ENGRAVED
BOOKS — ENTIRELY ENGRAVED!
ENGRAVED
BOOKS — 
The FIRST ENTIRELY ENGRAVED Book
the AMERICAS 
Montes de Oca, José. Vida de San Felipe de Jesus protomartir de Japon y patron de su patria Mexico. Mexico: Montes de Oca ... Calle del. Baustisterio de S. Catalina m.e n.o 3, 1801. 4to (23 cm; 9"). [1] f., 28 [of 30] plts.
Click the interior images for enlargements. 
self-published this, the first entirely engraved book printed in the Americas. In a series of 30 plates with captions he told the biography of St. Philip of Jesus (1572–97), the protomartyr of Japan. 
Montes de Oca's plates are particularly detailed and moving when they show the saint in Japan being abused and tortured, but all are strong and striking.
Uncut.
• Palau 363045. Late 19th-century plain sheep binding. Uncut; lacking two plates and two with minor worming as noted above; all plates well impressed, as would be expected of a work that the artist himself saw through the press! 
A very good copy of a scarce and important work. (25095)
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