escritura.

(a loanword from Spanish)

Headword: 
escritura.
Principal English Translation: 

document, notarial document; often, an escritura de venta (bill of sale; see also our entry for escritura de venta)

Orthographic Variants: 
escritoran, escritora, escriptura, espturra, esptura
Attestations from sources in English: 

"carta de vetan escritura tlalnamaquilistli" and later: "amatlacuilloli" and "escritoran y carta de beta" (Toluca city, 1670)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 1, ff. 1r.–2v.

"escritura Yhuan Carta de Benta tlalnamaquilistli" of "yn tlaltzintli" = a piece of land; in this case it measured 204 by 64 varas (not small), and it sold for 40 pesos (a hefty sum) perhaps because this was an urban property in the city of Toluca (Toluca, 1692)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 4, ff. 2r.–3v.

don Gabriel de Santiago of Capultitlan is called a "calcouhqui" in a bill of sale, which itself is described as: "amatlacuiloli motocayotia escritora carta de benta tlalnamiquilistli" (Santa Barbara Xolalpa, Toluca city, 1702)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 10, f. 8r.

yamatlacuiloltzi can yuhqui in escriptura = his official paper is like a piece of writing (Santa Barbara Xolal[pa], Toluca city, 1710)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 5, ff. 10r.–11v.

espturra, esptura (San Jerónimo Acazulco, 1737)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing AGN (Mexico) Tierras, exp. 4, f. 6r.–7r.

tlalcohuali onca escritura = it is bought land, and there is a notarial document (Santa Clara Cozcatlan, Toluca Valley, 1740)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 63.

amatl tlaquiloli motocallotia Carta de Benta escriptura tlalnamaquilistli = a letter, a piece of writing called a Bill of Sale, a document of land sale (Toluca, 1756)
Stephanie Wood collection, notes from Nahuatl documents in the file "Bills of Sale," citing Archivo General del Estado de México, RPEM 6, exp. 17, ff. 1r.–3r.

nicpie ome esCritura = I have two notarial documents. (Santa María de la Asunción, Toluca Valley, 1759)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 173.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

oticcohuilique don Andres de Bonilla caxtiltecatl ychan Tehuacan ticpia titulos yhuan escrituras = compramos a don Andrés de Bonilla, español vecino de Theguacan, y de esto hay títulos y escrituras (Tepexi de la Seda, 1621)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 120–121.

nicpia centetl escritura = tengo una escritura (Tetepango, Hidalgo, 1586)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 266–267.