page_title: Instituto Nacional Mejía
section_title: Library
hierarchical_section_title: Instituto Nacional Mejía / Library
caption_attribution_description: English: Eugenio Espejo's 1785 manuscript on Smallpox
context_page_description: Instituto Nacional Mejía is a public secondary educational institution of Quito. It was founded on June 1, 1897 by Eloy Alfaro Delgado, then president of Ecuador.
context_section_description: The library of the Instituto Nacional Mejía holds about 45 000 books and is open to the public. The oldest of its books dates back to 1656 and was written by the Augustinian friar Gaspar de Villaroel. The collection also includes Reflexiones Acerca de las Viruelas (1785), "Reflexions on Smallpox", a medical manuscript by the prominent 18th century physician, writer, and lawyer Eugenio Espejo, who would become "the first scholar to address issues of prophylaxis and hygiene in the Real Audiencia of Quito".
  Following the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from Ecuador, its members abandoned the country leaving behind their entire library collections, which were then stored in several sacks. Then, during the presidency of Eloy Alfaro, founder of the high school, the Jesuits' book collections were distributed among the National Library, the Library of the Central University of Ecuador (UCE), and the Library of the Instituto Nacional Mejía. This accounts for the latter's ownership of books that significantly predate the founding itself of the high school.
caption: Eugenio Espejo's manuscript "Reflexions on Smallpox" (1785) is kept at the Library of the Instituto Nacional Mejía.
exif: {"Image Software": "Google"}