among the most prominent missionaries from Slovene 
lands, alongside Ferdinand Augustin Hallerstein (1703–1774) in China, Frederic 
Baraga (1797–1868) in the Great Lakes region of North America and Ignatius 
Knoblehar (1819–1858) in Central Africa.4
The life and work of Kappus have so far been most extensively examined by the 
Germanist and literary historian Janez Stanonik (1922–2014). Between 1986 and 
2007, he published seven articles in the journal Acta Neophilologica that presented 
and exhaustively commented on hitherto largely unpublished letters that Kappus 
had sent to Carniola or to the then German lands.5 He devoted a special study 
to the poem Enthusiasmus.6 This work, with the longer title IHS Enthuʃiaʃmus 
ʃive, ʃoLeMnes LVDI PoëtICI MetrIs, pro DVrante anno 1708 ChronographICIs sVb 
PyroMaChIa DepICtI … is of great significance for understanding Kappus’ mis-
sionary and political activities in their historical and geographical contexts. Its 
title page relates it was written by Marcus Antonius Kappus, priest of the Society 
of Jesus, in praise of the new Spanish prince on the frontiers of the American 
Indies and the terrestrial globe, and published in Mexico City by the heirs of the 
widow of Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio in 1708. Apart from the title, the poem 
was long unknown and could not be found in the American or European libraries 
or archives despite intensive searching. It was therefore inaccessible to researchers, 
and even Stanonik only knew it from the published title page and a few biblio-
graphic references. In his excellent study, he carefully examined these data and 
2 On the exploration and cartography of California see, e.g. León-Portilla 2001 [1989]). The most 
recent synthesis, which includes Jesuit explorations of the north-western frontiers of New Spain 
and also mentions Kappus, is the monograph by Altic 2022.
3 The fundamental study on this subject is by Stanonik 1986, especially pp. 45–48. Also see Altic 
2022, 103. See further Maver 2016, especially pp. 62–67. Cf. also Prenz Kopušar 2021, especially 
pp. 271–284, and Maver 2023b, especially pp. 70–76. 
4 For Kappus’s life and work, see the most recent bibliography in the monograph by Šabec et al., 
2021, 369–387. Also see Maver 2023a, and Šabec 2021a and 2021b. 
5 Stanonik 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1997.
6 Stanonik 1995.
96 Tomaž Nabergoj
was able to arrive at “important and sufficiently reliable conclusions regarding 
the general orientation and significance of Kappus’ work”.7 Having said that, he 
acknowledged the difficulty in drawing conclusions on the true literary value of 
the poem without knowing a single verse.8
Maja Šabec, Igor Maver, Ana Cecilia Prenz Kopušar and I published the mon-
ograph Marko Anton Kappus – slovenski jezuit na koncu Novega sveta in the spring 
of 2022 (with the date 2021) in Razprave FF in Ljubljana. It was while gathering 
material for this monograph in January 2021 that I made the fortuitous discov-
ery – I came across a copy of this poem during an online search in the Biblioteca 
Foral de Bizkaia in Bilbao. It was included in a small publication, bound together 
with other texts in a larger book and therefore hidden, and had only become ac-
cessible following the digitisation of the library material in 2018. It allowed us to 
include in the monograph a chapter on the poem together with a transcription 
of the text, reproductions of the pages and a commentary. With the exception of 
two inaccessible documents, we collected and commented on everything Kappus 
is known to have written, but had mostly been unpublished and scattered across 
archives and libraries in Mexico and the United States, as well as Europe (Rome 
and Ljubljana). This comprises forty-five documents of diverse content, from per-
sonal letters, a solemn Jesuit vow, reports, lists, accounts, orders and so forth (also 
entries in baptismal registers for twenty-three children), as well as the poem itself. 
Thirty-five documents were written in Spanish, six in Latin and three in German, 
while the poem is also in Latin. The preserved sources confirm what the evaluator 
at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome recorded in the list of missionaries by individ-
ual provinces: Kappus’ literacy (Profectus in litteris) was marked with a superlative 
– optimus.9 This archival material has now been integrally translated into Slovene 
for the first time. In doing so, we also fulfilled Professor Stanonik’s wish for fur-
ther study and monographic publication of Kappus’ written legacy, when he con-
cluded his research on Kappus and summarised the state of knowledge in 2007.10 
The poem Enthusiasmus completes this legacy and, as an exceptional work, also 
enriches it. The present contribution in this excellent journal, founded in 1968 
by Professor Stanonik, is dedicated to him as the initiator of new research and a 
prolific researcher of the life and work of Marcus Antonius Kappus. 
This article is in part a shortened and in part a supplemented version of the 
relevant chapter from the recent monograph. It discusses the fate of the long-hid-
den poem, the historical circumstances of its creation, an overview of its content 
7 Stanonik 1995, 59.
8 Stanonik 1995, 67.
9 Document kept in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu, Rome, MEX. VI, f. 34r, No. 216, and 
f. 22r under the name Marcus Capus.
10 Stanonik 2007.
97Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
and message, and its cultural-historical significance within the political and social 
events of contemporary New Spain and broader of the Spanish empire. Envisaged 
for the forthcoming issue of the journal is a transcription of the poem together 
with its English translation, an accompanying study with a linguistic and liter-
ary-historical commentary, as well as a synthesis of the knowledge on this work 
by Kappus as an echo of the historical events surrounding the birth of the Spanish 
heir to the throne, Louis Philip, in 1707.11
HISTORY OF SEARCH AND STUDY 
As mentioned above, no surviving copy of the poem was known to the researchers 
of Kappus’ legacy until our rediscovery, and it was even considered lost. The few 
known details came from bibliographic overviews of the Mexican printed publi-
cations of the colonial period, and these were based solely on the title page. The 
first to study Kappus’ poem in detail was Janez Stanonik, who found its earliest 
mention in the Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, a work that Augustin and 
Aloys de Backer together with Carlos Sommervogel published in several editions 
in Brussels and Paris in the second half of the 19th century.12 Based on this work, 
José Toribio Medina compiled a considerably more precise Mexican bibliography 
in eight volumes, La imprenta en México 1539–1821, issued in Santiago de Chile 
between 1908 and 1911; he also mentioned several important details concerning 
Kappus’ poem.13 Medina’s vast bibliography, comprising as many as 69 682 titles 
of printed works from the Spanish colonies in the Americas and the Philippines, 
was reprinted in two volumes in Santiago de Chile in 1958, but it is still not 
available in the digital form.14 His information on Kappus’ poem is thus not in-
cluded in the virtual library Biblioteca virtual Miguel de Cervantes, maintained by 
the University of Alicante,15 nor in the Biblioteca Digital de Humanidades at the 
University of Veracruz. The latter has issued a special catalogue of prints from 
New Spain, including works from the press of Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio and 
his successors – but Kappus’ work is not among them.16 
11 See Nabergoj 2021. I would like to thank Dr Maja Šabec for her help and advice in preparing 
the article, Andreja Maver for translating the Slovene text into English and Dr Oliver Currie for 
amending the English translation.
12 Stanonik 1995, 64. He drew the information on Kappus’ poem from the 1893 edition, Vol. IV, p. 
916.
13 Medina published the text on Kappus in Vol. III, No. 2174 (cited by Stanonik 1995, 64; also Sta-
nonik 2007, 70). We could not access the publication.
14 Medina 1958. 
15 Biblioteca Digital Miguel de Cervantes brings together databases from 58 institutions and foun-
dations from Spain and 26 from the Americas. See www.cervantesvirtual.com.
16 Rodríguez Domínguez 2012.
98 Tomaž Nabergoj
The information of the first three writers concerning the poem (information 
absent from Mexican bibliographies) that “the work comprises 276 verses, each 
of them a chronogram” led Stanonik to infer they must have had access to a copy 
of Kappus’ poem from a European library, of which nothing further is known.17 
Bernd Hausberger, who likewise cited Sommervogel, recorded the same informa-
tion on the 276 chronograms, in addition to the title page, in his bio-bibliograph-
ical overview of Jesuit missionaries in Mexico.18 In her 1982 anthology of Slovene 
literature in North America Naši na tujih tleh, Jerneja Petrič wrote that the only 
known copy was in private ownership in the United States (without offering more 
precise information on the source).19 
Medina reported that, after a lengthy search in Europe and America, he suc-
ceeded in finding one copy of Kappus’ work in the Biblioteca Palafoxiana in 
Puebla, Mexico. This library, founded in 1646, was used as a repository for books 
confiscated from Jesuit missions after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico 
in 1767. It is therefore conceivable that a copy of Kappus’ poem may have found 
its way there. On the basis of Medina’s report, Stanonik endeavoured to obtain 
Kappus’ work from the library in Puebla, but discovered that there too it was lost 
or at best mislaid.20 
According to Medina (cited by Stanonik), the work was a booklet with a title 
page and four unpaginated sheets, measuring 30 cm or more in height, with bor-
ders and typographic ornamentation or vignettes. The text comprised 276 verses, 
each printed as a chronogram, meaning that the letters of the text that also rep-
resented Roman numerals were printed larger than the others.21 The sum of the 
Roman numerals in each verse was 1708, the year in which the poem was com-
posed or printed. 
Medina stated that there was a dedication from the Jesuit missionaries in 
America to the Spanish prince Louis Philip on the verso of the title page. In his 
article presenting the historical background to the poem, Stanonik nevertheless 
argued that Kappus dedicated the work to Philip of Anjou as the new Spanish 
King Philip V. He presumed that Kappus had published it on the occasion of the 
festivities held in Mexico City celebrating the enthronement of the new Spanish 
ruler from the House of Bourbon, as a politically opportune act given that he 
himself came from Habsburg territory. This presumption is particularly striking 
and based on the opinion that the festivities with fireworks on the accession of 
the first Bourbon to the Spanish throne only took place in 1708, and that Kappus’ 
17 ‘Cette pièce renferme 276 vers, dont chacun est un chronogramme.’; Stanonik 1995, 64.
18 Hausberger 1995, 196, Note 382.
19 Petrič 1982, 412. A recent additional verification with the author has yielded no new information.
20 Stanonik 2007, 70–71.
21 The letters/numerals are: M = 1000, D = 500, C = 100, L = 50, X = 10, V = 5 and I = 1.
99Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
poem appeared shortly afterwards, when news of the political change had reached 
Mexico City. Although Philip, Duke of Anjou, had been the lawful ruler of Spain 
since 1700 and his accession had sparked the War of the Spanish Succession 
(1701–1714), it was according to Stanonik only with the Battle of Almansa on 
25 April 1707 that the pro-Habsburg side in Spain was decisively defeated and 
numerous Habsburg sympathisers severely punished. He proposed that this may 
have prompted Kappus to publish the poem as an expression of his loyalty to the 
new monarch and – given the dedication on the title page – also on behalf of the 
Jesuit missionaries in Mexico in general.22 We should note that Stanonik was not 
the first to propose that Kappus dedicated the poem to Philip V; Janez L. Zaplot-
nik voiced this opinion in the manuscript of his book published posthumously in 
2016.23 Zmago Šmitek, for his part, wrote that Kappus’ work represented an early 
attempt in America to link poetry, history and ethnology.24
A COPY IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY!
In February 1991, almost thirty-five years ago, I inquired in vain after Kappus’ 
poem in several institutions in Mexico City and in Hermosillo, Sonora. Nothing 
was known of it either in the Archivo General de la Nación or in the Biblioteca Na-
cional and its associated Anexo de la Biblioteca Nacional, which housed a considera-
ble amount of unclassified archival material. My enthusiasm was therefore all the 
greater when, in January 2021 while searching the internet, I chanced upon the 
poem in one of the Spanish libraries! The small publication is kept in the Bizkaiko 
Foru Liburutegia/Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia in Bilbao. Since 2018, the booklet has 
been accessible in digitised form on the library’s website and thus available to all. 
Yet, as far as we know, its existence was previously unknown among the research-
ers of Jesuit missions in Mexico and of Mexican colonial history more generally, 
and evidently remained unnoticed even after its online publication. This article 
in English, therefore – following the Slovene monograph on Marcus Antonius 
Kappus of 2022 – brings the long-missing and long-sought poem by Kappus to 
the international scholarly public for the first time and thus fills an important gap 
in the knowledge of his legacy. 
A copy of the poem, available in the digital repository of the regional library 
in Bilbao, is kept under shelfmark R-2033 (1) in its Fondo de reserva that holds 
22 Stanonik 1995, 65–66, and 2007, 71–72.
23 Zaplotnik 2016, 58. Such an opinion was also deemed correct in the English translation of Zaplot-
nik’s Slovene text by Peter Rožič, editor of Zaplotnik’s book, also in view of the fact that Kappus’ 
contemporary and friend Eusebius Franciscus Kino dedicated his celebrated work Favores Celestia-
les, from 1708, to Philip V (Zaplotnik 2016, 137, Note 115). 
24 Šmitek 1986, 126, Note 84.
100 Tomaž Nabergoj
incunabula, early prints and manuscripts. It is bound in leather, with impressed 
gilded decoration, together with other works under the collective title Diversas 
ordenanzas, reglamentos, estatutos, instrucciones, providencias, alegación jurídica, in-
forme y representaciones … It is not known how the booklet came into the posses-
sion of the Basque library, as it forms part of its oldest collection for which there 
are no reliable records concerning provenance or acquisition.25 
The surviving copy comprises seven sheets or fourteen unpaginated quarto 
pages (c. 30 cm in height) on paper,26 including the library’s data on the first 
page, archival notes on the third page and two blank pages (second and fourth). 
Kappus’ poem itself extends over five printed sheets or ten pages decorated in 
the Baroque style. The third page holds the title of the 18th-century document 
collection to which Kappus’ poem was originally assigned, written twice and in 
italics: Ordenanzas de Mexico … and Ordenanzas de esta Novilissima Ciudad y 
Fiel-Executoria de Mexico. 
The poem consists of the title page (previously the only known part and pub-
lished in transcription), the page with the dedication to the addressee and four 
sheets, that is eight pages, of verse. Three of the four recto pages (second, third 
and fourth) are marked at the foot of the text with the letters B, C and D, while 
the verso pages are unmarked (as is the first recto page, which would therefore 
have been A). The text is framed by a printed border decorated in the same style 
as the title page and dedication. Next to the text is alternately on the left or right 
a column framed with an identical border, in which the line numbers are given in 
tens (from 10 to 270), enabling the reader to count all 276 lines.27 From the third 
to the seventh page of the poem, these columns also contain short annotations in 
Spanish with content clarification. 
The text on the final page only occupies the upper third of the space, below 
which is a border interrupted in the centre by the symbol of the Maltese cross 
above and the monogram IHS below. Below the border is a Baroque-style wood-
cut depiction of three figures on a heraldic background. The central figure is an 
angel with outspread wings and a headdress resembling a plume. It is flanked on 
25 Kappus 1708. The original work, here partially reproduced in photograph, belongs to the bib-
liographic collections of the Bizkaiko Foru Liburutegia/Biblioteca Foral de Bizkaia and is the 
property of the library. I am most grateful to the library staff for permitting its publication and for 
the information on the publication partly available on the library’s website (written communication 
25 January 2021).
26 Quarto is the most common format for ‘Mexican Baroque books’, i.e. publications printed in New 
Spain in the 17th century with the aesthetic and stylistic, but also formal and literary characteristics 
of the Baroque style. According to Manzano Valenzuela’s study, as many as 85.5% of the 497 works 
examined were in this format (Manzano Valenzuela 2021, 96).
27 The verse numbers 60, 70, 80, 180, 190, 200, 220, 230, 240, 250 and 260 do not correspond to the 
actual sequential numbering of the verses, but deviate by a verse or even two.
101Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
either side by a figure with a youthful face, extended wings and hair bound with 
a ribbon, the naked body merging into the ornament with vegetal or fruit motifs 
in the lower part of the depiction. Below the central figure is a heraldic frame and 
at the bottom of the woodcut an animal head, possibly of a wild cat (perhaps a 
jaguar?). 
The black-and-white printing is of average quality. It is not particularly sharp 
in the details, with indistinct rendering of certain small letters of similar forms 
(such as c, i, r, t), punctuation marks and borders, especially in the left border 
of the final page where the ink is smudged. Nevertheless, the text is sufficiently 
legible and the large letters forming the chronograms are predominantly easily 
identifiable.28 Individual letters I written in italics are also clearly marked. 
Some letters or words could not be read with certainty, particularly where the 
print is poor. The printer (or perhaps Kappus himself ) also evidently overlooked 
several letters that should have been capitalised to be read as Roman numerals and 
thus make the correct sum of the chronogram; we counted fifteen such chron-
ograms.29 Nine other chronograms deviate from the rule formulated by James 
Hilton, namely that it is essential for a good chronogram that every numerical 
letter be taken into account for the sum; instead, a letter that would otherwise 
be included in the chronogram is superfluous and is therefore given in lowercase 
rather than capitalised.30 In Kappus’ poem this is always one superfluous letter i.31 
Interestingly, in three chronograms the total is 1707 (each time a missing I or 1),32 
in one line it is 1608 (one missing C or LL, i.e. 100),33 in another it is 1808 (one 
superfluous C, i.e. 100)34 and in one case it is even 176335 – six errors apparently 
made by Kappus himself. With all admiration for his mastery in constructing 
chronograms, we may borrow the indulgent remark of the Roman poet Horace: 
Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.
28 Kappus used the letter U instead of V in four instances, although U has the same numerical value as 
V, namely 5: these are Verses 114 (Lustret; correctly LUstret); 115 (faUCes); 224 (ConCentIbUs) 
and 258 (DegLUtIat).
29 Verses 10, 14, 22, 24, 48, 64, 69, 71, 114, 118, 123, 127, 129, 132 and 210. In Verse 31, the third 
letter s is superfluous in the word eXaCtIssIMsVs. 
30 Hilton 1882, VIII.
31 Verses 13 (InsoMnia); 22 (Barbita); 25 (patria); 47 (reDire); 54 (fiDas); 119 (sIliat); 184 (Isti); 243 
(soLeMnia) and 270 (agitant). 
32 Verses 115 (speLæI faUCes, & teLa arDentIa proMat), 141 (fLagrante oppressI fLeCtantVr pon-
Dere raMI) and 163 (hIC reCto astra petat noVa syrMate TorrIDa zona).
33 Verse 48 (oMInor, & grandes terrIs post nVbILa soLes). The letter d should be written as D.
34 Verse 270 (hIC agitant CIrCo taVros, ferItate treMenDos).
35 Verse 272 (trVX, aVDaX! pVnCto In CVIVs Mors VertItVr Vno). 
102 Tomaž Nabergoj
TITLE PAGE
The title page is printed in the woodcut technique. It features an ornamental ty-
pographic border along the edges and between individual lines of the centred text. 
The upper border is interrupted in the centre by the Maltese cross at the top and 
the monogram IHS below it. The title is located in the upper half of the page and 
separated from the lower part by a thinner decorative band. The lower part holds 
the emblem of the Society of Jesus. Below this is another thin decorative band 
and still further down the printing licence, place of publication, printer and year 
of publication (see Figure 1):
+
IHS
Enthuʃiaʃmus
ʃive,
ʃoLeMnes LVDI PoëtICI
MetrIs, pro DVrante anno 1708 ChronographICIs
sVb PyroMaChIa DepICtI
&
In gratIaM neo-PrInCIpIs HIspanIe DeCantatI,
Et ʃCrIptI à MarCo AntonIo De KappVs
SaCerDote SoCIetatIs IesV, GerMano,
In AMerICanæ InDIæ, & orbIs Terræ ConfInIIs.
De PræLatorVM LICentIIs.
Mexici: apud Hæredes Viduæ Franciʃci Rodriguez Lupercio.
Anno Domini 1708.
English translation: IHS.36 “Enthusiasm, or, Slemn poetic plays, represented in 
the current year 1708 under the fireworks in chronographic verses and recited in 
honour of the new emperor of Spain, and written by Marcus Antonius De Kap-
pus, A priest of the Society of Jesus, from the German state, On the Boundaries of 
American Indies and of the earthly globe. With the licence of superiors. Mexico: At 
the Heirs of the Widow of Franciscus Rodriguez Lupercio. Anno Domini 1708”.37 
The title of the poem, which is characteristically Baroque and is introduced by 
the cross and the IHS monogram, is written in letters of varying sizes and styles, 
both roman and italic. The same applies to the publication information and the 
date at the foot of the title page. Three lines are italicised, apparently for aesthetic 
36 IHS is a Christian monogram of the name of Jesus Christ, which was adopted for his seal by Ig-
natius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, as General of the Society of Jesus (in 1541). It derives 
from the Greek word for Jesus, ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, but was later interpreted in Latin in various ways, most 
commonly as Iesus Hominum Salvator ( Jesus, Saviour of Mankind). 
37 Cf. a slightly different Slovene (Zaplotnik 2016, 58) and English translations (Stanonik 1995, 65).
103Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
rather than content-driven purpose – in keeping with the Baroque style of title 
page typography. There are eight chronograms with capitalised bold letters. The 
top three and the bottom two lines are written in ordinary letters; these were 
not suited for chronograms either because there were too few words available or 
because the publication details in the penultimate line did not fit the required 
sum. Two different forms of the letter S stand out, used without obvious rules. 
The same applies to punctuation, especially commas; the mark in the sixth line, 
following the word DepICtI, is apparently not a comma but a small printing blot, 
of which there are a few more on the title and other pages.
Kappus’ poem is a challenge to translate, even for Latinists. Leaving aside the 
artfully constructed chronograms, this challenge lies in its concise yet varied vo-
cabulary and the use of a specific verse form (hexameters), as well as in the mean-
ing of individual words. Literally translating words into Slovene or English three 
centuries later can lead to misinterpretation and anachronistic understanding.38 
In addition, the text is highly specific with regard to the historical period, subject 
matter and cultural-historical context. Difficulties begin with translating the title 
text. Solemnes ludi poëtici literally means ‘solemn poetic games’ or ‘solemn poetic 
plays’; Classical poets used the word ludi in the sense of ‘playful activities’. When 
combined with the word metris in the following line, separated from the other 
words by a comma, it conveys ‘solemn poetic plays with metre’, or, as Zaplotnik 
translated into Slovene, slovesne igre pesniške mere – in free translation this would 
be slovesne igre v verzih or slovesne verzificirane igre, even slovesna igriva poezija. 
Stanonik translated it into English as ‘solemn poetic plays’ without including the 
(poetic) metres (MetrIs), which he rather linked to the adjective ChronographICIs 
in the same line despite the comma, that is, ‘in chronographic verses’ or chrono-
grams (Zaplotnik: s kronografi).39
The original is composed in dactylic hexameter, the set meter of epic Grae-
co-Roman poetry (Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, etc.). In the 
translation of the verses included in this article, Nada Grošelj replaced it with blank 
verse, i.e. unrhymed iambic pentameter, because the latter is the normal meter for 
narrative verse in English and thus a functional equivalent of the Classical dactylic 
hexameter. This adaptation, however, required some shortenings and omissions. 
38 I wish to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr Nada Grošelj for the English translations of the verses and for ex-
plaining the types of verses, Assoc. Prof. Dr Matej Hriberšek for the initial translations into Slovene 
and for his valuable advice and corrections of my translations, classical philologist Mag. Jelena Isak 
Kres for her help in translating the title page and dedication, and Assoc. Prof. Dr David Movrin for 
corrections of the transcription of the poem and for his helpful comments on the accompanying text 
– all of them from the Department of Classics, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. 
39 The term ‘chronograph’, which today differs in meaning to ‘chronogram’, was for early writers of 
chronograms merely one of the synonymously, albeit uncritically, employed words for this type of 
composition – Hilton 1882, V, lists the terms Chronograph, Chronicon, Chronostichon, Eteosti-
chon and Eteomenehemerodistichon. 
104 Tomaž Nabergoj
Translating the designation Germano, which Kappus used to describe his ori-
gin, is also difficult. As Stanonik emphasised, the question of national identity in 
the 18th century is a complex one, as it could refer to the language a person spoke 
or the land in which they lived, while the meaning of the terms used to describe 
this identity varied across regions and periods.40 Translating Germano as ‘German’ 
or ‘of German origin’ could be seen as anachronistic from the present perspective. 
In fact, it would even be incorrect, as Kappus considered himself a Carniolan, 
not a German. This is confirmed, among other sources, by the list of mission-
aries for the ‘Indian missions’ held in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu 
in Rome, which notes Kappus as ‘Carniolan, born in Kamna Gorica’ (Carniolus, 
Steinpüchlensis), and his language skills as ‘Carniolan, German and Latin’ (Carnio-
lice, Germanice et Latine), with Carniolan (Slovene) listed first.41 
Zaplotnik’s translation identifying Kappus as ‘Austrian’ could also be problem-
atic, as it neither follows the original nor reflects the historical context, again being 
anachronistic; Germano refers to a political entity (state) of Kappus rather than his 
ethnic identity. Kappus himself used such designations to indicate affiliation with 
Jesuit superiors from Austrian lands (Austriacae ditionis operarios), as he wrote in 
a letter of application (indipeta) to Charles de Noyelle, general of the Society of 
Jesus in 1685, or from territories under the Austrian Crown (Ex Austriacae coronae 
ditionibus), as noted in the regest of the said indipeta held in the Jesuit archive in 
Rome.42 The same meaning is employed in the list of candidates for the Mexican 
mission in 1685, which Austrian provincial Joannes Aboeth recorded as ‘from the 
territories of the Austrian house’ (ex ditionibus domus Austriacae).43 
An observation similar to the identification as ‘Austrian’ also applies to Kap-
pus’ designation Germano and to the term Germania (or Germanien in German), 
which ‘refer to the whole Holy Roman Empire, to something with which the 
Carniolans also identified’ in written sources for Carniola from the 17th and 18th 
centuries, and which had primarily a political-territorial connotation. The Ger-
man word Teutschland (‘Germany’), at least in Valvasor, usually denoted ‘foreign’ 
lands and, according to Vanja Kočevar, roughly meant ‘the German lands of the 
Empire without the Habsburg hereditary lands’, bearing a more ethno-linguistic 
connotation.44 In our case, therefore, even the translation ‘from Germany’ would 
be problematic. Historically more appropriate would be the descriptive expres-
sion ‘from the German state’, which we have used despite its deviation from the 
original wording. We could even use ‘from the Austrian lands’, though this is an 
40 Stanonik 2007, 62.
41 Maver 2016, 68–69; also see Maver 2021, 20.
42 Maver 2021, 21–22 and Note 14; also see Maver 2016.
43 Maver 2016, 72–73 and 75; Maver 2021, 25; cf. Nabergoj 1998, 67. 
44 Kočevar 2019, 137–140; cf. Južnič 2018, 262.
105Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
expression which Kappus, in Latin, would very likely not have used given its neg-
ative political connotation, at least not in a poem in honour of the Bourbons who 
had replaced the Austrian Habsburgs on the Spanish throne. On the other hand, 
designations such as ‘Mexico’ and ‘Germany’ were indeed used by contemporary 
Jesuits, though naturally not in reference to independent political entities such as 
emerged later in the 19th century.45
Despite the mistrust on the part of the Spanish authorities and even rejection 
of Jesuit missionaries from non-Spanish lands (also of ‘German’ merchants and 
other ‘non-missionary immigrants’ marked as ‘Lutheran’ and hence persecuted as 
heretics), Spain repeatedly permitted a limited number of foreigners to serve in 
its colonial missions owing to the shortage of Spanish missionaries. After 1616, 
candidates for missions were classified into three categories: those from territo-
ries under the Spanish Crown (subjects of Castile, Navarre and Aragon, includ-
ing Sardinia) held a privileged position; ‘reliable foreigners’ were Spanish subjects 
from Portugal (during the Iberian Union), Naples, Sicily, Milan, Flanders and 
Franche-Comté, as well as subjects of the Austrian house, subjects of princes al-
lied to Spain, and subjects of the Papal State; ‘suspicious foreigners’ who included 
the French, English and Dutch, after 1640 also the Portuguese. A royal cédula of 
Philip IV in 1654 forbade sending foreign missionaries to the colonies, though 
the constant need for mission workers led to the permission being restored in 
1664 for subjects of the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburgs. How-
ever, the king limited the number of non-Iberian candidates to one quarter of 
all missionaries in the colonies, though raising the proportion to one third with 
a new decree a decade later. The number of applications from Central European 
Jesuits was thus highest in the period 1678–1693, as is evident from the surviving 
indipetae in the Jesuit archives in Rome – Kappus being among the successful 
petitioners.46 
The title page bears another feature of interest, namely the particle De before 
the surname Kappus, which is unusual given that Antonius was not of noble birth. 
In the Kappus family, it was his brother Joannes who was conferred a title of 
nobility, in 1693. However, the title could only be used by Joannes and his de-
scendants, not by Marcus Antonius47 – as far as is known, the missionary never 
claimed nobility on account of his family. Stanonik mistakenly concluded other-
wise, precisely on the basis of the De nobiliary particle, which he believed Marcus 
Antonius had begun to use after his brother’s ennoblement, “obviously pleased 
with the new status of the family Kappus in the feudal society of Austria”.48 Yet 
45 Clossey 2010, 10, Note 29.
46 Closey 2010, 149–153.
47 Stanonik 1986, 34 and Note 2.
48 Stanonik 1995, 66.
106 Tomaž Nabergoj
this particle appears in none of Kappus’ other writings, in either Latin or German 
form. Before Stanonik, Anton Huonder had already erroneously marked him as 
noble (‘von’).49 The reason for the addition of De should rather be sought in the 
author’s intention to compose every verse of the poem, even the title lines, as a 
chronogram; both GerMano and De KappVs can be seen as workable solutions 
in this literary arithmetic. The same likely holds for In AMerICanæ InDIæ … 
ConfInIIs, which should be translated as ‘on the borders of the American India’ 
in the singular form. This differs from the historically accurate, though not con-
sistently established, plural form ‘on the borders of the American Indies’, which 
is the expression that the Spanish at that time traditionally used when referring 
to their territories across the Atlantic, most often as the West Indies (in contrast 
to the East Indies on the more distant shores of Asia). Indeed, so did Kappus, for 
example in the above-mentioned letter of 1685 to General Charles de Noyelle, in 
which he asked to be sent on missions in Indias Occidentales.50 
The word pyromachia also requires some explanation. Zaplotnik translated it 
literally, from the ancient Greek words πυρ and μάχη for fire and battle or fight, 
as ‘ognjena bitka’ (fiery battle), while Stanonik opted for ‘fireworks’, which is more 
accurate and makes more sense, though the notion is considerably broader. The 
word is of Greek origin (though not ancient, and not included, for example, in 
the Latin version of the authoritative dictionary of Du Cange), but it also occurs 
in the work of the Renaissance humanist Cornelius Agrippa from 1526 on fire 
and war machines Pyromachia, Traité des feux et des machines de guerre.51 In the 
17th century and later, the term was in use as a clearly early modern coinage, for 
example in the work of Melchior Tetta Pyromachia, sive Ignivm Caelestis, Elemen-
taris, & Vitalis etc., published in Venice.52 A term that also became established 
was pyrotechnia, for example in the famous work De La Pyrotechnia of Vannoccio 
Biringuccio on the art of casting and metallurgy in general, also published in 
Venice, in 1540.53 
It is unclear where Kappus came across the term pyromachia. Leaving aside his 
excellent Jesuit education, one may assume that his origins in the Kappus family, 
which were involved in ironworking, and in the ironworking village of Kamna 
Gorica gave him some practical experience and technical knowledge at least of 
ironworking and iron, as well as other metals. In fact, there are certain references 
to this effect in his letters. In a letter he wrote to his brother Joannes on 20 June 
1699, for instance, he mentioned ‘two large mountains of magnetic ore which is 
49 Huonder 1899, 110, entry Kapp. 
50 Cf. Maver 2016, 72 and 73, who translates the expression in Slovene as Zahodna Indija; see Note 3. 
51 Brasme 2020, 10. 
52 Tetta 1660.
53 Cf. Castelle 2016, 54, who cites the French edition from 1572.
107Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
as little valued as the iron and copper ore because the Spaniards pay attention 
to the silver mines only’.54 He would certainly have been well aware of the rich 
gold and above all silver mines in north-western Mexico and particularly in So-
nora; Stanonik even believes his colleagues regarded him as an expert on metallic 
ores.55 In the title of the poem, however, he did not use the term pyromachia in 
the broader sense of metallurgy or metal processing, naturally with the help of 
fire, but rather in the sense of ‘artificial fire’, as certain verses further down in the 
poem confirm. If that is so, why did he not use pyrotechnia, a term established in 
the Spanish territories at the time? Again, we may speculate that he chose the 
word PyroMaChIa with the deliberate intention of composing the chronogram, 
as it would have been impossible to arrive at the date of 1708 using the word Py-
roteChnIa when combined with other words in the verse. 
Diccionario de Autoridades, which the Royal Spanish Academy in Madrid pub-
lished in six volumes between 1726 and 1739, explains the term pirotecnia as ‘the 
art concerned with all kinds of fire inventions, both in military machines and in 
other curious artifices for amusement and celebration’.56 This mastery and display 
of fire, which spread to Mexico from Spain and are generally thought to derive 
from Arab knowledge (in turn originating in the Chinese invention of gunpow-
der), became an integral part of all manner of festivities in Mexico (we should 
also bear in mind the great ritual importance of fire in pre-Columbian religions). 
‘Artificial fires’ or fireworks (fuegos de artificio) and ‘rockets for merriment’ (cohetes 
de regocijo) would have been well known to Kappus, both in a positive and a neg-
ative sense. In a letter he wrote to brother Joannes on 20 June 1699, he recounts a 
sad story with a moral lesson about a gambler from Mexico City who cursed God 
and was punished for it, as a rocket from a firework flew straight into his throat 
and blew his head to pieces.57 
DEDICATION TO THE HEIR TO THE THRONE
Following the title page is the dedication to the addressee framed with an orna-
mental border very similar to that of the title page. The ornament resembles the 
links of the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece. This is a distinguished order 
of chivalry divided into two branches, Spanish and Austrian, after the death of its 
grand master and Spanish king, the Habsburg Charles II, and the subsequent War 
54 Stanonik 1989, 48. The term ‘magnetic ore’ refers to magnetite (iron oxide).
55 Stanonik 2007, 62; cf. Nabergoj 1998, 75–76.
56 Vázquez Mantecón (2017, 51) cites the explanation of the word pyrotechnia from Diccionario de 
Autoridades, Vol. V, Madrid 1737.
57 Stanonik 1989, 47 and 49–50.
108 Tomaž Nabergoj
of the Spanish Succession. Within the border stands a coat of arms flanked by two 
vignettes in the upper quarter above a narrower decorative band, while the lower 
three quarters below the band hold the text. The coat of arms is, interestingly, the 
royal arms of Spain such as was in use from the 1580 union of Spain with Portugal 
to 1668 even though Spain had already lost Portugal and its dominions in 1640. It 
is therefore the coat of arms predating the reign of Charles II (ruled 1668–1700), 
as it still bears the escutcheon of Portugal unlike Charles’ coat of arms that is 
without it. The depicted coat of arms, encircled by the chain of the then Habsburg 
Order of the Golden Fleece, is of course also different from that of the first Bour-
bon ruler on the Spanish throne, Philip V (ruled 1700–1724 and 1724–1746), 
which has the added chain of the Order of the Holy Ghost around that of the 
(by then Spanish) branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Following the ded-
ication to Louis Philip (Luis Felipe in Spanish),58 the newly-born Prince of Spain 
(1707–1724), the text is not composed in chronograms and begins with the initial 
Q on a decorated field (see Figure 2):
Ad Sereniʃsimum
LUDOVICUM PHILIPPUM
neo--natum
HISPANIÆ PRINCIPEM.
QVOS ab vltimo Novi Orbis limite, tibi dedicatos offert
Ludos Poëticos Societas Ieʃu, nunc non capis; capies;
olim Sereniʃsime Princeps. Interea pro te Maximus Pa-
ter tuus, Gemini Orbis Monarcha gaudebit, devotos Societatis
affectus Clemens excipiet, & ut ʃolet, amabit. Vive, Princeps Se-
reniʃsime, Patris, & Matris, Avi, & Abavi, Sæculi noʃtri, ac
vtriuʃque Orbis gaudium; atque affuʃam Regalibus tuis Cunis Mi-
nimam Ieʃu Societatem vultu, quo Orbem vtrumque ʃerenàʃti, be-
nignus aʃpice, & ut nos ames diutiʃsimè vive & vale.
Ita vovent
PPˢ. Societatis IESU, á Miʃsionibus
Americæ
In free translation: “To the Most Serene Louis Philip, newly-born Prince of Spain. 
The poetic games, dedicated to you and offered by the Society of Jesus from the furthest 
bounds of the New World, you cannot yet understand; one day, Most Serene Prince, you 
will. Meanwhile, your great father, Monarch of both Worlds, will rejoice on your behalf, 
graciously receive the devoted sentiments of the Society, and, as is his custom, regard 
58 The sources and literature also give his name (according to the baptismal record) as Luis Fernando, 
Luis Felipe (Phelipe) Fernando and Luis Phelipe Fernando Joseph. The name Luis was chosen af-
ter his great-grandfather, Louis XIV of France, the name Felipe after his father, Philip V of Spain, 
and Fernando after Ferdinand II of Aragon (Ferdinand the Catholic).
109Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
them with affection. Live, Most Serene Prince, joy of your father and mother, of your 
grandfather and great-grandfather, delight of our age and of both Worlds! And therefore 
look with favour upon the lowly Society of Jesus, kneeling by your royal cradle, with the 
same countenance with which you have brightened each of the two Worlds. That you may 
love us, that you may live long and in good health! Such is the wish of the Fathers of the 
Society of Jesus from the missions of America.” 
It is no coincidence that in his dedication to the heir to the throne, Louis 
Philip, Kappus placed particular emphasis on the joy of his father Philip, then 
‘monarch of both worlds’, that is, ruler of the Spanish dominions both in the Old 
and in the New World, at the birth of the prince. This was of exceptional impor-
tance for securing the legitimacy of the new dynasty, especially during the War 
of the Spanish Succession. Alongside the joy of the parents at the birth of their 
child, Kappus also mentioned the joy of the grandfather and great-grandfather – 
again not without reason. The grandfather was Louis, le Grand Dauphin, son and 
(never reigning) heir of the French King Louis XIV, who was thus the prince’s 
great-grandfather. The Sun King had played a decisive role in the political ma-
noeuvrings of the European powers over who should succeed the childless Span-
ish King Charles II. He supported Charles’ last will to name as successor Philip of 
Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, and his first wife, Maria Theresa of Spain, Charles’ 
half-sister, rather than the other principal claimant to the Spanish Crown, the 
Austrian archduke Charles, son of the Emperor Leopold I. A French prince on 
the Spanish throne threatened the balance of power on the European continent 
– and this led to war. Despite the geographical distance, Kappus was aware of the 
political situation in Europe and considered it in this dedication and in his poem, 
both from his own perspective and from that of the Jesuit order. What is interest-
ing is that he dedicated the poem to the prince in the name of the Jesuits ‘from 
the missions of America’, rather than from New Spain or indeed from Pimería or 
Sonora, where he was active. 
THE CONTENT OF THE POEM
The content revolves around the festivities that took place in Mexico City after the 
birth of the heir to the throne, as already indicated by the expression sub pyroma-
chia in the title. The poem is undoubtedly a demanding, masterfully composed 
work, not only from the linguistic and versological perspectives and, of course, 
on account of the chronograms, but also because of its numerous references to 
Classical mythology and literature, in some instances also to biblical texts. Kap-
pus employed these references meaningfully in his description of the festivities 
with fireworks, dances and performances, which apparently unfolded over several 
days in 1708. The poem gives no precise indication of when and where they took 
110 Tomaž Nabergoj
place, nor have we found reports of them in the published sources and literature 
available to us. Kappus’ poem can nevertheless indirectly serve as a good histor-
ical source for understanding the celebrations in honour of the newborn prince. 
They must surely have followed quite soon after the news of the birth of Louis 
Philip, probably after a few weeks, when the city authorities, together with all the 
key actors from the viceroy and the church institutions to the guilds and confra-
ternities had organised everything required for the festivities. Preparations may 
even have begun earlier, since the pregnancy had been officially announced and 
numerous celebratory publications had appeared across the Spanish empire in its 
honour. Considering that the rector of the college in Guatemala, the Jesuit Anto-
nio Xardón, delivered a sermon in honour of the newborn prince at the cathedral 
in Guatemala on 10 April, festivities in Mexico City could also have taken place 
in the spring of 1708, perhaps in April.59 We may presume that the venue was not 
the palace of the Viceroy of New Spain in Chapultepec, as depicted by an anony-
mous 18th-century artist in his portrayal of a viceregal reception,60 but rather the 
Plaza Mayor, the main square in Mexico City. The appearance of the city centre, 
with its picturesque architecture and bustling activities, can be gleamed from the 
famous painting by Manuel de Arellano of 1721, which portrays the square on 
Christmas Eve.61
A difficulty for understanding the poem and for its historical interpretation is 
that Kappus does not describe events as if they had already taken place, i.e. using 
the past tense, but speaks in the present and in several instances employs the 
subjunctive of exhortation – urging that the celebration in the Classical spirit be 
as solemn as possible. Nor does he mention concrete locations in Mexico City, or 
indeed concrete personalities of New Spain or its capital, such as the then viceroy 
Duke of Alburquerque. There are certain passages or verses that make Enthusi-
asmus resemble a scenario or announcement rather than an actual description or 
report. Yet if it is an announcement (which would be unusual given other known 
accounts of the celebrations marking the prince’s birth), Kappus would have been 
involved in some way in preparing the festivities. Considering his engagement 
in missionary work in Sonora and the great distance from the capital, this would 
hardly have been possible. Having said that, the poem contains many features 
characteristic of such celebratory texts and a wealth of details that strengthen the 
conviction that Kappus’ poem is not merely a poetic invention or fiction, but root-
ed in prior familiarity with the (announced) real historical event that it documents 
59 Xardón 1708.
60 Recepción de un virrey en las Casas Reales de Chapultepec (Alegoría de la Nueva España). See Berndt 
León Mariscal 2000, 94. 
61 Celebridad de nochebuena en México or Vista de la Plaza Mayor de México en Nochebuena. See Fernán-
dez Castro 2023. 
111Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
in a poetic way. It seems that Kappus deliberately used the present tense and the 
subjunctive precisely in order to create a joyful, festive atmosphere and a sense of 
enthusiasm at the birth of the heir to the throne, which he wished to convey to 
the reader even post festum. 
The poem opens with two questions: ‘My error? Or does fame spread certain 
news?’62 The opening part speaks of the happy news that had recently crossed the 
ocean “and fame, resounding, hastens swift through towns”, of the birth of the 
prince and the fact that “America enjoys Hesperia’s king” (king of the West; Verses 
9 and 10); “kings proffering glad olive twigs of peace” and “the realms of Europe 
launching feasts of peace” (Verses 18 and 19). In this and several other places, the 
political context of the poem as relating to events in Europe is presented in a po-
etic and certainly idealised manner: “after war’s waste and horrid lightning strokes 
/ appears God’s link to our destiny; / there’s hope of peace, with our new-born 
prince” (Verses 34–36). The news of the birth, which all welcome so joyfully and 
which brings hope, stirs the poet: “So let my lyre sound with a sweet plectrum” 
(Verse 22). To glorify the historical event, Kappus employs a biblical example and 
associates the birth of Louis Philip with the birth of Jesus himself, if we may judge 
from Verses 23 and 24: “A prince is born to us: Hurray! come, Muses! / And sing 
new songs to our new-born king.”63
A very important role in the poem is played by the Greek Muses of poetry, 
called the Camenae, sisters of Helicon or the Castalides,64 and especially their 
leader Apollo, the Greek god of music and poetry, who later became the sun god 
with the epithet Phoebus. As Kappus calls to them: “Hurray! Glad sisters, open 
Helicon! / Come, Father Phoebus! Don’t delay to strum / guitar strings! Now my 
vein is dancing, hot” (Verses 27–29).65 The poet appeals to Apollo for inspiration 
in writing – for both composing the chronograms and versifying: “Yourself, hur-
ray, breathe songs into my words! / From any verse let flow the very year / now 
passing, worthy of a deep remembrance, / noteworthy for its number and for art” 
(Verses 30–33). 
In addition to Apollo and the Muses, who are to play and sing birthday songs 
and hymns at the royal infant’s (RegaLI pVppo) cradle (Verses 71–75), Kappus 
then introduces other deities from the Graeco-Roman pantheon, always in their 
62 Throughout this article, Kappus’ verses are given in free translation.
63 Cf. Iz 9,5: Puer natus est nobis … and Psalm 98 (97), 1: Cantate Domino canticum novum …
64 Camoenae – Camenae, Latin name for the Greek Muses (Verse 23); Helicona sorores – after Mount 
Helicon in Boeotia, sacred to Apollo and the Muses (Verse 27); Castalides – after the Castalian 
spring of the Muses at Delphi (Verses 71 and 276).
65 Cf. the invocation of the Muses and Apollo in the short play or loa performed in the procession of 
the 1709 triumphal carriage at the celebration of the prince’s birth in Manila: Llegad Musas, llegad; 
y sepa Apolo … – ‘Come, Muses, come, and let Apollo know…’ (Leales demostraciones 1709, p. 77r; 
cf. Ruiz Jiménez 2019). 
112 Tomaž Nabergoj
Latin version – Mars, Ceres, Mercury, Jupiter, Vulcan, Bacchus. He also includes 
heroes such as Hercules (or ALCIDes, as required by the chronogram), as well 
as various more or less fearsome creatures of the Classical world and underworld, 
as the narrative of the 1708 celebrations unfolds. Cyclopes, satyrs, harpies and 
Corybantes, as well as the dragons of Acheron and Charon’s monsters, Lapiths 
and centaurs, all figure in the programme of the festive spectacles. The central 
part of the poem (roughly from Verses 77 to 226) is devoted to the celebrations 
in Mexico City in honour of the prince: in the margins of the text, annotations 
in Spanish list ‘artificial fires’, a stage, an eagle that ignites fire, the dance of 
the satyrs, flying dragons and harpies, Cyclopes, ‘fiery towers’, black bullfight-
ers (Æthyopes), Cacus’ cave, Hercules seizing Cacus and killing him, the battle 
between the Lapiths and centaurs, a ‘fiery tree’, firecrackers, ‘wheels’, rockets, 
two laurels bearing in their leaves the name of the newborn prince Louis Philip 
written in fiery letters, and bagpipes.66
Kappus annotated the text to facilitate understanding the less evident, poeti-
cally veiled passages in the verses (see Figure 3). One example is the ‘artificial fires’ 
(Fuegos artificiales), which clarify the expression Merces (wares) in Verse 79, at the 
beginning of the description of the festivities: “So quickly, Steropes, lay out your 
wares, / displaying on this day your artful efforts …” – namely the manufacture 
of thunderbolts or fire (Verses 79 and 80). Steropes (Lightning) is in Hesiod one 
of the three Cyclopes, sons of Uranus and Gaia, who made thunderbolts for Zeus 
in Hephaestus’ forge; the other two are Arges (Shining) and Brontes (Thunder-
er), the latter of whom Kappus mentions in Verse 126. Interestingly, he used the 
unusual plural form steropes (likewise in Verses 108, 171 and 182), clearly in the 
sense of ‘Cyclopes’ – we may again suspect the requirements of the chronogram. 
Probably for the same reason, he uses the name of yet another Cyclops from later 
cosmogonic tradition in Verse 108, namely PyraCMon (etymologically ‘fiery an-
vil’), who was also Vulcan’s (Hephaestus’) servant according to Virgil.
Scenes involving fire are an essential component of the celebration. The spec-
tacle is to begin with an eagle, which should swiftly fly down from a high rooftop 
and ignite the fire. This is not the Aztec eagle with a snake in its beak as the 
emblem of the ‘place of the prickly pear cactus’ (the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, 
upon whose ruins colonial Mexico City was built), but Jupiter’s winged warrior 
– the eagle that accompanies the supreme god of Classical Antiquity as a sign of 
power and serves as his attribute, like the bundles of lightning bolts that steropes 
forged for him: “From th’ august roof let speed Jove’s armèd [i.e. with talons] bird. 
/ And bear concealed devices holding tinder, / and light the early fires at the back” 
(Verses 85–87). 
66 Interestingly, Kappus names the firecrackers in the plural form (Buscapieses), which was quite un-
common compared with the singular buscapiés.
113Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
This is followed first by the dance of Bacchus’ companions, the satyrs (Verse 
88), and then by other scenes populated with Classical figures and stories, with 
light and fire. It also mentions such a highly appealing theme as the abduction of 
Helen, the lamentation for and burning of Troy (Verse 196). There are numerous 
references to music with a variety of instruments (for example zithers, lyres, cym-
bals, bagpipes) and to dancing: thus the ‘Hesperian’ (Western) Corybantes, sons 
of Apollo and the Muse Thalia, should beat their colourful drums, while all the 
people are to take part in a nocturnal feast (Verses 191 and 192), and the site of 
merry games (hILares LVDos) be illuminated with fire: “Let folk prepare at cross-
roads merry games: / let lamps, gold-bearing, burn with thousand flames / in the 
deep night: let aether glow with fires” (Verses 187–189). 
Kappus scarcely ever refers to the missionary activity of the Jesuits – the sole 
exception being the note Digressio à los PPs. Missioneros towards the end of the 
poem, when in Verses 231–235 he turns to his ‘missionary fathers’: 
“You too, my fellow brethren, worthy offspring
of Reverend Loyola, shall be sung.
Intent on staying, sent to farthest borders. 
Brave, holy cohort, born to weighty deeds
and used to helping hapless Indians.” 
The Indians are mentioned again in Verses 241–243, where it is said that one 
must play for them day and night on the helis, the lyre and the horn (CheLys, 
Lyra, bVCCIna), since they delight in the music of these instruments and enjoy 
solemn festivities.
In the final part of the poem (Verses 236–273), Kappus calls ‘our people’ (gens 
nostra or gens patria) to a feast, for which horned bulls and cows are to be slaugh-
tered in the towns – the descriptions are quite graphic (Verses 236–240): 
“Hurray! Now slaughter hornèd bulls in towns,
and draw your reins in with a generous mind: 
let our people feast on delicacies. 
Let trumpets boom for cows which are to die,
with their hocks cut, and struggling, tied with ropes.”
And further on (Verses 246–249): 
“Now slaughter massive bulls, o native people! 
and celebrate the feast with happy days.
Step on their heads and plunge in your long knives: 
then let the herdsman clean out fat entrails …”
114 Tomaž Nabergoj
Kappus again encourages when describing a scene ideally suited to turmoil 
(Verses 252–260): 
“let some cut up a thousand bones and spines,
let others offer flanks of fatty meat,
still others paint their scrawny cheeks with blood,
still others form long fragrant sausages:
now some would eat the garlands, fast produced,
of fragrant beef and cram them down the throat:
let some observe decrees by singing all day,
repeating wonted dances for three days.”
These are certainly ethnologically interesting descriptions, to which we may 
add naturalistic detail unexpected in the context of the poem, namely the kinds 
of wood for Vulcan’s fire. Alongside goldenrods and pearwood, Kappus mentions 
green shoots or shrubs that glow and belong to the genus botrytes (Verse 143) – 
clearly meaning the shrub artemisia, i.e. wormwood.
Kappus wonders why his poetry has been spent and wishes to stop playing the 
strings. He begs the goddess (DIVa) to ‘take away the spurs’ of the heated poet 
(Verses 261–263) – clearly in the sense that he should cease spurring on his poetic 
vein:67 
“Where stray you, poetry, by song distracted?
Cease firing merriment by babbling strings;
do, goddess! take away the poet’s spurs.”
He further notes how the celebrations of the prince’s birth resound through the 
city, with joyful spectacles (Læta speCtaCVLa) in the circus (CirCo) and repeated 
festivities in the theatres (CoMæDVs theatrIs; Verses 264–266). He specifically 
mentions an acrobat performing on a roof and flying on a rope (Verses 267–269): 
“Behold a juggler flit across the roof,
gambolling, one foot raised, upon the rope, 
and challenging his fate a thousand times.”
It is as though Kappus were describing an ancient Mesoamerican ritual or 
‘dance’ – the Danza de los Voladores, still known today in parts of Mexico! This 
should not surprise us if we consider the pictorial sources from that era, for 
67 Kappus does not specify the goddess, but it is evidently one of the Muses – either Euterpe, the 
Muse of music (and later of lyric poetry), or Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry. 
115Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
example a painting by an anonymous author titled Indian Wedding and Flying Pole 
from 1690, which depicts just such a performance.68
And the final festive scene – the bullfight (Verses 270–273): 
“They goad the bulls in circus, fierce and feared,
of dreadful look and form; a grim arena!
Savage and bold! At one point Death turns out;
but for Hesperians the feast is triple.” 
The poem concludes with three verses (274–276) in which the poet ends his 
song and instructs Apollo and his Muses to cease inspiring him: 
“The end: I break my strings.
Lay down your lyre, Phoebus! Muses, close
the founts! The poet’s leas have drunk their fill.” 
This poet (vates) is Kappus himself; his meadows have drunk enough. He bor-
rowed this allegory from Virgil, who writes thus at the end of Eclogue III, when 
the arbiter Palaemon says to Menalcas and Damoetas after the end of their po-
etic contest: “Shut off the springs now, lads; the meadows have drunk enough” – 
meaning: ‘End the song, we have heard enough’.69
This brief and partial presentation, as well as preliminary observations in the ab-
sence of a precise and complete translation of the poem have revealed a few features 
that are particular to Kappus’ work when compared with similar texts. These are the 
use of chronograms, the use of Classical figures, motifs and similes, as well as the 
association of individual parts of the poem to the celebrations in Mexico City.
CHRONOGRAMS AS A POETIC INTERPLAY OF LETTERS 
AND NUMBERS
In the 17th and 18th centuries, chronograms were a fairly common manner of 
marking the date of an important event, indeed a literary genre in its own right 
that was popular among those with a Classical education and high academic stand-
ing. They usually commemorated the birth, coronation, career or death of rulers 
and dignitaries, wars, battles, sieges, peace treaties and alliances formed at the 
68 The painting (oil on canvas) is kept in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (https://collec-
tions.lacma.org/node/209529). A similar painting titled El Palo Volador from the second half of the 
17th century is kept in the Museo de America in Madrid (https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/
el-palo-volador/9QGrTAt-UIfkmQ?hl=es). 
69 Claudite iam rivos pueri, sat prata biberunt (Virgil, Eclogae, 3, 111). For translation see Virgil 1916. 
Cf. Lorichius 1545, 12: Claudite nunc rivos pueri, sat prata bibere. 
116 Tomaž Nabergoj
establishment of peace, but also less momentous social and local events, founding 
of universities and so forth. In Europe, they were in use from the late 14th century, 
mostly in Latin but also in other languages. They had already appeared earlier in 
Arabic and Hebrew. ‘Chronography’ as a characteristic early modern European 
epigraphic practice grew markedly in the 16th century, partly thanks to the role 
of printing. It reached its peak in the first quarter of the 18th century and then 
declined sharply towards the century’s end. Almost three quarters of all chrono-
grams so far identified or published come from the German-speaking lands and 
the Netherlands, many also from England, considerably less from France, espe-
cially south of Paris, and very few from other Mediterranean countries, notably 
Spain and Italy. Chronograms from the territories of present-day Hungary, Bohe-
mia and Austria are mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries.70
Numerous chronograms have also survived in the Slovene lands, chiefly on the 
façades and walls of churches and manor houses, on monuments, tombstones and 
foundation stones, but only a few are preserved in written documents, such as reg-
isters of births, deaths and marriages. An outstanding legacy is that of the priest 
Sebastijan Pogačar from Gorje near Bled (1693–1762), who, like Kappus, studied 
at the Jesuit university in Graz and “developed into an outstanding Latinist, a 
knowledgeable pastoralist and an astute moral theologian”.71 He recorded his own 
chronograms in the registers of some of the parishes where he served (Bohinj, 
Ig, Sora and Ljubno); 1 287 of them have survived, mainly with theological and 
pastoral content.72 
The largest collection of chronograms was compiled by James Hilton (1816–
1907), an Englishman who studied the tradition of the Roman numeral chron-
ogram in the late 19th century. In three volumes, he published almost 15 000 
chronograms from various parts of Europe, while a huge number of further exam-
ples that he also collected but did not publish survive in the archives of the British 
Library in London.73 Despite several shortcomings (such as unsystematic and 
incomplete collecting over several decades, the pursuit of rarities and curiosities, 
and an imbalanced choice of countries and languages), Hilton’s corpus allows for 
a careful quantitative analysis that complements (though not replaces) the close 
philological and epigraphic study of individual texts. Such a re-examination of the 
topic from modern perspectives of literariness and numeracy, and of the distribu-
tion of examples across time and space – thereby opening new insights into early 
modern textual practices in general – is advocated by the American linguistic 
70 Chrisomalis 2021, 138–141; Hilton 1882, VI–X.
71 Dolinar 2013, 298.
72 See Jelenc 2013.
73 Cf. Chrisomalis, 2021, 138–139, who notes more than 20 000 chronograms; Hilton (1895, X) 
wrote that he recorded 38 411 chronograms in three books, but published only 14 712.
117Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
anthropologist Stephen Chrisomalis. He studies chronograms within the intellec-
tual traditions dealing with ‘language play’ or ‘playful language’, which the English 
linguist David Crystal calls ‘ludic linguistics’.74
With the help of two collaborators, Chrisomalis compiled 10 342 chrono-
grams from 2 681 individual texts and classified them according to various cri-
teria such as region, community (where known), language, date and medium or 
context. Three quarters of the texts (2 104) contained a single chronogram, while 
160 texts, predominantly books, contained ten or more. Interestingly, he knows of 
only one chronogram composed in the Americas, though published in England 
and in English. In 1628, Robert Hayman, governor of Newfoundland, composed 
this chronogram to mark the accession of James I in 1603: we MaDe a happIe 
Change thIs Yeere.75
Kappus’ 276 chronograms in a single work, with every verse simultaneously 
functioning as a chronogram, thus constitute an exceptional and evidently very rare 
‘contribution’ to the genre in the territory of present-day Mexico, as well as broader 
in the Americas – this contribution can be further evaluated through future research 
and the newly published material. Among the sources for festive events of 1707 
and 1708 published online, we were able to find some parallels in celebratory texts 
dedicated to the birth of Louis Philip, though these are from Spain. 
Two such parallels come from the undated work Fabvla heroyca, published for 
a festivity that took place in Seville very probably in 1707, as also indicated by 
the chronograms.76 The Elogivm chronicvm, immediately following the title page 
of this extensive work of 48 unnumbered pages, written in Spanish but with nu-
merous verses, maxims and a final poem in Latin, contains a dedication ‘To Louis 
the First, Prince of Asturias and Spain, born on 25 August’, with the chronogram 
date of 1707: 
LVDoVICo prIMo astVrIæ, atqVe hIspanIæ
InfantI, nato qVInto aVgVstI
sVpra VIgIntI.
This is followed by a Distichon chronicvm, in which the sum of the capital letters 
in the two lines likewise yields 1707:
LILIa CrVX CIngIt Latere eX VtroqVe LeoneM,
O prInCeps, patrIa haeC sVnt; Leo & Iste tVVs.
74 Chrisomalis 2021, 126–129 and 138–139.
75 Where Y and I both represent 1; Chrisomalis 2021, 139 and 141.
76 Ramos [1707?], 2. 
118 Tomaž Nabergoj
“The lily and the cross flank the lion on both sides, prince! This is now your 
homeland; and this lion is yours.” According to the accompanying description 
and the explanatory quatrain in Spanish, the distich refers to a depiction from 
the festivity showing the lion as the symbol of Spain, flanked on one side by three 
lilies as the symbol of the Bourbons and on the other by the Jerusalem cross as 
the symbol of Savoy, that is, the two ruling houses from which the prince was 
descended through his parents.77
CLASSICAL REFERENCES AS METAPHOR AND MESSAGE
The use of Classical figures, motifs and metaphors is characteristic of the early 
modern period and the world of Baroque literature, in which Kappus’ Enthu-
siasmus was also created. From the Slovene lands we may cite the play Haeresis 
fulminata, written in 1651 by Joannes Ludovicus Schönleben, but only discovered 
in 2018 in the Auersperg family archive and recently also published.78 Another 
interesting source are the placards for the knightly tournament games held in 
Ljubljana in 1652, attended mainly by members of Carniolan noble families. In 
these games, the knights of ‘Europe’, who challenged the representatives of the 
other three continents – Asia, Africa and America – bore the names of Classical 
commanders such as Pompey and Scipio Africanus.79
Classical figures are very frequently used as associations for rulers, and not 
only those of Spain. An example with such an association is the extensive work 
Augustales Cunae of 1716, which celebrates the long-awaited birth of the Austrian 
archduke and Asturian duke Leopold of Habsburg, first-born son of the Emperor 
Charles VI and his wife Elisabeth. The text contains 592 chronograms according 
to Hilton, it was composed by Jesuits of the College of St Clement at the Charles 
and Ferdinand University in Prague and issued by Georgius Jacobus Köberle. It 
was written on the occasion of the celebrations with ‘festive fires’ (festivis ignibus) 
held in May 1716, three weeks after the prince’s birth, at several sites in all three 
parts of Prague. This work exhibits several commonalities with Fabvla heroyca 
from 1707, a work dedicated to the birth of Louis Philip of Bourbon, in terms 
of structure and content, its numerous Classical references and, of course, its Ba-
roque style; several of its passages and verses are also comparable with Kappus’ 
poem. For instance, the inclusion of Classical quotes such as Post nubila Soles and 
77 Description: Pintase vn Leon, cercado por vna parte de tres Lises, y por otra, de la Cruz Jerosolymitana. 
Line: De Saboya, y de Borbon / Te rodean Cruz, y Lis: / Pero, Gran Principe LVIS, / Es tuyo solo el Leon. 
See Ramos, [1707?], 2.
78 Deželak Trojar 2020a.
79 Reisp 1996.
119Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
other similarities in praise of the newborn prince and his parents.80 Common for 
the most important European rulers of the period is the association of the father, 
Charles VI, termed Augustissimus Imperator, with the sun, and of the mother, Elis-
abeth, likewise Augustissima, with the moon, whose rays illuminate their firstborn 
son, elsewhere described as Serenissimus Austriae Phoebus. A less felicitous choice 
for the newly born Leopold is the epithet Cunctator and hence the connection 
with the ancient Roman politician and commander Quintus Fabius Maximus 
Cunctator (‘Delayer’) – as Leopold had ‘delayed’ seven years before being born 
….81 However, he lived less than seven months and died in the same year, 1716, 
thereby ending the male Habsburg line. After his father’s immense efforts through 
the Pragmatic Sanction, the throne destined for Leopold was secured instead by 
the girl born the following year, Maria Theresa, though she first needed to fight 
for her succession in the War of Austrian Succession in 1740. 
Classical references abound in Kappus’ poem from beginning to end. Of course, 
Kappus was merely describing the events of the celebration, yet as a man of excel-
lent humanist education he would be well acquainted with the themes and narra-
tives represented and may have chosen to emphasise some more than others, but 
above all he interwove and integrated them artistically in his verses. Vivid Clas-
sical metaphors, used as parallels for the figure and deeds of the newborn prince, 
albeit in advance, were ideally suited to such a panegyrical text as Enthusiasmus. A 
good example are the stories of Hercules and the hero’s twelve labours employed 
as a metaphor for a ruler and his heroic deeds. Other writers, too, included them 
in their works, for example the Jesuit Antonio Xardón, who in his festive sermon 
called the prince ‘the second Hercules of Spains’ and also ‘the fair Adonis of the 
two Crowns’, namely Spain and France.82
Hercules, also the mythical founder of Seville, has a special significance in this 
context, as emphasised already in the title of the Jesuit panegyric Fabvla heroyca 
written for the Seville celebrations of 1707. In Spain’s ‘Golden Age’ and even later, 
he was considered the monarca ibero, as also Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo named 
him in the loa (festive prologue) of 1725 written in honour of the coronation of 
Louis Philip as the King of Spain.83
It is characteristic that viceroys, the rulers’ deputies, were often identified with 
Classical figures, both gods and heroes as well as sovereigns. This was especially 
common upon taking office, when they first entered the viceregal capital. Records 
for Mexico City show that triumphal arches (arcos triunfales) were erected for 
them and that they were celebrated with figures such as Mars, Apollo, Perseus, 
80 Augustales Cunae 1716, p. T.a; Verse 48 in Kappus.
81 Augustales Cunae 1716, 56.
82 Xardón 1708, fol. 2 and 3.
83 Rodríguez Garrido 2017, 337, Verse 159.
120 Tomaž Nabergoj
Neptune, Cadmus the founder of Thebes and also Hercules, Aeneas, the Roman 
Emperors Maximinus Thrax and Constantine, even the family of Vespasian (la 
estirpe Vespasiana).84 A new ruler was thus legitimised not only by association or 
symbolic identification with the gods and heroes of Classical Antiquity, but also 
with historical figures, particularly rulers and commanders, or with the states they 
led. In their characters, deeds and achievements lay the roots of the authority that 
birth and coronation conferred on the chosen dynast. 
Don Francisco Perea y Porras, author of the festive sermon delivered in Sala-
manca Cathedral on 13 November 1707 in honour of the birth of the heir, thus 
compared King Philip V with Philip of Macedon, and Prince Louis Philip, con-
sequently, with his son Alexander.85 
Perhaps the best example of Classical figures, motifs and metaphors being used 
in this kind of panegyrical literature is the celebration in Seville, very probably in 
1707, which is described in the above-mentioned Fabvla heroyca. It was dedicated 
to the happy birth of the prince by the representatives (diputados) of the Jesuit 
school of the College of St Hermenegild in Seville, and it was written by the 
Jesuit Juan Vicente Ramos in the name of the city’s administrator, don Jerónimo 
Ortiz de Sandoval y Zúñiga. The text abounds in quotations and references from 
Classical literature and also the Bible, while the scenario of the celebration is peo-
pled – often in a humorous, burlesque manner – with figures of Graeco-Roman 
Antiquity, personifications of the sciences and arts, and historical personages with 
their famous deeds. In keeping with the mythical foundation of the city, the prin-
cipal hero is Hercules, el Victorioso Presagio heroyco or herald of the new ruler. He 
is accompanied by other protagonists in his labours, among them the giant Cacus, 
who also appears in Kappus’ poem.86
CELEBRATIONS IN MEXICO CITY IN HONOUR OF THE 
NEWBORN PRINCE
Kappus’ poem suggests an extensive use of Classical figures and motifs in the 
festive programme, which is intriguing given the varied audience. Apart from the 
élite of colonial society (the viceroy and his officials, wealthy landowners, mer-
chants, soldiers and others), as well as the secular and regular clergy, this audience 
also comprised more modestly educated people or even wholly unacquainted with 
Graeco-Roman literature and antique culture in general, some of them illiterate, 
ranging from Spanish colonists to mestizos and even the indigenous population. 
84 Solano 1994, LII.
85 Perea y Porras 1720–1733, [11]. 
86 Ramos [1707?, [8, 15 and 23].
121Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
In general, festivities were a defining feature of life in the Mexican capital. 
For most of the colonial period, inhabitants could attend as many as a hundred 
religious and secular celebrations annually. The greatest of these, funded by the 
viceregal authorities, were intended to glorify the Spanish empire and to convey 
political and social concepts, in particular the principles of government and duty 
both of rulers (or viceroys) and of subjects. At the same time, they served as an 
instrument of colonisation. As the population became increasingly diverse, the 
organisation of festivities assumed ever greater importance, seeking to promote a 
shared past and common values among the various and potentially restive groups 
of the population.87
As already noted, no direct sources are known for the celebrations that took 
place in honour of the birth of Louis Philip; we can only infer on them from Kap-
pus’ poem and from the available knowledge on the similar festivities elsewhere in 
the Spanish empire. Some of these are documented in great detail as to content 
and execution, for example in Manila and especially in Seville. The latter is known 
through detailed descriptions of the activities, as well as the integrally preserved 
inscriptions and texts in Latin and Spanish used in the ceremonial procession of 
floats through the streets of the ‘Herculean’ city.88
Such processions were one of the central elements of festivities in honour of 
rulers. They consisted of carefully planned scenes involving máquinas, i.e. com-
positions with a select theme and stage-setting, a precisely determined sequence 
and above all elaborately designed ‘artificial fires’. In the words of the French au-
thor Perrinet d’Orval, fireworks in the 18th century were undoubtedly ‘an art that 
could not be regarded as insignificant’, serving to demonstrate ardour and love for 
the king as much as to celebrate his victories. A good example is the spectacle with 
elements of water and fire prepared for the French King Louis XIV at Versailles, 
in July 1688. In its final act, rockets were launched in the air to trace the king’s 
cifra (the letter L) ‘with a very strong and clear light’.89
Fiery letters also appear in Kappus’ poem. In a note, he mentions two laurels 
with the names of the newborn prince Lvys Phelippe written in fiery letters in the 
leaves, while the names in the poem are, of course, in Latin: LVDoVICVs PhIL-
LIppVs (Verses 180–182). In them, Kappus suggests that ‘burning fires brightly 
paint the prince’s names and fill people’s hearts with fervour’.
The celebrations in Mexico City took place sub pyromachia, that is, with an 
extensive use of fireworks or fuegos artificiales and ‘rockets’ (pyroboLIs in Verse 158, 
or Coetes in the notes to Verses 79–82 and 158–169). There were also buscapiés and 
87 Cf. Linda Ann Curcio-Nagy, The Great Festivals of Colonial Mexico City. Performing Power and 
Identity, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque 2004 (not available to the author).
88 Ramos [1707?].
89 Vázquez Mantecón 2017, 52 and 122.
122 Tomaž Nabergoj
ruedas, as well as an árbol de fuego. Buscapiés were small firecrackers that crackled 
and jumped along the ground between people’s feet; the Spanish term for them is 
also carretilla (wheelbarrow, handcart). A rueda was a pyrotechnic wheel, packed 
with rockets, that spun as it discharged them. An árbol de fuego was a wooden 
framework of beams and crossbars that held fireworks. In Verse 103, Kappus also 
mentions torres de fuego, which probably refers to tall metal or wooden frames 
hung with fireworks (today in Mexico known as castillos de torre). Some of Kappus’ 
descriptions of pyrotechnic events, of the various images and plays of light in the 
Mexican sky, are highly poetic, for example in Verse 164, where he describes how 
‘the glowing belt of earth, like a new dress with a train, rises toward the stars’.
The various constructions or scenic displays at such festivities formed part of 
the ‘ephemeral architecture’ characteristic of the Baroque age, made of perishable 
and unstable materials such as wood, wicker, yarn, cloth, cardboard, paper, lime 
and plaster. It gave the appearance of durability and solidity, but was intended to 
last only a few days, until their purpose had been fulfilled. This light and tempo-
rary architecture for public festivities, religious ceremonies and solemn celebra-
tions, which developed at the beginning of the Renaissance and in Spain reached 
its peak in the Baroque, had an artistic, social and political function. It served to 
glorify the ruler, but also symbolise the triumphant power of absolute monarchy 
and convey the victorious resplendence of the Catholic Church.
Such architecture was erected by artists and artisans – often the finest of their 
time – on the occasion of royal proclamations and receptions, when kings entered 
into cities during their travels, at royal weddings, births, funerals and periods of 
mourning in the royal family, as well as at celebrations of military victories, can-
onisations, consecrations of churches or chapels, processions and other religious 
ceremonies and festivities. Alongside triumphal arches, colonnades, pavilions, tab-
ernacles, street altars and so forth, there were various floats (for scenic displays) 
and buildings on wheels, as well as temporary structures such as stages, seating 
and other removable constructions, for example arenas and stables for equestrian 
games and exercises or for bullfights.90 
Kappus explicitly mentions some of these scenic elements, for example a stage 
(El tablado, in an annotation on the margin), various theatrical contraptions and 
stages (artIfICes pegMate sCenas, Verse 109, and aMphIteatraLI sCenà, Verse 213), 
gigantic triumphal arches (ingentes arCes, Verse 214) and Cacus’ cave (La Cueva 
de Caco) as the setting for an episode in which ‘Hercules seizes Cacus and kills 
him’.91 
90 Bonet Correa 1993, 23.
91 Both in the note to Verses 110–121.
123Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE POEM
Enthusiasmus, translated as Enthusiasm or Solemn Poetic Plays, is a remarkable 
discovery that enables a new and valuable insight into the personality of Marcus 
Antonius Kappus, particularly his poetic talent, Classical education and intel-
lectual prowess. The future missionary acquired excellent knowledge of Latin in 
Jesuit schools, along with the knowledge of Greek and a general familiarity with 
Greek and Latin cultures. Between 1679 and 1683 he also taught Latin, in the 
Jesuit colleges of Ljubljana (basics), Leoben (grammar, syntax and poetry) and 
Zagreb (rhetoric).92 As a teacher of rhetoric, he must have been thoroughly fa-
miliar with Jesuit theatrical performances, as they formed part of the curriculum, 
and writing such texts was a necessary component of preparing for the vocation 
of a Jesuit father.93 He put this knowledge to good use in composing the poem, al-
though it is true that he artistically described primarily what he saw and what was 
prepared by the authors of the festive programme, who remain unknown to us. 
Considering he was an experienced and above all learned Jesuit, Kappus could 
quite easily have been involved in authoring or at least co-authoring the festivities 
in Mexico City. There is, however, no evidence to that effect, or that he wrote a 
prompt book of the sort that members of the Society of Jesus often prepared and 
published for such festivities. If that were the case, the poem would almost cer-
tainly be accompanied by the texts carried, spoken, sung or read by participants 
in the course of the ceremonial procession. The best example of such a prompt 
book is Fabvla heroyca, written by the Jesuits of the College of St Hermenegild 
for the celebration in Seville (probably) in 1707. The question of who wrote the 
scenario and directed the event in Mexico City therefore remains open, at least 
until some other discovery in a ‘Basque’ library or archive, whether on bookshelves 
or – thanks to the digitisation of cultural heritage – online comes to light.
Kappus learned in time that King Philip V and his consort Maria Luisa Ga-
briella of Savoy were expecting a child. This child was also eagerly expected by 
many in the lands of the Spanish Crown, according to sources also in Mexico 
City, as it was the king’s firstborn child who would ensure the continuation and 
legitimisation of the dynasty which had laid claim to the Spanish throne after the 
death of Charles II and the extinction of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs. 
By officially announcing the queen’s pregnancy in the spring of 1707 (despite 
the uncertainty of a safe birth and of the child’s sex), Philip V seized a twofold 
opportunity to consolidate his rule. One was to employ the ritual by which both 
civic and religious festivities were directed towards glorifying the royal majesty, 
92 Stanonik 2007, 65, and Zaplotnik 2016, 12. The source of this information is the Jesuit archive of 
the ‘Indian missionaries’ in the Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu in Rome (cf. Maver 2016, 68). 
93 Cf. Deželak Trojar 2020b, esp. 145–146. 
124 Tomaž Nabergoj
and thus to display the splendour of his own dynasty. The other was to use the 
announcement to bring about a favourable outcome in the War of the Spanish 
Succession. Barely two months later, the royal army triumphed at Almansa, there-
by gaining clear ascendancy over its opponents. Such symbolic use of the queen’s 
pregnancy as divine providence and prophecy became a powerful propaganda tool 
in shaping public opinion in favour of the Bourbons, of Philip V, and in support 
of the royal legitimacy both of his person and of his dynasty. The Catholic Church 
distinguished itself particularly in this respect, strongly emphasising the defence 
of Catholicism against the ‘heretics’ of the opposing bloc, especially England and 
the Netherlands. The queen’s pregnancy was thus understood as an important 
interpretative key to the course of the war and was at the same time interpreted 
as a sign of God favouring Philip as the chosen one. Such an interpretation un-
derpinned the messianic discourse that sustained Bourbon propaganda, while at 
the same time denying the Habsburg the legitimacy of his claim to the Spanish 
Crown and therefore also to waging war.94 
Perhaps even more significant than the literary importance of Enthusiasmus is 
the realisation of how actively Kappus, a missionary at the far end of New Spain 
and thus the outer boundaries of the colonial superpower of the then-known and 
governable world, engaged with the major events in Europe. The birth of the heir 
to the throne at the Spanish Bourbon court was certainly such an event, reso-
nating across Europe and throughout the world, at least in the territories under 
Spanish rule, which had seen no heir to the throne for the previous 46 years. It 
was of immense political importance also in view of the balance of power among 
the leading European dynasties and states, closely interwoven by kinship, which 
were then embroiled in the War of the Spanish Succession. There were Spain and 
France, supported by Bavaria, on one side, and Austria and its German allies, the 
Dutch Republic and England (which in the end changed sides), on the other. It 
was one of the bloodiest wars of its time, and in Spain quickly escalated into a civil 
war. The Bourbon Philip V was only recognised as ruler of Spain and its colonies 
after the decisive victory at Villaviciosa in 1710 and with the Peace of Utrecht in 
1713, followed by the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden in 1714. But as the grand-
son of the French King Louis XIV, he was obliged to renounce any claim to the 
French throne, while Spain lost considerable territories.95 
The impact of the civil war, or more broadly the War of the Spanish Succession, 
was less pronounced in the Spanish colonies, though commercial activities did help 
spread it beyond Europe, above all to North America. There, the War of Queen 
Anne was fought between 1702 and 1713 among the colonial powers of Great 
94 Franco Rubio 2008, 287–288, 300–303 and 307.
95 On the historical background to the creation of Kappus’ poem cf. Stanonik 1995, 60–62. On the 
events in New Spain during the War of Succession, cf. e.g. Escamilla González 2004.
125Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
Britain, France and Spain, with the participation of indigenous tribes. Its conse-
quences included the destruction of the Spanish Franciscan missions in Florida. As 
Stanonik noted, citing Bolton, the Catholic Church early on lent its support to the 
Bourbons. Thus Kino, Tyrolean by birth and supporter of Bavaria, an ally of France, 
proposed as early as 1702 that Upper California, which he was only then beginning 
to explore, be named after King Philip V as Novae Philipinae (as he had earlier pro-
posed that Lower California be named Novae Carolinae after the Habsburg Charles 
II). This was not adopted. In 1704, he dedicated the introductory part of his chroni-
cle Favores Celestiales to Philip V and again suggested the name Novae Philipinae to 
be used, now for Pimería. He voiced a similar proposition in a new dedication of his 
chronicle to the king in 1708 (and again in 1710), where he suggested the name Las 
Nuevas Filipinas de la América be used for the provinces of Sonora and Pimería (as 
the Philippines in the East Indies were named after King Philip III). 
Missionaries such as Kino, Kappus and Adam Gilg, who came from the lands 
of Habsburg Austria, probably observed with unease the political shifts following 
the change of dynasty in Madrid. With the outbreak of the War of the Spanish 
Succession, all foreign missionaries, particularly those from Austria, Bohemia and 
other lands of the Holy Roman Empire, were prohibited from travelling to the 
colonies. The royal cédula of 8 February 1707 did increase the quota of non-Iberi-
an missionaries to two-thirds, though not for all – the subjects of the states hos-
tile to the new Spanish dynasty (Austria, Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia) were 
still not granted permission to come. It was only after the war, in 1715, that the 
restrictions were eased, by decree, while later still the national restrictions were 
abolished altogether. The missionaries from German-speaking lands nevertheless 
had to contend with prejudice, but they usually remained loyal to the Spanish 
Crown.96 Kappus was also affected by these changes, as indicated by his corre-
spondence with relatives and acquaintances in Carniola that had previously been 
fairly intensive and now appears to have ceased; there are no known letters post-
dating the year 1700 that would confirm continued contacts. Stanonik believed 
that Kappus published the poem in response to the altered political situation, and 
that he had written it for the celebration of the enthronement of the new Bour-
bon king, planned to have taken place in Mexico City in 1708.97
The poem is therefore of interest to scholars of Kappus’ life and work with regard 
to both its addressee and its subject matter. Kappus dedicated Enthusiasmus to the 
new Spanish prince Louis Philip, and not to the then Spanish King Philip V, as Jan-
ez Stanonik concluded in his study. Although he wrote the poem himself, as is not-
ed on the title page, he dedicated it to the newborn princeps in the name of his fellow 
Jesuits of the missions of America (that is, New Spain or present-day Mexico). 
96 Clossey 2008, 152–153. 
97 Stanonik 1995, 62 and 66. 
126 Tomaž Nabergoj
THE PUBLICATION OF ENTHUSIASMUS AND SIMILAR 
WORKS IN MEXICO
Certain scenographic elements of the celebration that Kappus mentioned in 
his poem suggest that he personally attended the festivities and that in 1708 
he thus travelled from his mission at Arivechi in Sonora to the capital of the 
viceroyalty. He would need to come to the capital for the purpose of publishing 
the poem given that there are numerous matters concerning the publication that 
could hardly have been arranged from Arivechi. As stated on the title page, he 
had to obtain permission from his superiors to have the booklet printed, most 
likely from the Jesuit provincial.98 He further needed to organise the printing 
and also make sure the publication was properly distributed if it was to reach 
its audience and achieve its purpose.99 We can only guess at the print run; it 
was probably not very large, as the booklet was not intended for just any reader 
or buyer, but rather for a specific and sufficiently educated audience. Kappus’ 
reason for choosing Rodríguez Lupercio family to print the poem is also un-
known. Perhaps it was on the recommendation of Kino, who had commissioned 
Rodríguez Lupercio in 1681 to print a 56-page quarto volume – the famous 
treatise on the great comet visible across the world at the end of 1680 and be-
ginning of 1681.100 We should also note that there is no information that the 
Jesuits active in New Spain in the 17th century had their own print that Kappus 
could have chosen to print his work.101
Kappus’ poem would certainly have been sent to different recipients. Apart 
from the copy that found its way into a Basque library, there may be other copies 
that have survived. During his 35 years of research, Medina combed numerous 
libraries and archives, and ‘temporarily’ found a copy in the library at Puebla, as 
mentioned above. At least one copy should have ended up on the desk of a con-
scientious high royal official (if not the king himself ) in Madrid, where it would 
have been carefully stored in the royal archive or library. The poem might also have 
found its way into one of the Jesuit libraries, which in New Spain were considered 
the richest and were also excellently bibliographically organised and catalogued. 
98 Cf. the Licencia that Francisco Calderón de la Barca, Bishop of Salamanca, granted to Doctor Don 
Francisco Perea y Porras, canon and preacher to His Majesty, for the publication of the ceremonial 
sermon delivered in Seville Cathedral on 13 November 1707, in honour of the happy birth of 
Prince Louis I (Perea y Porras 1720–1733, [p. 13].
99 Stanonik believed that Kappus had the booklet printed at his own expense, though we have found 
no evidence of this. It is true, however, that no Jesuit institution, such as a college, is mentioned in 
this connection. See Stanonik 2007, 70.
100 Kino 1681. Kino observed the comet when in Cadiz, Spain. After arriving to Mexico in the middle 
of 1681, he chose Rodríguez Lupercio to print the treatise (Altic 2022, 98).
101 García Aguilar 2014, 210.
127Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
After the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spanish territories, however, part of their 
book collections passed into other institutions, while much was lost.102 
Kappus was certainly obligated to send a printed copy of the poem to the pro-
vincial at the Jesuit headquarters in Mexico City.103 Besides (or perhaps instead of ) 
King Philip V, for whom Enthusiasmus was essentially intended (albeit dedicated 
to the newborn prince), a likely recipient would also be the viceroy (virrey) of New 
Spain, Francisco Fernández de la Cueva y de la Cueva, 10th Duke of Alburquer-
que. In ceremonies relating to the royal household, he was charged with represent-
ing or even replacing the absent monarch, who was symbolically present through 
his image (statue or painting) and the royal emblems, especially coat of arms. 
The extensive catalogue of publications compiled by Francisco de Solano, 
which vividly illustrate many aspects of the city’s life including festivities in hon-
our of the monarch and the kingdom, suggest that the municipal authorities of 
Mexico City, which had organised the celebrations, should likewise have received 
a ‘deposit copy’ of the poem. Confirming this is the ‘archival’ note on page 3 of 
the copy held in the Basque library, stating the name of the document collection 
into which Kappus’ poem was originally entered as Ordenanzas de esta Novilissima 
Ciudad y Fiel-Executoria de Mexico. 
Ordenanza is a general term for a decree as a type of legal norm by which au-
thorities, both in Spain and in the colonies, regulated different aspects of life. They 
were also issued by the visitadores and provincials of the Society of Jesus in New 
Spain to regulate relations between various social groups, namely missionaries, 
the indigenous population and others, for example soldiers and landowners.104 
Municipal ordinances (ordenanzas municipales) are in fact an essential source for 
understanding the governance of Mexico City, alongside official acts (actas mu-
nicipales) and municipal council decrees (cartas de los Cabildos), which deal with 
economic, religious and ceremonial matters, public works, appointments to public 
office and so forth.105 
The arrival of the Bourbons brought changes in the administration and reg-
ulation of urban life, which during the colonial and into the early postcoloni-
al period was overseen by municipal councils known as cabildo or ayuntamiento. 
These included various officials, among them the fiel ejecutor, inspector of weights, 
measures and markets. As Mercedes Galán Lorda has shown in her study of the 
102 García Aguilar 2014, 226 and 232. 
103 In 1708, there were two Jesuit provincials in New Spain: Juan de Estrada (served from 4 November 
1707 to 16 April 1708) and Antonio Xardón ( Jardón) (17 April 1708 to April 1711). See https://
muse.jhu.edu/chapter/2858180#id_271 – Project Muse: Northern New Spain: A Research Guide: 
Lists of Colonial Officials: Jesuit Provincials of Nueva España).
104 Cf. Cabranes 2020.
105 Galán Lorda 1997, 1314–1315.
128 Tomaž Nabergoj
ordinances concerning the supply of bread and meat to Mexico City, the city in 
1712 and at the order of the viceroy, Duke de Linares, undertook a review of all 
documents of earlier legislation then in its possession.106 The viceroy ordered the 
preservation of all that was ‘enforceable for due compliance’.107 The legal adviser of 
the municipal council (asesor), José de Soria, completed this within just two weeks. 
The new viceroy, Marquis de Valero, confirmed part of the documents in 1718, 
and his successor, Marquis de Casa Fuerte, confirmed the rest in 1724.108 Was 
Kappus’ poem discarded at that time, in 1712, as an unnecessary document and at 
some later time, by unknown means, ended up in the library at Bilbao where it was 
bound into a large volume of various prints labelled Ordenanzas? 
Or was the precious copy of Enthusiasmus rather part of a vast and very rich 
cultural legacy of the Societas Iesu? After the expulsion of its padres from New 
Spain in 1767 and following the instructions of the Spanish government Colec-
ción general de las providencias hasta aqui tomadas por el gobierno, this legacy (prints, 
manuscripts and ‘archival papers’) came partly into the possession of libraries of 
other congregations and institutions such as the Real Universidad de México, 
while many works were sadly lost. A Collección of these instructions was also print-
ed in México, in the printing house of the heirs of Doña María de Ribera in 1768. 
It mentions the existence of fictitious volumes (volúmenes facticios), which should 
be examined individually, as ‘it often happens that different works are bound to-
gether in the same volumen’.109 Could such a volume have been brought to the 
Basque Country by one of the many Basque missionaries active in New Spain, 
both among the Jesuits and the Franciscans? 
The anticipated birth of the heir to the throne and then the joyful event it-
self were the topic of several publications issued in Mexico in 1707 and 1708. 
They were mostly ceremonial sermons and thanksgiving prayers, but also a drama 
by the renowned Mexican Baroque composer Manuel de Zumaya (Sumaya), El 
Rodrigo, which was performed in the royal palace (Palacio Real) in Mexico City 
in honour of the birth of Louis Philip. Solano’s list of printed works published in 
the city throughout the colonial period (from 1539 to 1821), comprising some 2 
700 items, records eight works on the birth of Louis Philip from the two years – 
Kappus’ poem is not among these, even though one would expect it to be!110 This 
fact is significant, as it confirms the extreme rarity of surviving copies of Kappus’ 
106 In addition to ordenanzas primarily cedulas, autos acordados, determinaciones de la Audiencia y man-
damientos de superior gobierno, relativos a la fiel ejecutoría (Galán Lorda 1997, 1316).
107 As cited in Galán Lorda 1997, 1316: lo practicable para su debida observancia.
108 Galán Lorda 1997, 1316.
109 García Aguilar 2014, 224.
110 Solano 1994, 168–169, Nos. 1517–1522, 1524 and 1525; interestingly, none of these works de-
scribes the course of the celebrations with fireworks, which Kappus mentions in his poem.
129Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
poem. Solano carried out research in the archives and libraries in Mexico, Spain 
and Chile and collected references for 66 printers active in Mexico City during 
the period, including the Rodríguez Lupercio family. Their publications, of very 
diverse character and content, document many aspects of everyday life, as well as 
festivities and celebrations. We should note that publications marking the birth of 
the heir continued to appear in 1709; for Mexico City, for example, two sermons 
have survived, one a thanksgiving and the other eucharistic.111
In the chapter on Fiestas nacionales, Solano mentions a sermon given in 1707 
for a solemn novena ‘in thanksgiving for the joyful news of the pregnancy of Her 
Majesty María Luisa Gabriela of Savoy, Queen of Spain’. It was prepared by the 
great convent of the royal Order of Our Lady of Grace in Mexico City and writ-
ten by Brother José de las Heras y Alcocer, lecturer in theology at the convent. 
Interestingly, its print is still attributed to ‘the widow of Francisco Rodríguez Lu-
percio’ even though she had by then already been dead for a decade.112 Her heirs, 
who are the printers named on the title page of Kappus’ poem, issued another sur-
viving work in 1708, a sermon by Father Antonio Mancilla dedicated to Santiago 
(the Apostle James), the patron saint of Spain, ‘for the fortunate exaltation of the 
kingdom, the king and the crown’.113 
THE PRINTING HOUSE OF THE RODRÍGUEZ LUPERCIO 
FAMILY
The operation of this printing house is not precisely documented, though we know 
it was one of the most important ones in the 17th-century New Spain alongside 
those of the Ribera and Calderón families. Thirty-eight printers (including wid-
ows, in one case a daughter, who took over the press) are documented for Mexico 
City alone. Altogether, they issued 1 587 works, 356 of them without the printer’s 
name. The Rodríguez Lupercio family published a total of 188 titles in the 17th 
century and 444 titles in all eight decades of operation, until 1736.114 Accord-
ing to the Seminario de Genealogía Mexicana, the founder of the press, Francisco 
Rodríguez Lupercio, married Jerónima (or Gerónima) Delgado Cervantes in 1655 
and they had seven children. He was active as a printer from 1658 until his death 
in 1683. From that time until 1696 (shortly before her death the following year), 
111 Solano 1994, 169, Nos. 1526 and 1527.
112 Solano, 1994, 168, No. 1519. Cf. Stanonik, 1995, p. 68. Also see https://gw.geneanet.org/
sanchiz?lang=en&n=rodriguez+lupercio&oc=0&p=francisco.
113 Solano 1994, 169, No. 1523.
114 Manzano Valenzuela 2021, 51–52 and Tab. 2; Martínez Leal 2002, [p. 6].
130 Tomaž Nabergoj
the business was run by his widow, and then until 1736 by their children.115 They 
lived in the Portal de las Flores district of Mexico City, while the printing house 
was located on Puente de Palacio street, where they also engraved or illustrated 
and sold the books.116 Based on the number of editions, Francisco Rodríguez Lu-
percio was a highly successful printer and bookseller, who began his professional 
career in collaboration with the bookseller Agustín de Santisteban.117 Santisteban 
was active from 1658 to 1661, and together they published an important book on 
St Francis Xavier, El apostol de las Indias, in 1661. By 1683, Rodríguez Lupercio 
had issued a total of 91 titles, most frequently reprints, and also traded books that 
included works from the printing houses in Madrid.118 
His repertoire was diverse. In 1668, he reprinted Antonio Hurtado de Men-
doza’s poem on the Virgin Mary, La vida de Nuestra Señora. In 1674, he published 
a highly popular medicinal handbook, Tesoro de Medicinas by Gregorio López, 
a hermit from the 16th century, while in 1677 he printed Sumarios de la reco-
pilación general de las leyes, originally published in Madrid in 1628 by Rodrigo 
de Aguiar y Acuña, one of the most important works for the legal history of 
colonial Mexico.119 In 1669, Rodríguez Lupercio published a guide on adminis-
tering the sacraments to indigenous people, authored by the Dominican Martín 
de León (a reprint of his 1614 work) with additions by the Dominican Diego 
Cortezer.120 After his death, in 1688, his widow issued the work of the prominent 
New Spanish Franciscan Baltasar de Medina, Vida de fray Bernardo Rodríguez 
Lupercio, fraile de la misma provincia de San Diego, a biography of the Franciscan 
Bernardo Rodríguez Lupercio, who was Francisco’s brother.121 Two years later and 
under the name of Francisco’s widow, the press published a reprint of the popular 
115 Martínez Leal 2002, [p. 6]. Stanonik (1995, 68) writes that Jerónima is said to have managed the 
business until 1694; he drew this information from Medina (1908–1911, Vol. I, pp. CXXXV–CLV), 
whose work was not accessible to us. Rodríguez Domínguez (2012, 30), however, states that the 
widow is thought to have died in 1693, as the prints from that year onward bear the heirs’ names as 
printers; this is not confirmed by the list of prints compiled by Manzano Valenzuela (see p. 261). 
116 Tenorio 2007, 59, and Martínez Leal 2002, [p. 6]. 
117 Also: Santiesteban or Santiesteban y Vértiz. See Rodríguez Domínguez 2012, 13, and Martínez 
Leal 2002, [p. 6].
118 Martínez Leal 2002, [p. 6].
119 Torre Villar 2015, 145.
120 Manual Breve, y forma de administrar los Santos Sacramẽtos à los Yndios. Title cited by Pilling 1885, 
439, No. 2256; cf. Zempoalteca Chávez 2013. 
121 The book was ‘commissioned for printing and dedicated to Don Iván de Porras’ by Francisco’s rela-
tive Antonio Rodríguez Lupercio. See Manzano Valenzuela 2021, 90 and Fig. 3, and Calvo Portela, 
Corvera Poiré 2021, 79. 
131Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
Spanish–Nahuatl dictionary by Pedro de Arenas (first published before 1611).122 
The press also issued several other dictionaries and grammars. In 1673, Francisco 
published Arte de lengua Mexicana by the Franciscan Augustín de Vetancurt, and 
in 1692 his widow issued Arte de la lengua Mexicana, also by the Franciscan Juan 
Guerra. Under Jerónima’s management, the press published over 80 works, while 
more than 270 works, including Kappus’ Enthusiasmus, followed under her heirs 
or successors (always listed collectively on the title pages as Herederos de la Viuda 
de Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio). It is not known who owned the printing house at 
that time, but the similarity of the surnames and references in the introductions 
to some of the works from this printing house suggest it could have been Anto-
nio, Fray Bernardo or Rodrigo Alfonso Rodríguez Lupercio.123 Toward the very 
end of its operation, the press produced two extremely rare works: a study on the 
religious doctrine of the Chinanteco people, by Nicolás de Barreda, and a Span-
ish–Cora dictionary by the Jesuit José de Ortega.124 After 1736, the Rodríguez 
Lupercio name no longer appeared on the title pages of Mexican prints.125 
The graphic design of Kappus’ publication is the work of an unnamed author, as 
the name is noted neither on the title page nor at the two illustrations. In general, 
names of engravers from the colonial period only rarely survive. Even in the 17th 
century, books mostly lacked illustrations, or had only one engraving, either wood-
cut or copperplate, usually for the title page. An exception is Baltasar de Medina’s 
Chronica de la Santa Provincia de San Diego de México printed in 1682 in the press of 
Juan de Ribera and decorated with three engravings: an architectural motif, a coat of 
arms and a map on the title page. The signatures or monograms reveal the authors: 
Antonio Ysarti (or Isarti) drew the title page and map, and Andrés Antonio made 
the coat of arms, as his monograms ADR. ANT. confirm.126 Judging by his name, 
which he signed in abbreviated form, Andrés Antonio was probably Indian.127 He 
also worked for the Rodríguez Lupercio press, for example on José López de Avilés’ 
122 Vocabulario Manual de las Lenguas Castellana, y Mexicana. See https://archive.org/details/vocabular-
iomanua08aren/page/n5/mode/2up (accessed 28 August 2025). 
123 See https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/historia-de-la-imprenta-en-los-antiguos-domin-
ios-espanoles-de-america-y-oceania-tomo-i--0/html/ff290d1e-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_94.
html, p. 175; accessed 28 August 2025).
124 Doctrina christiana en Lengua Chinanteca (1730) and Vocabulario castellano-cora (1732). See https://
www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/historia-de-la-imprenta-en-los-antiguos-dominios-espan-
oles-de-america-y-oceania-tomo-i--0/html/ff290d1e-82b1-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_94.html, 
p. 176; accessed 28 August 2025).
125 Martínez Leal 2002, [p. 6].
126 The coat of arms of Captain Don José de Retes Largacha, Knight of the Order of St James, is 
depicted on page 11. See https://catalogo.iib.unam.mx/exlibris/aleph/a23_1/apache_media/
DFT94BD1TA4A65ATMP5A2TXVUMYAXD.pdf (accessed 1 September 2025).
127 Romero de Terreros y Vinent 1917, 10. 
132 Tomaž Nabergoj
book Debido recuerdo de agradecimiento leal from 1684, dedicated to Don Payo En-
ríquez de Ribera.128 The title page of Kappus’ poem does not bear an architectural 
motif, but does feature the Spanish coat of arms above the dedication to Louis Phil-
ip, as well as an illustration of three angels at the end of the poem (see Figure 4). The 
same angel design appears in a sermon that Jesuit Gaspar de Los Reyes delivered 
at the cathedral in Antequera (Oaxaca) in 1684, commemorating ‘the most excel-
lent, most famous and most respected maestro Don Fray Payo Enríquez de Ribera’, 
Augustinian, bishop of Guatemala and then Michoacán, archbishop of México and 
also viceroy of New Spain.129 The depiction of the angels on page 15 of this sermon, 
printed by Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio’s widow, bears the monogram ADR be-
neath the animal head. This confirms that the author of the angel illustration in 
Kappus’ poem, though without a monogram, is the same, namely Andrés Antonio. 
Individual typographic elements or ornaments are identical or very similar to 
those in other works from the Rodríguez Lupercio press. For instance, the Jesuit 
Juan de Oviedo’s Vida exemplar, heroicas virtudes y apostólicos ministerios de el V.P. 
Antonio Núñez de Miranda de la Compañía de Jesús, printed by this press in 1702, 
features a Jesuit emblem with the IHS monogram very similar to that on the ti-
tle page of Enthusiasmus.130 The same applies to Antonio de Nebrija’s 1713 work 
Quantidad de las syllabas explicada conforme al libro quinto del arte de Antonio de 
Nebrija, which also has the Jesuit emblem and the same series of vignettes framing 
the monogram above and below. The vignettes framing this title page from 1713 
are the same as those above and below the Kappus’ dedication to Louis Philip. The 
same is true of the triangular vignettes flanking the Jesuit emblem both on the 
title page and in the dedication of Enthusiasmus.131 Specific elements, such as the 
double vignettes in the second quarter of the page or in the lower centre of Kap-
pus’ title page, are identical to those on the title page of the famous 1681 comet 
treatise by Kino, made in the same press.132 
128 His monogram is in the bottom right corner of the full-page illustration on page 5. See https://
catarina.udlap.mx/xmlib/projects/biblioteca_franciscana/xml/myPage.jsp?key=book_26e341.
xml&id=libro_antiguo_sace&objects=/ximg&db=/db/xmlibris/system/metadata/&level=1&sec-
tion=1&number=5 (accessed 1 September 2025). Cf. Calvo Portela, Corvera Poiré 2021, 80 and 91.
129 Sermon que predicó El P. Gaspar de los Reyes de la Compañia de Jesus, En las honrras, que la Santa Iglesia 
Cathedral de Antequera hizo al Exmo. Illmo. y Rmo. Señor Maestro D. Payo Enrriquez de Ribera.
See https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/sermon-que-predico-el-p-gaspar-de-los-reyes-de-la-
compania-de-jesus-en-las-honrras-que-la-santa-iglesia-cathedral-de-antequera-hizo-al-exmo-
illmo-y-rmo-senor-maestro-d-payo-1197255/ (accessed 1 September 2025).
130 See http://simurg.csic.es/view/990002313230204201 (accessed 1 September 2025).
131 See https://repositorio.unam.mx/4354 (accessed 25 August 2025). 
132 See https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/exposicion-astronomica-del-cometa-que-el-ano-de-
1680-por-los-meses-de-noviembre-y-diciembre-y-este-ano-de-1681-por-los-meses-de-enero-y-
febrero-se-ha-visto-en-todo-el-mundo-y-se-ha-observado-en-la-ciudad-de-cadiz--0/ (accessed 
28 August 2025). 
133Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
The reuse of typographic elements from much earlier works (and thus of the 
original matrices) was evidently not unusual. The Rodríguez Lupercio press, for 
example, used the vignette decoration that Francisco Rodríguez Lupercio had 
already printed in 1679 on the title page of Juan de Mendoza Ayala’s sermon, in-
tended for the dedication of a chapel, for the typographic border of eight pages of 
verses in Kappus’ poem.133 An identical decorative ‘bouquet’ with plant motifs and 
a decorative band on the left and right edge as printed in the dedication to Louis 
Philip (actually two bouquets, oriented with the upper part toward the Spanish 
coat of arms), appears in numerous other publications of the printing house. For 
example, it can be found three times in the extensive work of Augustinian Gon-
zalo del Valle Espejo de varios colores, printed as early as 1676.134 Twice it was used 
in Augustín de Vetancurt’s manual for administering sacrament in 1682.135 The 
following year it was used to embellish the eulogy of Franciscan Antonio Correa 
for Diego del Castillo, benefactor of St Elizabeth’s monastery in Mexico City.136 
The same decoration, again in a pair and similarly oriented, is found in Father 
Diego Diaz’s sermon for a ceremonial procession in Antequera (Oaxaca) in 1694; 
it was printed by Francisco’s widow.137 The earliest use of this decoration is in the 
Alonso Ortíz’s laudatory sermon from 1674, dedicated to the martyr San Pedro 
Pasqual from Valencia, as many as 34 years before the publication of Enthusias-
mus.138 It is clear that the press used old matrices from Francisco’s time for the 
typographic and decorative elements in Kappus’ poem; Francisco may even have 
been their designer.
In its formal layout, decoration and typography, Enthusiasmus is an excel-
lent example of Baroque printing as developed in New Spain and exemplified 
by the Rodríguez Lupercio family press. It displays numerous characteristics of 
133 Sermón en la dedicación de la capilla, que se hizo en la iglesia de Santa María la Redonda de México. 
See https://catarina.udlap.mx/xmlib/projects/biblioteca_franciscana/book?key=book_jbc093.xml 
(accessed 25 August 2025).
134 The decoration is on pp. 90 r, 162 r and 224 v, always at the end of a chapter or book. See https://
dn790006.ca.archive.org/0/items/A091023/A091023.pdf (accessed 25 August 2025).
135 Manval de administrar los Santos Sacramentos, conforme a la reforma de Paulo V y Vrbano VIII; dec-
oration on pp. 9 and 16. See https://catalogo.iib.unam.mx/exlibris/aleph/a23_1/apache_media/
KQ7LQMHILLH7EJLQ63QRRMQIG9GFII.pdf (accessed 27 August 2025).
136 Funebre panegyris, que a las honras del muy piadoso y nobilissimo republicano Diego del Castillo etc. 
See https://catarina.udlap.mx/xmlib/projects/biblioteca_franciscana/book?key=book_a9d1e5.xml 
(accessed 28 August 2025). 
137 Sermon que En la Solemne Profession de la Madre Maria Magdalena de la Soledad etc.; decoration 
on p. 7. See https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/sermon-que-en-la-solemne-profession-de-la-
madre-maria-magdalena-de-la-soledad-1197278/ (accessed 27 August 2025).
138 Sermon panegyrico, del inclito martyr S. Pedro Pasqual de Valencia etc., [p. 10]. See https://digibug.ugr.
es/flexpaper/handle/10481/3885/A-031-209%20(12).pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (accessed 27 
August 2025).
134 Tomaž Nabergoj
contemporary printing, particularly in the design of the title page and dedication. 
These are the accumulation or extension of text through typographic enlargement 
of titles and dedications, especially those addressed to the highest representatives 
of the Kingdom and the Church; decorative quality expressed in the multiplication 
of vignettes and typographic symbols to emphasize and accompany texts and fill 
empty spaces; use of light and design contrasts evident in excessive use of orna-
ments to highlight individual text elements; the contrast between roman and italic 
script, and compositional forms on the title page and dedication.139 Enthusiasmus 
is also remarkable for its interplay of uppercase and lowercase letters in the chron-
ograms. This design or graphic aspect of Kappus’ poem is superbly integrated with 
the literary style, serving as an outstanding example of the creativity, sensibility and 
spirit of the Baroque period, or contemporary art and culture of the modern era.
CELEBRATIONS ACROSS THE EMPIRE
Kappus’ description of the 1708 festivities in Mexico City forms part of a more 
extensive body of works devoted to such celebrations throughout the Spanish em-
pire and created in 1707 and 1708. Some of these works are of a lighter nature, of-
ten satirical, in verse (such as romance, romancillo and letrilla). For Madrid, twelve 
such texts in twenty editions from 1707 survive, dealing with events connected 
with the royal family and life at court. No fewer than ten of them are dedicated 
to the birth of Louis Philip, including congratulatory and well-wishing texts, as 
well as an astrologically supported prediction of the expected child’s sex, naturally 
a boy.140 The position of the stars at the time of birth was also regarded as signifi-
cant. As already mentioned, the Jesuit Antonio Xardón, who became provincial of 
the missions of New Spain and thus Kappus’ superior on 17 April 1708, delivered 
a sermon in honour of the happy birth of Louis Philip in the cathedral of Gua-
temala on 10 April of that year. It was published on twenty-six pages under the 
title ‘The new solstice between Leo and Virgo for the elevation of Spain in Sag-
ittarius’ with the subtitle ‘Astrono-mystical horoscope’. The child, expected at the 
beginning of August, was overdue and ‘miraculously’ (milagrosamente) born on 25 
August at precisely ten hours and sixteen minutes, on the feast day of Saint Louis 
of France.141 At that time the Sun passed from Leo into Virgo, and according to 
139 Cf. primarily Manzano Valenzuela 2021, esp. pp. 167–168. Cf. also Garone Gravier 2025.
140 Fernández Valladares 1988, 59–60 and 255–264, Nos. 127, 128, 130–137.
141 The mayors of both Carabanchel Alto and Bajo (near Madrid), who were astrologers, stated in a 
letter to the king offering congratulations on the prince’s birth that the time of birth was at ten 
hours and fifteen minutes, which could not have influenced their prediction that, given the favour-
able position of Jupiter, the newborn ‘Leo would appease the wild with the prudent’. See http://
bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000250813&page=1, pp. 2 and 3 (Biblioteca Digital Hispánica).
135Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
calculations and ‘the most reliable news’, conception had taken place in November 
when the Sun entered Sagittarius, ‘the proper sign of New Spain’.142
The birth of Prince Louis Philip, the first son of Philip V, became a symbol of 
the confirmation of the new dynasty. Already on 3 September 1707, the Consejo 
de Indias issued a royal decree (real cédula) prescribing that celebrations of giving 
thanks to God for the happy event be organised throughout the Spanish em-
pire.143 Such festivities, which formed part of the ‘ceremonial of monarchy’, were 
intended to exalt the power of the ruler, the kingdom and the dynasty. At the same 
time, the temporary architecture and symbolism of the imagery used in these cel-
ebrations shaped a political discourse which most of society could understand and 
accept through iconography, sculptures, emblems and inscriptions.144
The celebrations were also a token of the close connection between Spain and 
France, which the authors of the festivities and speakers sought in the history 
of both countries, as well as in contemporary events, thereby giving the prince’s 
birth a symbolic and even magical significance. Francisco Perea y Porras sought 
the magical nature (hechizo) of the prince’s birth already in the will of King Al-
fonso X of Castile (‘the Wise’, 1221–1284), who is believed to have advised his 
successors to maintain ‘the closest possible friendship with France’, and also in the 
will of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Habsburg (also King Charles I of 
Spain, 1500–1558), who recommended a ‘permanent alliance of the two crowns’. 
Particularly telling was the connection with King Louis IX of France, canonised 
as Saint Louis, who was born on 25 April 1215 and died on 25 August 1270; the 
two dates correspond with Spain having won its famous victory at Almansa on 
25 April 1707 and Louis Philip being born precisely on 25 August of that year.145 
The renowned Mexican priest Juan Ignacio de Castorena identified another sig-
nificant connection. He attributed the timely and happy birth of the prince on 25 
August, the feast of Saint Louis and also the name day (onomástico) of the prince’s 
grandfather the Dauphin and of his ‘invincible’ great-grandfather Louis XIV, to 
the intercession of Saint Bernard, patron of fertility or abundance (fecundidad) of 
the French royal house; he based this on the queen’s labour pains having begun on 
20 August, the feast of Saint Bernard.146 
The greatest celebrations, of course, took place in Spain itself. Secular and ec-
clesiastical authorities, often also institutions such as the University of Salaman-
ca, organised festivities in major cities and monasteries.147 These were also held 
142 Xardón 1708, fol. 3.
143 Navarro García 1986, 119.
144 Franco Rubio 2008, 285.
145 Perea y Porras 1720–1733, [16–17].
146 Escamilla González 2004, 195.
147 Relación 1707.
136 Tomaž Nabergoj
in smaller towns and villages, and even in the countryside, as sources reveal for 
Sangüesa in Navarre, a settlement of some 2000 inhabitants. The prior of the 
Dominican monastery there, Antonio Pérez de Aguilar y Ederra, wrote a report 
on them entitled Hibleo laberíntico lírico y músico sacro, now described as a ‘purely 
Baroque play’.148
The prince’s birth was celebrated and in one way or another commemorated in 
writing also in many other lands and cities of the Spanish empire, for example in 
1708 in the largest city of the Viceroyalty of Nuevo Reino, Bogotá, as well as in 
Lima, Potosí, Cuzco, Quito and Manila.149 
The records are particularly detailed for Manila in the Spanish Philippines, 
where in 1709 Gaspar Aquino de Belén published an extensive report on the fes-
tivities under the title Leales demostraciones, amantes finezas, y festivas aclamaciones 
de la novilissima Ciudad de Manila … en accion de gracias por el dichoso, y feliz naci-
miento de nuestro principe, y señor natural D. Luis Phelipe Fernando Ioseph ..., printed 
by the Jesuit Press.150 
In New Spain, public festivities in honour of the same members of the royal 
family were in many respects very similar to those in the Philippines, as can also be 
seen from a comparison between Kappus’ poetic descriptions and Belén’s detailed 
and entirely documentary account. They observed a range of social norms and 
etiquettes of the age in order to renew the formalities established and employed 
by society in Spain, thereby enhancing the authority of the monarchy in the col-
onies of the New World. On the one hand, these festivities reveal the features of 
European early modern culture in Baroque guise with its heritage of the ancient 
cultures of the Old World and its all-pervading Catholic ethos, that is, festive 
elements imported from the metropolis that the municipal authorities adapted in 
a colonial manner. Having said that, a strong local, indigenous influence is also 
apparent: popular piety, mass participation, often the anonymity of mestizos and 
even the involvement of indios naturales, although these were marked as different 
and attributed not only ‘particular ideas’ (sus particulares ideas) but also ‘intellectual 
limitation’ (cortedad).151
The Spanish Crown in its theological and political programme accorded fiestas 
an important place in the life of colonial societies in America. Various aspects of 
these festivities were regulated by laws and ordinances (such as the Leyes de Indi-
as) that had to be observed at all times and everywhere. The rites of the Catholic 
148 Torres Olleta 2013, 276.
149 Navarro García 1986, 199–201.
150 Ruiz Jiménez 2019a. The report is available in digitised form based on the original held in the Bib-
lioteca Nacional de España, accessible via the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica portal, http://bdh-rd.
bne.es/viewer.vm?id=0000112258.
151 Ruiz Jiménez 2019a, 3; Pita Pico 2017.
137Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
Church helped to create a sense of civic identity that strengthened virtue and civic 
loyalty. In certain circumstances, they did not overlook ‘local colour’, which fos-
tered a sense of belonging to the state. This is how the Catholic Church regulated 
religious worship (ejercicio de culto) connected with numerous civic festivities, in 
Latin America particularly with the solemn mass and the hymn of thanksgiving 
Te Deum, ever since the establishment of the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 
1588.152 It was rightly said that ‘to call upon God was a way of collaborating with 
the ruler in a profound identification of prosperity and well-being with religious 
practice and respect for his exalted person’.153 
Fiesta – a feast, celebration and at the same time entertainment – was an im-
portant factor of social cohesion in Spanish America thanks to the mass partic-
ipation of different social groups, including mestizos and indios, as well as people 
of different races in general and American Spaniards.154 Its purpose was not solely 
or primarily amusement or play. Its true aim was ‘to strengthen by exhibition and 
persuasion those values of the old order (Antiguo Régimen) that were immutable 
and believed: loyalty to the Crown, acceptance of the social order and exaltation 
of Catholic orthodoxy’.155 The Baroque fiesta thus amounted to the exercise of 
authority.156 Such were the fiestas held in Mexico in 1708 in honour of the birth 
of the heir to the throne. 
History shows, however, that Louis Philip was not born under a fortunate 
star and could not secure for his father the firm succession of the Bourbon dy-
nasty. Philip V, whose wife María Luisa died in 1714 and two of whose four 
sons died in childhood, abdicated on 14 January 1724. Louis Philip succeeded 
him as King Louis I of Spain. As was customary, festivities were organised in 
many parts of the empire and oaths of loyalty sworn to the new ‘King and Lord 
of the Spains’, also in Mexico City.157 Yet his reign, the shortest in the history 
of Spain, lasted only seven months. He died in Madrid on 31 August 1724 of 
smallpox. All the good wishes at his birth and all the congratulations, includ-
ing those of Marcus Antonius Kappus and his fellow Jesuits from the Mexican 
missions, were in vain. Ineffectual were the precautionary measures, such as the 
staged performance of the three Fates at the festivities in Seville in 1707: the 
152 Aguerre Core 2016, 23.
153 Aguerre Core (2016, 23–24) cites this statement by Ana María Martínez de Sánchez.
154 It should be added that during the celebrations everyone was assigned a place corresponding to 
their position in the social hierarchy; the privileged enjoyed the best view, seating and service, 
whereas ordinary people observed the events from a distance, standing and without assistance, as 
shown by the example of the festivities for the accession of Charles IV in Asunción, Paraguay, in 
1790 (Aguerre Core 2016, 33). 
155 Aguerre Core 2016, 24.
156 ‘La fiesta barroca como práctica del poder’ (Antonio Bonet Correa).
157 Tlacxani Segura 2020, 58–70.
138 Tomaž Nabergoj
third, the Inevitable, who cuts the thread of life, was symbolically placed with 
her shears far from the strands of golden thread borne on the spindle by the 
second Fate, and supplications were voiced: ‘Depart hence, o Fates, and take 
your thread with you’.158 
News of the sudden death of the seventeen-year-old monarch reached New 
Spain and other parts of the empire only several months later. A cruel irony of 
history is that in the Viceroyalty of Peru, in the capital Lima, the coronation of 
the new king was proclaimed as late as 3 December 1724 and on 9 February 1725 
a splendid show was staged in the viceregal palace to celebrate the first year of his 
reign.159 In Potosí, the centre of silver mining in the Andes, the oath of loyalty to 
Louis Philip, by then already deceased, was still celebrated in 1725. The preserved 
titles of reports reveal the same occurred in Oaxaca and Durango in New Spain.160 
The news of the king’s death only reached Lima on 8 June 1725, and the funeral 
ceremonies in the cathedral took place on 22 August, almost a year after the death 
of Louis Philip. His father Philip V returned to the throne and ruled the Spanish 
realms until 1746.
CONCLUSION: ENTHUSIASMUS AS THE EXPRESSION OF 
THE GLOBAL ACTIVITIES OF THE JESUITS 
Kappus’ Enthusiasmus as a literary-historical source must be considered within 
the contexts of the space, time and spirit in which it was created, that is, within 
the specific political circumstances, cultural setting, as well as social and spiritual 
climate both in New Spain and in Europe at the beginning of the 18th century. 
More than any of his other writings, it also presents the missionary as a man who 
found intellectual challenge and satisfaction in ludi poetici, the play of words and 
numbers made possible by chronograms. Should we therefore regard Kappus, on 
the basis of this unique poem – perhaps the only one he ever wrote, or at least the 
only one preserved – as a poet and indeed as the first poet of Slovenian birth in 
America (the Americas)? At the end of the poem, in a characteristically Baroque 
manner, he does exactly that – declares himself a poet. Janez Stanonik, who in-
troduced Kappus as ‘the first Slovenian-born poet in in the Americas’, concluded 
from the information then available on the title page that the work was ‘above 
all an intellectual game rather than an expression of genuine poetic sentiment’. 
Now that the poem is before us, we can only partly agree with that conclusion. 
The kind of poetic sentiment the poem of Marcus Antonius Kappus reveals may 
158 Ramos [1707?], 44: Hinc procul, o Parcae, vestro cum stamine abite.
159 Rodríguez Garrido 2017, 313.
160 Tlacxani Segura 2020, 70.
139Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
only be disclosed by a meticulous literary-historical analysis, yet his poetic talent 
is undeniable and its fruit, though singular, is exceptional. 
This, however, is only one aspect of the text, one dealing with its literary 
or artistic value. Another aspect is more important for understanding Kappus’ 
missionary work and for situating his poem historically. Enthusiasmus, in view 
of the author’s intention and message, can be understood as a celebratory, polit-
ically motivated text which, also in comparison with similar writings in honour 
of Prince Louis Philip from 1707 and 1708, belongs to the global campaign 
of the Spanish Crown to secure the position of the new Bourbon dynasty on 
the throne and to reinforce ties across all the territories of the empire. It also 
presents Kappus as a loyal representative of the Jesuit order in the viceroyal-
ty of New Spain, seeking to gain support and favour for the Society during 
the change of dynasty and in the uncertain years of the War of the Spanish 
Succession. At its core, the poem is thus an expression of Kappus’ continuous 
missionary efforts to achieve the aim he pursued within the framework of the 
Jesuit ‘holy experiment’: the further Christianisation of the indigenous peoples 
of north-western Mexico and their subjugation to the Spanish Crown, all to the 
greater glory of God – and of the king. 
Tomaž Nabergoj
Narodni muzej Slovenije
Tomaz.nabergoj@nms.si
140 Tomaž Nabergoj
Figure 1: Title page of the poem Enthusiasmus
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142 Tomaž Nabergoj
Figure 3: Third page of the poem: Verses 77–105, with annotations in Spanish
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143Enthusiasmus by the Jesuit missionary Marcus Antonius Kappus ...
Figure 4: Eighth page of the poem with illustration at the end
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144 Tomaž Nabergoj
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ponovno odkritje izgubljene pesmi in njen kulturnozgodovinski 
pomen
Jezuit Marko Anton Kappus (1657–1717), rojen v Kamni Gorici (severozahodna 
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izgubljena, saj je ni bilo mogoče najti niti v ameriških niti v evropskih knjižnicah 
ali arhivih. Janez Stanonik je pesmi posvetil posebno študijo, objavljeno v reviji 
Acta neophilologica leta 1995. Avtor tega članka, spodbujen s Stanonikovim raz-
iskovanjem Kappusa, je leta 2021 med spletnim iskanjem v Biblioteca Foral de 
Bizkaia v Bilbau naletel na izvod pesmi. Enthusiasmus je zelo pomemben za razu-
mevanje Kappusovih misijonskih in političnih dejavnosti ter njegovih literarnih 
in umetniških sposobnosti. Članek v tej številki revije obravnava usodo te dolgo 
izgubljene pesmi, zgodovinske okoliščine njenega nastanka in ponuja pregled nje-
ne vsebine, sporočila in kulturno-zgodovinskega pomena v političnem in družbe-
nem kontekstu sodobne Nove Španije in širše španskega imperija med špansko 
nasledstveno vojno (1701–1714). V prihodnji številki je predvidena transkripcija 
pesmi skupaj z njenim angleškim prevodom, ki ga bodo spremljale jezikoslovna 
in literarnozgodovinska študija ter sinteza trenutnega vedenja o tem izjemnem 
Kappusovem delu.
Ključne besede: Marko Anton Kappus, jezuit, misijonar, pesem v latinščini, kronogrami, 
princ Ludvik Filip iz rodbine Burbonov, praznovanja leta 1708, Ciudad de México, Nova 
Španija, tiskarna družine Rodríguez Lupercio