CHIVALRY / HERALDRY   

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He Survived “La Noche Triste” & Much, Much More
   THE CONQUEROR'S REWARD  

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•  Pedro de Villanueva was one of the conquistadores of Mexico.  He was among Cortés's original party, part of the Francisco de Saucedo (also spelled “Salcedo”) contingent, whose ship was delayed in leaving Cuba.  With Saucedo, a friend of Cortés, he arrived at Villarica de Veracruz in July of 1519, shortly after Cortés and his men had destroyed the “idols” at Cempoala.

Villanueva was among the small but grand “army” that marched into Tenochtitlán in the Spring of 1520 and in July of the same year were to flee the western world's largest city fighting for their lives, on the “Noche Triste.”  He survived the hell and slaughter of the causeways and later returned with the greatly augmented force that destroyed the Aztec capital and its empire. Still later he was with Cortés in the exploration and conquest of Pánuco and following that with Nuño de Guzmán in the exploration and conquest of Zacatecas and Jalisco. He and his brother Fernando (also a member of the Saucedo contingent) jointly received an encomienda (Quechula) and settled in Puebla de los Angeles where Pedro served as a regidor on the town council in the 1540s and 1550s.

In the last years of the 1550s Villanueva petitioned the crown for the grant of a coat of arms in recognition of his service to the crown in the conquest of Mexico.  Felipe II honored that request in this impressive document.  He enumerates the Conqueror's deeds, specifically mentioning Don Hernando Cortés and Nuño de Guzmán and the various conquests in which Villanueva participated.  He describes the coat of arms being granted and the significance of the colors and symbols.  The granted arms are beautifully accomplished in many colors within the text of the document, with that text yielding space to the large miniature: Measuring 17.5 x 15 cm (7" x 6"), the arms are painted with a formal frame delimiting their presentation on a red field with corner brackets of gold over blue.  Surmounting the arms is a knight's helm with plumage, trailing from which are decorative “swooshes.”  The new Villanueva arms are quartered, showing a cyphered “M” surmounted by a fleur de lis in the upper left, a crowned lion en passant in the upper right, an arm holding a sword rising out of a flowing river in the lower left, and a castle on a hill in the lower right.

The text of the grant of arms is elegantly indited in a standard court semi-round gothic in sepia ink and is enclosed on the left, right, and top sides by an illuminated and historiated sash-like border.  In the upper left and right corners are miniatures of Justice and Knowledge in sylvan settings.  Running between those two along the top of the document is a decorative panel incorporating flowers, fruits, mythic animals, and cherubs.  Below this, the king's name is accomplished in large letters of gold on a field of red accented with gold, and the “D” of his honorific “Don” is given special treatment.  This is elaborated in an ornate, almost baroque style that comes close to obfuscating the fact of its being a majuscule “d”:  Wrought in gold, the letter at first appears to be merely a “frame” for the royal coat of arms that fills its center.  The king's arms are accomplished in gold, white, black, red, and blue; the whole being laid on a blue field with white accents.

The panels running down the left and right sides of the document are accomplished in red, gold, green, pink, white, red, blue, and brown, many in several shades.  The decoration includes birds of several varieties including a fine owl, animals including a watchful rabbit, strawberries and other fruits, and flowers, ribbons, grotesques, and butterflies.




The document is signed in the king's name by Juana (Joanna Habsburg) de Austria, “princesa de Portugal.”  Married to Prince Juan of Portugal, young Juana (b. 1537) was the regent of the Spanish crown from 1554 until her brother Philip's return to Spain in September of 1559. She had just lost her husband to death and borne his posthumous son, both in January, 1554, when she left Portugal and her child in the Spring of that year to assume the regency throne in Valladolid.



In format and content this document differs dramatically from the cartas executorias de hidalguía that most collectors are familiar with.  Here we have a single large sheet of vellum handsomely engrossed, artfully illuminated, and exquisitely decorated with a composite border containing miniatures.  This is not a bound volume of copies of documents created for storage in the family archive. This was created for display in a prominent place of honor; and it is a magnificent display item.  This is not a grant of nobility nor a confirmation of it based on something that some vague ancestor did; rather it is a grant of a coat of arms to a man who himself performed significant military and other service for the Crown and whom the Crown wishes to honor both publicly and privately.  Only a few hundred of Cortés's men survived the Noche Triste, the reentry into and destruction of Mexico City, and the subsequent conquests in Panuco and elsewhere.  The number of grants such as this to actual members of Cortés's original “army” were few.

And surviving grants to those actual participants in the Conquest are extremely rare, even more so in commerce. This is the only royal grant of a coat of arms to an actual member of Cortés's “army” that we have seen that has ever appeared in the marketplace.  Via published auction records and our extensive archive of dealer catalogues, we trace no instance before this one of the offering for sale of a grant of arms to a Conqueror of Mexico.  Yes, there are examples in various libraries and museums in Mexico and Spain, and probably in the U.S., but such examples seem to have entered their institutional resting places via donation from descendants of Conquerors, not via purchase.

Provenance:  It is awesome to realize that this is no mere retained secretarial copy of Felipe's grant of arms to Pedro de Villanueva.  This gorgeous document not only records the king's rewards to one of Cortés's men, but was that Conqueror's personal property.  It is the copy of the decree sent to him expressly, by the Crown!



•  On Villanueva, see: Icaza, Diccionario autobiográfico de conquistadores y pobladores de la Nueva España, I, 88–89; Thomas, Who's Who of the Conquistadors, 146; Himmerich y Valencia, The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521–1555, 262; Díaz del Castillo, Verdadera historia de la conquista de la Nueva España, chap. LIII. On Juana de Austria, see: the work of Dr. Kelli Ringhofer.  Overall in very good condition.  Some fold tears, some minor rubbing of small areas of images, stains as visible in our illustrations.  The wax seal and its silk cords no longer present. Text clear, not faded, and colors strong.

To review the pictures of this document more systematically than
“mousing over” the image at our description's top may allow:

Early Illustrated Effort at a DICTIONARY for the Masses

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•  Second, expanded and revised edition of this enormously popular dictionary, following the first of 1730. The DNB says, “Bailey's English dictionaries gave a new prominence to etymology and to lexical comprehensiveness, including dialect terms, scientific terms, common words, and even vulgar ones; they also (in the second octavo volume and in the folios) made the first extensive use of pictorial illustration.” Dr. Johnson owned a copy of this edition, and annotated it extensively prior to compiling his own dictionary.

The title-page is printed in red and black; a full-page plate shows an orrery (for which word there is an unusually long entry) from multiple perspectives, while many of the in-text woodcuts are depictions of heraldic terms, or mathematical and scientific concepts. Etymological information is provided in “Antient British, Teutonick, Dutch Low and High, Old Saxon, German, Danish, Swedish, Norman and Modern French, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, &c. each in its proper Character” (from the title-page). Our photographic detail, third image from left, above, highlights the (endearing!) ambition and achievement of this large volume.

•  ESTC T87976; O'Neill B-5; Vancil 12. On Bailey, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets, rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; sides acid-pitted and scraped. 19th-century endpapers. Title-page with old-fashioned, round institutional pressure-stamp; light soil and old inkblots (also light!) in upper portion. Pages a little browned right at edges; light or faint waterstaining visible in first third of volume, usually to lower margin only; one leaf with tear from outer margin just touching text, without loss; one lower outer corner torn away, with loss of one letter from catchword. A sound, pleasant copy of this handsome and interesting production.  (25002)

Nouveau Dictionnaire — CHIVALRY

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•  Handy illustrated dictionary. The illustrations are in-text wood engravings. The date on the wrappers is 1892; on the title-page, 1891. UNCUT and mostly unopened exemplar.

•  Original printed wrappers; dusty, with chipping, and front one now separated. Paper lost at top of spine along front joint. The whole, fragile and wanting to separate between signatures. (Our interior image tends a bit to pink tone that is not actually present, FYI.) Now housed in a simple acid-free phase box.

Knights of the Round Table & Others

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•  First edition of this history of knightly and military religious orders. Chapter VIII (i.e., pp. 41–42) is devoted to the Knights of the Round Table. The title-page is printed in black and red, and the work is illustrated with numerous in-text wood engravings of the medals of the various orders, two of which have been hand-colored and three partially colored.

•  Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra; binding sprung, leather starting to peel back from rubbed corners and edges, back cover cracked with crack extending into foot of spine and spine lacking title-label, leather chipped at spine extremities. Front free endpaper lacking; title-page verso with early inked presentation inscription in French. Many leaves with light to moderate waterstaining in margins, extending into text in some cases. Not at all so sad a case as detailing of faults suggests; price reduced, for the faults, nonetheless.  (24390)

Noble Orders — American Ones Included Here

•  Offering in encyclopedic form the history of chivalric orders of Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the Americas, this volume describes, among others, American orders such as the Society of the Cincinnati (U.S.), Ordem de Cristo (Brazil), Ordem de Aviz (Brazil), Ordem do Cruzeiro (Brazil), Orden de la Cruz de Honor (Guatemala), Légion d'Honneur (Haiti), Ordre de Sainte-Anne (Haiti), Orden de los Libertadores (Venezuela), Orden Nacional (Nicaragua), and Orden de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Mexico).

•  Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXème, I, 772. Uncut, mostly unopened copy. Publisher's wrappers, printed in black and red; front one off, with expectable chipping and with soiling. Some pages lightly spotted; mostly, clean. Now housed in a simple acid-free phase-box. (14356)

Ancient DaysFORWARD

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•  First edition of this sought-after history of Normandy. Preliminary leaves include a dedication; publication statement; a sonnet, epigrams, and an ode to the history of Normandy; “Discours de la Normandie” (35 pp.); “De l'ancienne Normandie” (35–56 pp.); and a genealogy of the Dukes of Normandy. Rear matter includes an index (22 ff.) and a list (52 pp.) of the Lords of Normandy and other French provinces who took part in the conquest of Jerusalem under Robert Courte-heuze, Duke of Normandy, and Godefroy du Buillon, Duke of Lorraine.

An early owner has mounted on the title-page an armorial plate bearing an image of the two leopards of Normandy on a shield superimposed by a crown, the whole flanked by attendants holding long branches (palms? laurels?) in one hand and the shield in the other.

Handsomely decorated with engraved initials and tailpieces.

•  Brunet 24296.   Recent deep walnut full calf old style, by Grace Bindings (signed in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in); round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title-label, blind fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in double blind fillets. Ex–Mercantile Library of Philadelphia with stamps, mostly faint, including to title-page; title-page re-margined along top and inner edge with an interior hole filled also (no words affected). Title-page with early inked ownership initials; a few other instances of early inked notations within text. Some leaves chipped, others mildly to moderately waterstained; we have chosen to show pages bearing more waterstains rather than fewer. Armorial device mounted to title-page, as noted; we cannot be sure what this covers, but it is elegant!  (21215)

“Rank Confusion” — That’s a Joke!

•  First edition of these entertaining, historically informed meditations on the quirks and peculiarities of heraldic issues such as the niceties of the usage of “Lady” before and after marriage, the symbolism and history of wigs, and the nature of academic titles. A whole chapter is dedicated to Quakers, who reject all worldly titles.
Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

Though Nares is quite capable of picking nits with a level of scrupulousness to match that of the most pedantic of scholars, he is also prone to flights of fancy such as pondering—after noting that a married woman’s moveable goods are unquestionably the property of her husband— “whether the female tongue is to be reckoned among the moveables . . . I believe it is pretty generally held to continue ‘in potestate Mulieris,’ even after marriage, and I know nothing to prevent it” (p. 148). This is followed up with references to Ovid, the Wife of Bath, and the much-storied Flitch of Bacon!

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped helm decorations and gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels (the volume labels recently supplied, in sympathetic style). Board edges showing light to moderate wear, with leather cracking at joints and crackled over the spines generally. Top edges gilt. Front pastedowns with bookplates now partially torn away; title-page of vol. II with an early inked ownership inscription in the upper margin. Delightful reading, as well as an overall attractive set.

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Virtuous EMBLEMS — Engraved Title-Pageafter RUBENS

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•  Second edition, following the Plantin printing of 1634 (under the title De Symbolis Heroicis) with the addition of new preliminary material. Pietrasanta (or Petra Sancta), a Jesuit priest, here explicates a wide variety of “heroic” emblems and allegorical images. The copper-engraved title-page was done by Cornelis Galle after Peter Paul Rubens, and the volume is illustrated with264 in-text copper engravings. One emblem features a telescope aimed at the sun, with the heading “Non ideo maculor”; Pietrasanta's anti-Galilean explanation is that any flaws to be perceived in the character of a virtuous prince are as imaginary as the illusory sunspots created by optical vibrations.

Pietrasanta was the confessor of Cardinal Pier Luigi Carafa — hence the preliminary section of this book dedicated to the lineage and armory of the Carafa family. He was also an accomplished heraldic scholar credited with promoting (if not indeed originating) the modern hatching method in heraldry.

•  Sterling Maxwell Collection SM1427; Landwehr, Emblem & Fable Books (3rd ed.), 634; Held, Rubens & the Book, 142; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 740–41.   Recent quarter morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. Fore-edge and title-page with early inked numerals of different generations; age-toning with occasional dust-soiling or the odd stain/spot; one leaf with tear from outer margin, not approaching text. Preliminary portrait of Cardinal Carafa, only, lacking; engraved title-page trimmed to (NOT into) plate at top; all emblems and other embellishments present and lovely. Two illustrations with English translations of mottos pencilled in margins.  (26098)

Society History

•  At its founding, The Society or Order of the Cincinnati was composed of the regular army officers who had fought at some length and in specific prominent theaters for American independence, equality, and freedom; future members were to be drawn from among their sons only. By the time that the Society published its second constitution, the Order had changed its membership rules to admit militia and other officers and then their heirs—diluting its elite nature though not renouncing it.

This publication demonstrates that change among many others, as it traces the Society via its own documents from its founding at the "Cantonment of the American Army, on Hudson's River, 10th May, 1783," through the incorporation of the Pennsylvania branch, to the death of Gen. Washington. Included here are the by-laws of the Pennsylvania chapter.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1339. Sewn, as issued. Front wrapper missing, rear wrapper present. A few spots of waterstaining. Uncut copy. New protective paper corset provided and the whole housed in a cloth clam shell case with a leather spine label lettered in gilt. A very good copy.

And 463 Years ofSWEDISH Chivalry!

•  Covering the period from 1285 to 1748, this does not illustrate medals of office but extensively lists members. Rare, with NUC Pre-1956 showing copies at the Library of Congress and Yale only, and OCLC not adding any others!

•  Original stiff green wrappers with paper spine label. A very nice copy.

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