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NATIVE
AMERICANA
A-B
Bibles C D-H
I-R
S-Z
“Cupid Befriend Me!”
Ingraham, Joseph Holt. American lounger. Or, tales, sketches, and legends gathered in sundry journeyings by the author of “Lafitte,” &c. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard, 1839. 12mo. [10], 15-41, [5], 59-273 pp.
$25.00

First edition: Miscellaneous comedic and romantic pieces by this popular and prolific author, including
a story about General Washington entering a leaping contest and another involving the love affair between an illegitimate son of Charles I and a young maiden from a Native American tribe in Maine.

BAL 9939; Wright, I, 1257. 19th-century cloth, much faded and worn, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library, spine with paper shelving label. Pages covering “Yankee Aristocracy” story lacking, but text complete for other stories. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, back free endpaper with pocket. Three leaves repaired; some browning and spotting. (4728)

A Human Rights
Appeal/Exposé — American Indian Advocacy
Jackson, Helen Fiske Hunt. A century of dishonor[.] A sketch of the United States government's dealings with some of the Indian tribes. By H. H. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881. 12mo. x, 457, [1 (blank)] pp.; 6 pp. (ads).
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of Mrs. Jackson's indictment of the Indian policy of the U.S. government. She exposes with extensive documentation the government's wrong doings in dealing with Indian nations during the period 1776–1880. Each chapter is devoted to the history of a particular tribe (e.g., the Delaware, Nez Percés, Cherokees, etc.). The chapter before the conclusion surveys “Massacres of Indians by Whites.” A large appendix (pp. 343–57) ends the work.
Jackson grew up in Massachusetts and was a close friend of Emily Dickinson. Her marriage in 1852 to a Captain Hunt ended tragically, for he and their two children were dead by 1865. For health reasons she moved to Colorado and in 1875 married a banker named William Jackson. She developed a keen interest in the plight of the American Indian and secured the extraordinary privilege of doing research in the Americana Department of the Astor Library in New York City during the morning hours before the doors officially opened.
She hoped this work would effect a reversal of government policy and herself purchased sufficient copies to send one to every member of both houses of Congress. She then turned to fiction as another avenue of attack: Her best-known novel, Ramona, was her attempt to produce for American Indians a work that would affect their lot as Uncle Tom's Cabin did the plight of black slaves.
A landmark book.
BAL 10444. Publisher's brown cloth, lettered in gold. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Two small areas of minor discoloration on spine where paper shelving labels removed.
Overall a very nice copy. (26260)
Jetté, Jules. Canotlé Rannaga Kelékak. Délochét Roka. Winnipeg: Free Press no-rodeneletekteyar, 1904. 8vo (14.4 cm, 5.6"). 54 pp.
$475.00

Roman Catholic prayer book for the Ingalik Indians in the Ten’as language (Athabascan), containing prayers, hymns, and a catechism.
The Ingalik inhabited the middle part of the Yukon River Valley, Alaska.
Click the image to the right
for an enlargement.
Cf. Wickersham, 1050, for another title by Jetté with the same imprint. Not in Evans; not in Banks. Original stiff cloth wrappers. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise fine.

Methodist Missionary & Chippewa Chief's HYMNS
in
Chippewa
& English
Jones, Peter, tr. Collection of hymns for the use of native Christians of the Chipeway tongue. [added title-age in Chippewa:] Nahkahmoonun kanahnahkahmoowaudt ekewh ahneshenahpaigk anahmeahchik. Kahahnekahnootahpeungkin owh Kahkewaquonnaby. New York: Printed at the conference office by J. Collord, 1829. 12mo (13.2 cm; 5.125"). [1] f., pp. [1–2], 3, then 37, 37, 38–92 pp.
$775.00
Second edition, and enlarged, of Jones's diglot Indian hymn book, first printed in 1827. The first 37 pages are numbered in duplicate, with 46 hymns in English and Chippewa (a.k.a. Ojibwa, Ojibway, Chippeway) on opposite pages, followed by 78 more hymns in English only. The hymns are without music.
Click the images for enlargements.
Peter Jones (1802–56) was a mixed-blood Missisauga chief and a Methodist missionary at New Credit, Ontario.
Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2024; Pilling, Algonquian, 266; Shoemaker 39161. Not in Sabin; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Indians; not in Boston Athenaeum, Schoolcraft Collection. Contemporary brown calf, modest triple-rule border on covers in blind; rebacked and spine blind-tooled with ruled compartments containing blind-stamped devices. Lower outer corners of both title-pages torn away and paper repairs made, with partial loss of imprint information on each page; old library rubber-stamp to top of English one. Staining, sometimes heavy; chipping of page edges; pp. 39/40 with large semicircular tear with loss of text. Far from a perfect copy, but copies are extremely uncommon in commerce these days. (25853)

His
Surviving Oratory
&
The FIRST
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Printed
in the New World
Juan Bautista, fray. A Jesu Christo S.N. ofrece este sermonario en lengua mexicana ... Primera parte. Mexico: En casa de Diego Lopez Davalos, 1606. 4to (21.5 cm; 8.5"). [26] ff., pp. 1–559, ff. 560–99, pp. 600–39, ff. 640–47, pp. 648–55, 664–709, [1] p., [20 of 24] ff., lacks final 4 leaves.
$27,750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First and only edition of this great linguist's sermons in Nahuatl, the first sermonario published in the 17th-century, and only the second such published collection of oratory in Aztec, with, in addition, the first bibliography printed in the New World!
The first collection of sermons in Nahuatl (i.e., Aztec) appeared in 1577, with no others appearing until Bautista published this volume. The collection has been highly regarded since its publication. In his approbation for publication, the famous Jesuit scholar of Nahuatl Fr. Juan de Tovar wrote of this work (sig. *iiir) that “ . . . es tan buena que no ha salido a luz otra tal . . . pues està su lengua con toda abundancia, y propriedad que se puede dessear. Y la materia muy Catholica, y adequadad a ella, con la election [sic], y erudicion que de tales letras se esperaua” (“ . . . is better than any other similar volume yet published . . . for its language is as varied and proper as one could wish. And the material is very Catholic [i.e., doctrinally correct] and adequate to its purpose, the selection and erudition of the same being all one could hope”).
The author was born in Mexico in 1555, entered the Franciscan Order, held the position of guardian of the monasteries of Texcoco and Tlatelolco, and taught in the famous school for sons of Indian princes (i.e., caciques and principales) in Tlatelolco. It was there that he became fluent in Nahuatl, having studied with Jerónimo de Mendieta, Francisco Gómez, and Miguel de Zarate.
A long unnoticed feature of this book is that it contains the first bibliography published in the New World. On signature **iiii recto and verso is a list of “las obras que hasta agora ha impesso el Auctor” (“the works that until now the author has had published”). The list is not in chronological order nor is it alphabetical by title; nonetheless it is a bibliography and supplies us with information now known only because of its inclusion here. Of the 17 items listed, several have failed to survive in any known copy, including the second part of this sermonario — though at the time of publication of this part one, “de la segunda parte esta ya impresso gran pedaço” (“of the second part a large portion is already printed”).
The volume is enhanced by
half-page woodcuts: here, Christ's portrait profile on the title-page, St. Andrew with his Cross, St. Anne with the Virgin as infant (appearing twice), and St. Anthony of Padua. The text is in roman with side- and shouldernotes in italic type. Printer López Dávalos employs an interesting set of very large (5 x 5 cm; 2" x 2") foliated woodcut initials throughout the volume.
Provenance: 18th-century signature in a few margins of Carlos Perez; late 19th- or early 20th-century bookplate of Nicolás León; in the collection of the John Carter Brown Library (deaccessioned).
Medina, Mexico, 227; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 13; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 342; Viñaza 114; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-21; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 235; Palau 23467; Putick & Simpson 154; Schwaller 11. For biographical information on Bautista, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 104, frames 339–73. Late 19th-century quarter red Mexican sheep with purple and black mottled paper sides. Title- and following leaf with irregular foremargins, loss of blank areas of old repaired; waterstaining in margins of early leaves. Some worming in text costing letters here and there but not impeding sense for the reader. Last four leaves, one bearing an illustration of the Crucifixion, absent (i.e., from the section of Bible citations used in the sermons); last leaves present a bit chipped/gnawed at lower corners and one fore-edge. Old marca de fuego eradicated from top edge; all edges red and corners elegantly rounded. Some 18th-century marginalia in Spanish explicating words and phrases in the Nahuatl text. (26393)
Kane, Elisha Kent. Arctic explorations: The second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, ’54, ’55. Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1856. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., 464 pp.; 1 fold. map. , 11 plts., illus. II: Frontis., add. engr. t.p., 467, [1] pp.; 1 fold. map, 1 map, 7 plts.
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Dr. Kane’s harrowing description of the second
Grinnell Expedition is a classic of literature about the Arctic and a monument
to the sad fate of Sir John Franklin’s ill-starred expedition. The author,
a native of the Philadelphia region and a U.S. naval surgeon, was a member of
the first unsuccessful rescue mission that searched for Franklin, in 1850 and
1851, and he commanded the second, aboard the Advance. His journal provides
accounts of the party’s
interactions
with Native Americans as well as their diet, apparel, observations
of natural history, and dog-handling experiences.
As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards
of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates
executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler,
the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20
altogether, including frontispieces.
Arctic Bibliography 8373; Field, Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, 812; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 159; Sabin 37007. Publisher’s cloth, covers blind-stamped with nautically themed frames surrounding a shipwreck vignette, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with cloth chipped at edges and corners, both vols. with loss of cloth at spine extremities, small area of light discoloration to each spine. Front pastedowns with private collector’s bookplate, front free endpapers with institutional stamp. A few pages of vol. II with light spots of staining; some signatures slightly age-toned.
Special
Type for
the
Micmac
Kauder, Christian. Sapeoig oigatigen tan tetli
gômgoetjoigasigel...manual of prayers, instructions, psalms & hymns in Micmac ideograms.
Ristigouche, Quebec: The Micmac Messenger, 1921. 16mo (18 cm, 7.125"). 456 pp. (pp.i–xii never
bound in).
$300.00
First published in 1866, this manual of prayers and more in Micmac ideograms,
containing a catechism, excerpts from the breviary and missal, and prayers for various occasions,
served the tribe for many years in absence of a priest. It was first printed at Vienna in 1866, and this
new edition reproduces in facsimile the Micmac text of the original, with the addition of a title-page
and section titles in English and French. Fr. Kauder was a Luxembourger priest who worked for 10
years as a missionary among the Micmac in Nova Scotia and eastern Canada.
Click the images for enlargements.
The characters used to print this work were the invention of Father Christian
Leclercq, a 17th-century missionary, and later revised and improved by Abbé
Pierre Maillard. More than 5700 types were cut and cast for the book, and
the characters each represent words rather than sounds.
This may well be the sole work printed in these
characters.
This issue without English language front matter (i.e., pp. i–xii).
Pilling, Algonquian,
p. 275 (ref). Publisher's yellow-brown cloth with simply gilt-lettered spine, to
which one stain and general light soiling; each cover creased vertically from an old bump. All edges
red. Internally clean. (25312)
“Oh,
what terrible sights met my view!”
Kelly, Fanny. Narrative of my captivity among the Sioux
Indians. Hartford, CT: Mutual Publishing Co., 1871. 8vo. Frontis., 285, [1] pp., 11 plts.
$150.00
Born Frances Wiggins in 1845 at Orilla, Canada, Mrs. Kelly was captured by
Ogalala Sioux in 1864 near Little Box Elder Creek in Wyoming en route via the Oregon Trail to
Montana. Her captivity lasted five months. The work also includes “a brief account of General
Sully's Indian expedition in 1864, bearing upon events occurring in my captivity.”
Click the images for enlargements.
A later issue of the first edition, with a different title-page but printed from the same
stereotype plates as the first edition, which was published in Cincinnati in 1871.
Provenance:
“Presented by / D. Johnstone to his / son Washington. / Brantford Setp.
12 '77.”
Howes K62; Newberry Library, Indian Captivities, 170; Graff 2296.
Publisher's blue cloth, salmon endpapers, title in gilt on spine with top and
bottom of spine pulled; blind-stamped image of an Indian within borders on each cover, covers
spotted. Interior clean and with remarkably little foxing; indeed, this appears only (and
minimally) to the frontispiece. (25972)
Lacombe, Albert. Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. [bound with his] Grammaire de la langue des Cris. Montreal: C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo (24 cm, 9.5"). 2 pts. in 1 vol. [7] ff., [v]–xx, 711 (i.e., 709), [3 (1 blank)] pp.; fold. map; [1] f., iii, [1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. chart.
$850.00
First edition of this important linguistic aid. The dictionary is French to Cree and then Cree to French, with the Cree in roman alphabet. The grammar is organized, as one must expect, along the traditional Latin paradigm. Father Lacombe was a member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and served as chaplain to workers laying track for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
Click the images for enlargements.
Several bibliographies, including Pilling's Proof-sheets and Ayer, treat this as two distinct works. Indeed, the dictionary and the grammar do each have their own distinct title-pages, pagination, and signature markings. They were issued together, however, though sometimes separated for sale. The publisher’s original paper wrappers are bound into this volume.
Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 283; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-93 & Cree-9; Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2155 & 2156. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Wrappers (bound in) dust-soiled and with edge chips; front wrapper partially adhered to half-title and back wrapper with Grammaire half-title affixed. Map partially adhered to an additional half-title. Page edges untrimmed; pages very slightly age-toned, else clean. Pagination jumps from 708 to 711 in pt. 1, but as the word listing goes from sagamité to sagamo it seems certain that the text is complete.
Lacombe's
Grammar
of
This
“Beautiful”
Language
Lacombe, Albert. Grammaire de la langue des
Cris. Montréal: C.-O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1874. 8vo. [1] f., iii,
[1 (blank)], 190 pp.; fold. table.
$975.00
First edition of the Rev. Lacombe's Cree grammar, a language whose
grammatical structure has favorably impressed more than one investigator. Archdeacon
Hunter in an 1875 lecture stated that he was extremely "impressed with the beauty,
order, and precision of the language used by the Indians around us. . . . If
a Council of Grammarians, assembled from among the most eminent in all nations,
had after years of labour propounded a new scheme of language, they could scarcely
have elaborated a system more regular, beautiful, and symmetrical. . . . "
Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer
Collection, Cree-95; Pilling, Algonquian, 283; Pilling, Proof-Sheets
of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 2156;
Banks 36. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection. Modern maroon cloth with
black spine and corners. Very good copy.

Notebook of the
First Lawyer in Boston — The 19th-Century Reissue
Lechford, Thomas. Plain dealing or news from New England. Boston: J.K. Wiggin and Wm. Parsons Lunt, 1867. 4to (cm). xl, 160, [2], 203–11, [1 (blank)] pp. (text complete despite pagination).
$175.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
19th-century reissue of an important 17th-century journal covering
politics, religion, and aspects of daily life
both
English and Indian in colonial New England, here with an
introduction and notes by J. Hammond Trumbull, and a facsimile of the original
London, 1642 title-page. Lechford emigrated to Boston in 1638 and became the
first practicing lawyer in what is now the U.S.
285 copies were printed; this is no. 180. The publication was dedicated
to collector (“and careful reader”) George Brinley, Esq.
Sabin 39642. Recent black moiré cloth,
spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Several pages (including title-page)
with faint shadows of institutional rubber-stamps, mostly effaced. Many signatures
unopened; two index leaves with tears in upper margins from clumsy opening.
Pagination shifts between text and index. (23906)

The
Road
to Heaven in
Nahuatl
León, Martín de. Camino del cielo en lengua mexicana, con todos los requisitos necessarios para conseguir este fin, co[n] todo lo que un Xp[r]iano deue creer, saber, y obrar, desde el punto que tiene uso de razon, hasta que muere. En Mexico: En la Emprenta de Diego Lopez Davalos, 1611. Small 4to (18.5 cm; 7.25"). Fols. 10–11, 13–69, 69[!]–73, [nothing missing] 76, 75, 77–108, 110–23.
$7250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole colonial-era edition and one rare in commerce of Fr. Martín de León's famous work for priests ministering to Nahuatl-speaking Indians. Fray Martín is universally held to have been one of the great scholars of the language in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, admired for his fluency and ability to explain complex matters in elegant yet easy to understand expositions, as here in his confessionary, catechism, and calendar essay.
Tragedy struck this copy, which lacks the title-leaf, licences, dedication, preliminaries concerning use of the word “Teotlacatl,” prologue, the remarks on the Mexican language, the first nine leaves of the catechism in Nahuatl, and fols. 109 and 124–60. Surviving is most of the catechism, the section in Spanish on the syncretism of the Spanish and the Mexican religious calendars, and all but the last half page of the confessionary in Nahuatl, the missing paragraph supplied in early, neat manuscript — the book's sad owner redeeming its losses as best he could?
Sabin 40080; Palau 135423; Medina, Mexico, 160; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 37; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2252; Viñaza 127; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 1543; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-136. Disbound but sewn; housed in a quarter red morocco clamshell case with marbled paper sides. Waterstaining throughout causing many pages to have an almost uniform tan appearance except in the foremargins; foremargins with shouldernotes shaved. Missing leaves as itemized above; fols. 30, 80–81, and 110–11 damaged with small loss, and repairs to some of these margins plus a few others; other usually minor scattered stains. The interesting woodcut on fol. 100 verso and text on recto, holed, still striking and readable respectively. Pencilled marks of emphasis and one faded note (or signature?) across a bottom margin in old ink.
Priced much, much less than a good, complete copy; and a relic with much more than its lowered price to recommend it. (25860)
For Books for the BUSTED
BIBLIOPHILE, click here.
“Preparations
for
THE
EXPEDITION were Completed”
Lewis,
Meriwether, & William Clark. History
of the expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clarke, to the sources
of the Missouri, thence across the Rocky Mountains, and down the river Columbia
to the Pacific Ocean: performed during the years 1804, 1805, 1806 by order of
the government of the United States. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1842.
12mo. 2 vols. I: Frontis. map, 371, [1] pp., 2 charts, plt. II: x, [9]–395,
[1] pp., 3 charts.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Originally published in New York, by Bradford and Inskeep, 1814; here issued as
vols. 154 and 155 of the “Harper's Family Library.” In this edition the chapter on natural history
(first edition, vol. II, ch. 7) is transferred to the appendix, wherein the “Estimate of the western
Indians” is given under the heading, “Enumeration of Indian nations and their places of general
residence.” The edition was prepared for the press by Paul Allen and “revised and abridged by
the omission of unimportant details” by Archibald M'Vickar, who also supplied the introduction
and notes.
This
has a folding map, five full-page “charts,” and a lovely plate of
the Falls of the Missouri.
Sabin 40833; Howes L-317. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in
England & America, 1823–50, Mis6. Publisher's brown cloth with nicely gilt-stamped spines; small strip of black tape at top of vol I. Ex–social club library: each volume
with 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other
markings. Rear free endpapers of vol. I lacking; some soil and staining, more to vol. I than
elsewhere, with paper strong and untattered. Both volumes sound; map, charts, and plate very
nice. (26348)

Dictionary & Catechism in OTOMÍ
López Yepes, Joaquín. Catecismo y declaracion de la doctrina cristiana en lengua otomí, con un vocabulario del mismo idioma. Megico [i.e., Mexico]: Impreso en la oficina del ciudadano Alejandro Valdes, 1826. 8vo. 254 pp., [1] f.
$1800.00
Click the interior images above for enlargements.
This catechism is in Spanish and Otomí, the latter being one of the languages spoken by Indians of central Mexico. Added to it are the Otomí alphabet and rules for reading that language, which are reprinted with a few changes from Guadalupe Ramirez's Breve compendio (1785).
More than 150 pages of this work comprise an Otomí/Spanish vocabulary. Included at the end are instructions for teaching the catechism to Indians.
Viñaza 420; García Icazbalceta, Apuntes, 40; Sabin 106013; Palau 142256; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2316. Not in Newberry Library, Ayer Collection. Stitched in original wrapper; wrappers tattered, torn with some loss, and partly darkened; same for the front free endpaper and fly-leaf. Some dog-earing, and some leaves (including title) with some marginal soiling, but really, a worthwhile copy. (25558)
Loskiel,
Georg Henrich. Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Brüder unter
den Indianern in Nordamerika. Barby: Zu finden in den Brüdergemein, &
Leipzig: Paul Gotthelf Kummer, 1789. 8vo (19.3 cm, 7.6"). [8] ff., 783, [1] pp.
$1200.00

Important history of the early years of Moravian Church
mission
work targeting Native Americans in New York, Pennsylvania,
Ohio, and surrounding regions; Sabin refers to this account as the “best
authority, both as to tradition and facts” on the Moravian efforts in
the region from 1735 through 1787. Before recounting the mission's history,
the author describes the customs, languages, and beliefs of various tribes,
along with the flora and fauna prevalent in their territories. A great deal
of Loskiel's information is taken from the accounts of Bishop Augustus Gottlieb
Spangenberg and David Zeisberger, the latter having served for over 40 years
as a missionary in North America.
This first edition does not include the map found in the later English translation;
the six lines of errata (rather than a full page) at the back mark the present
copy as an example of the first issue.
Howes, U.S.iana, L474; Pilling, Algonquian, 317;
Sabin 42109; Vail 795. Early 19th-century German paper-covered boards, much
worn and abraded, slightly cocked, spine with remnants of paper shelving label.
Some corners dog-eared; scattered small spots of foxing, otherwise internally
clean.
Micmac
Catechism With
Illustrations
Maillard, Antoine Simon. Le catechisme Micmac.
Ristigouche, P.Q. [Quebec]: Freres mineurs capucins, [1921]. 12mo. 128, 32 pp.; illus.
$75.00

Click
the images for enlargement.
Reprint of this Catholic catechism written almost entirely in Micmac (with occasional
captions in French), begun in 1759 by Abbé Maillard and finished in 1900 by Père Pacifique. It is
illustrated with many pretty in-text engravings.
Up to p. 112, this issue is a reprint of the second edition (with the title-page labeled Deuxième edition,
giving a date of 1913), after which comes a section entitled “Alasotmaganel” (rather than the “Gis Oen
Melgitimg” of the actual 1913 printing). The closing section, “Gtapegiemgeoel,” is the same in both
printings. The publisher's binding gives the date of 1921 on the front cover!
Publisher's quarter cloth with printed paper-covered sides; cloth and paper showing
light wear. Some offsetting and paper punctured around binding staples, otherwise a nice, even fresh
copy. (12614)
Mathevet, Jean-Claude. Ka titc Jezos Tebeniminang Ondaje Aking Enansinaikatek Masinaigan Ki Ojitogoban Kaiat Pejik Kanactageng Daje Mekatewikonaietc J. Cl.
Mathevet Enawindibanen. Vie de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ par J. Cl. Mathevet, Ancien missionnaire du Lac des Deux-Montagnes. Deuxième édition, revue avec soin. Montréal: J.M. Valois, Libraire-Éditeur, 1892.
12mo (15.7 cm, 6.2"). xi, 384 pp.
$400.00

The biographical notice on p. vii reads (in translation): “Jean-Claude Mathevet, born at St-Martin-de-Valamas, diocese of Viviers, in 1717, entered the Congregation of Saint-Sulpice when he was still very young. Having shown his superiors a great desire to work for the missions, he was sent to Canada in 1740. From that period until 1778 he was a missionary with the Indians of Lake of Two Mountains, where he rapidly learned the language, especially that of the Algonquians, of which he left a number of writings, which for the most part remained in Manuscript. Among his printed works the Histoire Sainte and his Life of Jesus [above] stand out. They were successively printed for the first time in 1860 and 1861.”
Cf. Banks, 147; cf. Pilling, Algonquian, 345, for first (1861) ed. Not in Evans. Publisher’s cloth, with binder's title “Vie de Jésus en Algonquin”; cloth a bit wrinkled over spine and showing slight rubbing over corners, with signs of a now-absent shelf label on spine. Pages age-toned and a bit brittle as of the era, with sewing starting to loosen for some signatures. Back free endpaper with portion of upper margin torn and affixed to back pastedown.

WONDERFUL
Culs-de-Lampe by
Villavicencio
& Navarro
& a
Headpiece
by Nava
Mexico
(ecclesiastical province). 1st & 2nd Concilia (1555, 1565).
Concilios provinciales primero, y segundo, celebrados en la muy noble,
y muy leal Ciudad de México, presidiendo el Illmo. y Rmo. Señor
D. Fr. Alonso de Montúfar, en los años de 1555, y 1565. En México:
En la Imprenta de el Superior Gobierno, de el Br. D. Joseph Antonio de Hogal,
1769. Folio (27 cm; 10.5"). [10], 34, [2], 35–38, 41–184, [2], 185–396,
[12] pp.
$2500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Second edition, following the first of 1555 of the acts of the
first Mexican concilium, and the first printing of the acts of the second Mexican
concilium.
This text is from the press of José Hogal,
who is often called the Baskerville of Mexico.
This edition begins with a handsome title-page in black and red with an allegorical copper
engraving by Mexican artist and engraver Manuel Villavicencio depicting the Church ministering
to the native Americans. The typography is clean with generous white space that accents the
crisp roman and italic of the text. One large engraved headpiece from another great Mexican
artist and engraver — Alonso Nava — appears on p. 1, and on that same page there is a gorgeous
engraved initial A that is signed in the plate by Villavicencio, this being one of the very few
signed engraved initials we have seen in our more than 40 years working with colonial Mexican
books. On pp. 367, 375, and 396 there are culs-de-lampe by (respectively) Manuel Villavicencio,
José Navarro, and Manuel Villavicencio. They incorporate Mexican scenery (coast near
Cozumel, a rural village) and motifs (alligators, eagle and serpent, “hieroglyphs,” and pyramids.
On the verso of the last leaf is a final engraving by Villavicencio, dated 1768, of a sleepy cherub
holding a skull. This same engraving was used as a cul-de-lampe below the last line of the
prologue (p. 37).
The first and second Mexican Concilia were called by Archbishop Moya de Contreras
to codify the principles of religious teaching, especially among the Indians,
matters of canon law, resolving problems relating to confession, addressing
issues relating to slaves and free blacks, and
most
curiously prohibiting Indians from owning collections of sermon and Bibles.
The force behind this edition was archbishop Francisco Antonio Lorenzana
(1722–1804), a patron of Hogal's press and of the arts, who soon after
assuming the archbishopric of Mexico in 1766 saw the need for a concilium.
In preparation for it he paid Hogal to publish or republish, as was the case,
the acts of the first three provincial councils of Mexico, held respectively
in 1555, 1565, and 1585; these appeared in 1769 and 1770. In 1771 he himself
held the fourth Mexican provincial synod; ironically, those acts were not
published until 1898.
Medina, Mexico, 5299; Palau 142387; Sabin 42063.
Recent Spanish sheep mottled in the Valenciana style. Occasional light waterstain
in some upper margins, never in text. Paper crisp and printing very sharp.
A
very good copy. (26797)
Indians
Pay Half
Mexico (Viceroyalty). Royal Audiencia. [drop-title] Aranzel de el tassador, y repartidor, y porteros de la Real Audiencia, y Sala del Crimen de esta Corte. [colophon: Reimpresso en Mexico: Impr. de la Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1759]. Folio. 6 pp.
$275.00

These rules govern permissible fees that the named court employees may collect, with Indians of all classes to pay half of what is collected from Spaniards. Medina indicates that this is part of Fernando Dávila's Aranzeles de los tribunales, juzgados, y oficinas de justicia, gobierno y real hacienda: But in fact, Dávila is a "brought together" compilation of numerous aranceles, printed by different Mexico City printing houses, with an added title-page. The individual aranceles were separately printed; have individual signature marks, pagination, and often colophons; and were undoubtedly sold as discrete works.
Medina, Mexico, 4536. In recent wrappers; irregular along inner margins. (10743)
MEXICO being one of PRB&M's specialties, we offer a
great many books and broadsides relating to the Indians of what is now that country.
To see an
array, click here and browse!
“Muy
Rara”
Neve
y Molina, Luis de. Reglas de orthographia,
diccionario, y arte del idioma othomi. Mexico: Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1767. Small
8vo (14.5 cm, 5.75". [12] ff., 160 pp., engr. leaf of errata (frontis. supplied
in facsimile).
$1250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Otomí is one of the principal languages spoken in Central
Mexico, and this work, more than any other, standardized its orthography; it
is also the classic Otomí grammar and dictionary, and is by a man some
authorities believe to have been himself an Otomí Indian, or at least
of Otomí heritage. It was written during the mid-18th-century renaissance
of linguistic study of the languages of Mexico, and Palau considers it “muy
rara.”
Medina, Mexico, 5174; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas,
55; Viñaza 356; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., II, 2154; Sabin 52413; Palau
190159. Original limp vellum, cockled and a little shrunken, upper
front edge chipped, original ties partially surviving. Ex-AAS with its attractive
bookplate (properly deaccessioned); private ownership stamp on title-page
and one other. Lacks the very rare engraved frontispiece; a facsimile reproduction
was inserted some time ago and is now loose. Text block separating from spine.
Title-leaf torn, taking a bit of border, and next leaf same with first letters
of three lines on verso taken; errata plate opposite p. 12 shaved at fore-edge,
with loss to line (not page) references. A bit of thread-like worming, without
text destruction, towards end. Overall clean.
Not a pristine, but certainly a good copy of an
important and scarce book. (2154)

Nahuatl Instruction Manual — A Nahuatl Sermon on
the Virgin of Guadalupe
Paredes, Ignacio de. Promptuario manual mexicano. Mexico: Impr. de la Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1759. Small 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). [22] ff., 378 (of 380), 90 pp., lacks the engr. frontis., and one text leaf.
$1800.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this renowned work in Nahuatl and Spanish by the century's greatest student of the Aztec language. Produced by one of Mexico's best 18th-century presses, it is composed of 46 moral discussions and 6 sermons in Nahuatl meant to explain points of Catholic theology.
At the end, in Nahuatl, is a sermon on the Virgin of Guadalupe incorporating the history of Her apparition.
The detailed title-page and beautiful full-page woodcut coat of arms are present. The printer has also employed various handsome woodcut head- and tailpieces at different points in the text.
Provenance: Bookplate of Nicolás León; later in the collection of the John Carter Brown Library (now deaccessioned).
Viñaza 344; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 57; Medina, Mexico, 4568; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2082; Sabin 58575; De Backer-Sommervogel, VI, 211–12; Burrus & Grajales 206; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2892. 19th-century half blue morocco, plain style, with marbled paper on covers; binding lightly scuffed. Lacks the engraved frontispiece and pp. 199–200. Scattered worming, severe in one section and repaired to avoid tearing, this chiefly costing only some words here and there, not impairing a reader's ability to understand. Title-page lightly soiled and with areas of brown staining at edges shared with other early leaves; very light old waterstaining variously elsewhere, with pages otherwise clean. There are some minute interlinear and marginal notes in the “Platica Quarta; que trata, y explica,; Quien sea Dios?” and a very small number of other words appear in manuscript elsewhere. (26398)
For Books for the BUSTED
BIBLIOPHILE, click here.

Romance in the Wilds of
Kentucky
Paulding, James Kirke. Westward ho! A tale. New
York: J. & J. Harper, 1832. 12mo (18.4 cm, 7.25"). 2 vols. I: 203, [1] pp. II: 196, [8 (adv.)] pp.
$200.00
First edition of this best-selling novel set on the Kentucky frontier. Among the
characters are an uprooted Virginia family and their slaves, a lone Native American hunter, a
would-be newspaperman, and a young man susceptible to madness.
Click the images for enlargements.
Part of the “Harper's library of select novels” series, the work appears here with vol. I in
the second printing (vol. II had only one printing); the binding is BAL's state A, with the front
cover of vol. II incorrectly marked “No. XXV.”
American Imprints 14120;
Wright, I, 2024; BAL 15715. Publisher's green cloth, covers and spines
stamped in black; corners bumped, spots of discoloration, spines sunned (and a little bubbled)
with extremities rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on
endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped. No other markings; endpapers foxed and pages with
intermittent moderate spotting. (26533)

The Land & Indian Problems
Pimentel, Francisco. Memoria sobre las causas que han originado la situacion actual de la raza indígena de México, y medios de remediarla. Mexico: Impr. de Andrade y Escalante, 1864. 8vo. 241, [1] pp., [1] f. [with the same author's] La economía política aplicada a la propiedad territorial en México. México: Imprenta de Ignacio Cumplido, 1866. 8vo. 265, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f.
$600.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Pimentel, the conde de Heras, essays two of Mexico's greatest problems of the 19th century: the condition and treatment of its indigenous populations and land tenure.
Memoria: Palau 226014. Economía política: Palau 220615. Contemporary quarter red morocco,
gilt spine extra, silk placemarker. Very good condition. (23064)

WORLD MYTHOLOGY — 8 Vols. & Thousands of Entries
Pozzoli, Giovanni; Felice Romani; Antonio Peracchi, et al. Dizionario storico-mitologico di tutti i popoli del mondo. Livorno: Stamperia Vignozzi, 1824–28. 8 vols. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). I: 580 pp. II: 581–1163, [1] pp. (pp. 1057–64 repeated in place of pp. 1065–72). III: [1165]–1708 pp. (pagination 1551–52 repeated, 1687–88 skipped). IV: [1709]–2342 pp. V: 2351–3086 pp. (pagination skips 2519–26). VI: 3087–3855 pp. (pagination skips 3407–08). VII: 576 pp. VIII: 577–1074 pp.
$2500.00
Click the middle and right hand-images for enlargements.
Second edition of this classic dictionary of comparative mythology,
a hefty collection of the deities, heroes, tales, festivals, antiquities, and
other folklore of numerous cultures and countries including Mexico, Peru,
America,
Africa, India, Japan, China, etc, along with Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquities.
The foundation of the work was François Noel's Dictionnaire de la
Fable; copious additions and corrections were made by Pozzoli, Romani (the
famed poet, scholar, and librettist for La Scala), and Peracchi (another librettist).
The resulting encyclopedic endeavor was originally published from 1809–27
under the title Dizionario d'ogni mitologia e antichità incominciato,
according to Graesse and Brunet, who both give Pozzoli's first name as Girolamo.
This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries.
The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not
present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans
grav.”
The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap
from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are
uninterrupted.
Uncommon:
OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.
Provenance:
Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin:
“G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79),
fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.
Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin. Contemporary
half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper
labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover
waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate;
light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with
lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each
side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates
of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with
ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal
annotation. (25862)
Prescott, William H. History of the conquest of Peru, with a preliminary view of the civilization of the Incas. New York: Harper & Bros., 1847. 8vo (24.3 cm, 9.55"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., xl, [1], 527, [1] pp.; 1 map. II: Frontis., xix, [1], 547, [1] pp.; 1 plt.
$300.00
First U.S. edition, first issue of a classic account of the clash of empires in Peru and the destruction of that of the Inca. Prescott’s follow-up to his well received History of the Conquest of Mexico appears here in BAL’s state B, without printer’s imprint on verso of title-leaf of vol. I (with no precedence established).
BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

Catholic Catechism in Aztec — First Edition — Excellent Provenance
Ripalda, Gerónimo. Catecismo mexicano. Mexico: Impr. de la Bibliotheca Mexicana, 1758. 16mo. [17] ff., 170 pp., [1] f.
$3500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The first edition of Father Ignacio de Paredes's translation of Father Ripalda's Spanish-language catechism into Nahuatl. Both men were Jesuits, but in different centuries and on different continents: Ripalda was born in Spain in 1535 and died in 1618, never having left Europe; Paredes was born in Mexico in 1703 and died there the year this book was published, hailed as one of the most important Nahuatl scholars of the period.
Beristain describes Paredes as being “outstanding in the Mexican language.” His volume was intended for use by missionaries, by parish priests, and by Indians: Indeed, there is a prologue intended to persuade Indians in particular to read and learn this catechism.
The volume is illustrated with woodcut arms on verso of second title-page and many woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout. This copy retains Ortuño engraved frontispiece (often
missing) of St. Francis.
Provenance: Henry Ward Poole ownership signature in minute pencil on rear free endpaper, dated Mexico 1879; old paper auction label at top of spine with lot number; private ownership stamp and bookplate of John Carter Brown; later in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence; deaccessioned.
Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 56; Viñaza 341; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2286; Palau 269110; Medina, Mexico, 4500; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 210–211; Sabin 71488; Leclerc 2334; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2891. 19th-century Mexican acid-stained calf, gilt roll of a rope design on boards; gilt spine extra; spine label defective and missing much leather. Title-pages closely cropped at foremargin not costing any letters; small piece torn from the frontispiece. Light to moderate waterstaining and light wear. A rather decent copy of a decidedly important work. (26388)
Roman Catholic Church. Liturgy and Ritual. Mohawk. Tsiatak Nihono8entsiake onk8e on8e Akoiatonsera... le Livre des Sept Nations ou Paroissien Iroquois, auquel on a ajouté, pour l'usage de la mission du Lac des Deux-Montagnes, quelques cantiques en langue Algonquine. Tiohtiake [Montréal]: John Lovell, 1865. 12mo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). [6], [6 (blank leaves with decorative borders)] ff., 460 pp.
[SOLD]

First edition; translated by J. A. Cuoq. The volume contains a Mohawk processional, hymns, prayers, etc., with some music (e.g., for “Maria Mater Gratiae” and “Tharonhiakanerekeha”).
Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.
Provenance: Inscribed in 1891 to W.D. Lighthall, prominent citizen of and author of Hochelagans and Mohawks: A Link in Iroquois History, by George S. Wilson.
TPL 9325; Banks, 109; Pilling, Iroquian, 50; Calderisi, 16. Contemporary roan, rebacked; abrasions along edges. Half-title with short tear at binding and with pencilled inscription as above. Tear at foremargin of one blank leaf; pp. 274–75 with small area of adhesion.
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