NEW & OLD WORLD 
HISPANICA — Una miscelánea

In SOME Cultures, OnlyBAD Women HIDE Their FACES

•  Scarce royal proclamation forbidding women from appearing in public wearing hats that prevent their faces from being plainly seen and recognized, also printed in Granada in the same year.
Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Palau 87353 (for Granada printing). Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with shadow of pencilled numeral and faintly inked earlier numeral in upper margin. Pages creased but clean, with tiny hole along fold of last leaf.

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Watch Your Mouth!

•  Proclamation regarding swearing and blasphemy, with the woodcut arms of Spain on the title-page. Swearing using the Lord’s name is only allowed for legal matters, including appearances in court or before the Inquisition, and the making of contracts. Scarce. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in Palau. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with shadow of pencilled numeral and faintly inked earlier numeral in upper margin. Pages creased but clean.

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Encouraging Local Industry

•  Finds that local manufacture of linen and textiles is beneficial and removes restrictions on it; the "locality" is Vich, near Barcelona. The title-page has a nifty woodcut of the royal arms. Originally printed in Madrid. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Modern half vellum over burgundy cloth sides. Contemporary inked notation at top right corner of title-page. Very good. (21056)

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Troublesome Soldiers to FaceCriminal Courts

Spain.

•  Mexico City printing of the royal decree of 31 August 1799 in which the crown declares null and void the use of the fuero militar in cases of mutiny, attempted mutiny, and rebellion. He orders that all such cases fall under the jurisdiction of the audiencias and not the military courts.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in González de Cossío, Cien; not in not in González de Cossío, 510.   Removed from a nonce volume. Left margin irregular.  (25824)

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Educational & Career Rights for
    Blacks in the Spanish Empire

•  First New World printing of a major human rights act.  The decree granting all Spanish subjects of African heritage the right to an education through the university and post-graduate level and the right to take orders and habits in the clergy. Click the image to the right
for an enlargement.

While Ferdinand VII remained the prisoner of Napoleon, the Regency promulgated several important human rights acts, and this was one of the most important. The Regency ratified and published it 29 January and on 31 January it was ordered distributed throughout the empire.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Sutro. One horizontal fold, top margin a little crumpled and irregular; left margin with a V-shaped bit of blank margin missing at fold, otherwise only a little irregular. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

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Freedom of the Press in the Spanish Empire

Spain.

•  First New World printing of the 12 November 1810 human rights act granting freedom of the press to the inhabitants of the Spanish empire. This 20-article decree does set a few limits on the freedom, but none that are onerous, simply making one liable for slander, sedition, and the like. While Ferdinand VII remained the prisoner of Napoleon, the Regency promulgated several important human rights acts; the Regency ratified and published this one 10 November 1810, but Viceroy Venegas delayed publishing it because of the Hidalgo and other rebellions.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1612. Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Sutro. One horizontal fold; right margin a little crumpled. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

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The KEYSTONE of Hispanic-American Colonial Law
A VeryHANDSOME Edition

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Handsome mid-19th century edition of the first comprehensive compilation of the laws of the Spanish Indies. Antonio Rodríguez de León Pinello compiled it by 1635, but it circulated only in manuscript until Fernando Jiménez de Paniagua brought it up to date and saw the result through the press in 1681. Prior to the publication of this massive work, it was common practice for lawyers and courts in the various legal districts of the New World (i.e., audiencias) to compile in manuscript the laws in force in order that they might be used as precedents. Upon publication of this code, the number of precedents did not (as might have been expected) decrease via "regularization" but instead increased: The courts continued to accept the cases and laws on point in the old local manuscript compilations and also those contained in the Recopilación!

In sum, this is a major work for all collections of international and Hispanic-specific law. The first edition is very uncommon in today's marketplace, meaning most scholars and collectors must settle for a later edition, such as this fifth—which has the happy advantage of being handsomely printed in double-column format. This copy is attractively bound, as well.

•  Palau 137466; Sabin 68390. Victorian acid-stained sheep with gilt spines extra. Marbled edges. Tape adhered to one title-page at inner margin. Ownershjp signatures on title-page. A nice set.

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Abolition of theTOBACCO Monopoly

Spain.

•  The first printing of the 31-clause decree abolishing the Crown's tobacco monopoly, creating free trade in the commodity "in both [the Old and New] worlds," scrapping the old tax structure and instituting a new one, and addressing what is to be done with the government employees in the Tobacco Branch.

•  Not in Palau (?); not in Maggs, Bibl. Amer.; not in Harper, Catalogue XVI. Excised from a volume and leaves no longer integral, but now rehinged. Light stain in inner margin. Rubber-stamped numbers in upper margins. Manuscript notes indicating that this copy was sent to authorities in Chile. Now housed in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides. A nice copy of an important economic document.

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MEXICANSILVER  MINING

Spain.

•  Royal decrees relating to mining in New Spain: discovery of new mines, operation of old ones, training of workers and royal officials, duties of experts, introduction of new technology, role of the Tribunal de la Minería and the requirements (including purity of blood) for appointment to it, and many more aspects of this important economic activity.

Carefully compiled and indexed by José de Galvez, this work is here printed for the first time. Sabin calls it a "rare and valuable compendium of the old mining laws and mineral customs."

Galvez was a special commissioner charged with making reforms in the governing of Mexico; his work greatly influenced the 1786 replacement of the Mexican provinces with 12 intendencias. The 18th century saw a rebirth of the Mexican and the Peruvian silver industry as new technologies and techniques were introduced. Concomitant with the increased production was increased wealth for the mine owners and the crown.

A tall copy, regular copies being only 31 cm tall.

•  Palau 251937; Sabin 56260; Medina, BHA, 5040. Contemporary acid-stained sheep with gilt spine, red leather spine label; marbled endpapers. Two ownership marks removed from title-page with resultant repairs. Without the full-page engraving of the royal coat of arms. Old damp-staining to lower inner corners, generally faint; withal a very crisp, clean copy.

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Bound forPresentation by Queen Isabella

Spain. 

•  Complete budgetary accounting for the year 1850, issued by the Spanish government, printed by a woman printer of Madrid, and here in an early example of the work of noted Madrid binder Ginesta.

Binding: Signed presentation binding by Miguel Ginesta II of Madrid, of oxblood straight-grain morocco, covers framed in double gilt fillets surrounding gilt-stamped arabesques and the gilt-stamped coat of arms of Queen Isabella II of Spain; spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesques. Board edges and turn-ins gilt-stamped, pink moiré endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance: Infante Duc de Montpensier (sixth son of King Louis Philippe), husband of the Infanta Maria Louisa (Queen Isabella’s sister), with his bookplate.

•  Palau 236716. Binding as described above, covers showing only very minor wear, spine slightly faded. Front pastedown with bookplate described above. Pages gently age-toned, a few showing mild foxing but most clean. Very attractive.

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Law in thePeninsula 

•  A very good research collection. While its temporal limits cover more than a century, in reality more than 90% of the pleadings are dated between 1610 and 1640; the cases to which the pleadings relate come from many, many regions of Spain and involve individuals of varying economic and social classes, as well as towns and cities of divergent sizes and political clout. The judicial questions involved are diverse: rights to woodcutting, water, pasturage, passage, and citizenship; enforcement of judicial sentences; judicial jurisdiction; vassalage; official responsibility; corruption; taxation; contraband goods; dowries; executor responsibilities; and the thorny question of ownership of priestly benefices when the endowment-holder has married with papal permission and continues as a priest.

Typically, pleadings such as these were printed to the minimal standards of "job printing," but most present here have interesting woodcut initials, some historiated, and among them they are decorated with an interesting array of type-ornaments; eight are begun with a good-size woodcut or engraving of the Virgin, the Virgin and Child, or the Crucifixion, typically unsigned. Usually there is no indication of where the item was printed, and dates must be inferred from the contents or from the watermark of the paper.

Such Spanish documents as these are rare in non-Spanish libraries.

•    All documents are removed from bound volumes, but, unless otherwise noted, are still sewn. They are in good, usable condition, and are unfoxed, with exceptions to these rules noted in the complete listing of the collection—available upon request.

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He’s Back . . .

•  An anonymous patriotic poem/song (without music), printed in double-column format, celebrating the return of Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain. An interesting and rare example of this sort of Spanish poetry: Not in NUC Pre-1956.

•  Not in Palau. Modern marbled boards with cordovan-colored gilt morocco title-label on front cover. A very good copy.

Satirical Political Poetry

•  The political turmoil of Spain in the poetical form of a romance. References to Felipe V and to Lord Stanhope in Madrid.

•  Palau 308809 and 308810 (same work with different attributed dates; that of 1750 clearly erroneous). Disbound, with pen-trials and some worming in gutter margin.

Colonial Support for theRoyal Retreat — MS. Accounting, 1781–85

(Subsidies for the Escorial).

•  Certified copy of a document relating to the 13,200 ducats annually due the monks of the monastery of the Escorial in Spain, promised them in perpetuity by King Philip IV in 1654. In exchange for this annual subsidy of proceeds from encomiendas in Huaylas, Chuquitanta, Conchucas, and other regions in Peru, the monks promised to say masses and to do certain other religious acts for the crown. This document contains specific and detailed accounting data for the years 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1785.

•  Sewn, in good condition.

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Royal Wills — A Manuscript Compendium
From the Gavito Collection

Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  This fine manuscript comes from the collection of the great 20th-century Mexican bibliophile Florencio Gavito and bears his bookplate on the front pastedown. It is a compilation of manuscript copies, dating in our estimation from the early part of the 18th century, of the last wills and testaments, and codicils, of the kings and queens who ruled Castile, beginning with Don Pedro, El Justiciero, and finishing with Dona María Luisa de Borbón. Given that the kings and queens represented here all died before the War of the Spanish Succession, it is reasonable to suppose that the manuscript was compiled during or very shortly after that war. The absence of the new Borbón rulers seems significant, to us, in the dating of the MS.


The volume was written on a single paper stock but by a (small) number of copyists. It bears an unidentified marca de fuego in the lower margins which usually indicates a religious library's ownership, increasing the possibility that the manuscript originated in the scriptorium of one of the orders. The purpose for compiling the documents is unclear, but since the various orders were in almost continuous litigation, and would often invoke the memory and spirit of a past monarch, a compendium such as this would have been extremely useful—especially when operating in opposition to the new, foreign monarchs, who, with their French ways of doing things, were to be challenged and "educated."

Provenance: Gavito collection; marca de fuego as above and below.

•  Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges; recased and new endpapers applied. Clean, crisp, unwormed text. Marca de fuego reading "CDS" within a rectangular braided border.


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A French ECONOMICSPY

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The economic importance of cochineal during the preindustrial era is difficult for the modern reader to comprehend, especially since so many of us have no idea what cochineal is. It is a tiny insect that lives on cacti, most particularly the nopal, and from it is extracted the red dye carmine. During Mexico's colonial period, when Mexico had a near monoply of the commodity, it was that country's second most important export, losing out to only silver.

Thiéry de Menonville was an economic spy and his visit to Mexico had one and only one purpose: To learn how to make cochinea. So he learned about the insect, its host plant (the nopal), and the care and nurturing of both; then he smuggled cuttings of the cactus with the insect in residence to Haiti.

His work details not only his trip to Oaxaca to find the plant and bug but also the proven methods of caring for the host and insect. Two handsome, hand-colored folding plates show the cactus in flower and several views of the color-producing creepy-crawly.

•  Wellcome, Medical Americana, H.56; Blake, 18th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, p. 449; Pritzel 9214; Leclerc 1413; Brunet 6048; Sabin 95349; Palau 331673.   Modern quarter claret-colored morocco, round spine with gilt beading on bands and gilt rules defining the bands; gilt center devices in spine compartments. Natural paper flaws to lower outer corners of five leaves; tear on pp. 113–14, repaired; pp. 241–301 with worm damage, now repaired, and with irregular inner margins with paper loss, repaired and leaves tipped in. Corners in some sections bumped/crumpled; some soiling/spotting (not to the plates); in fact, a decent copy of an increasingly difficult to find important economic treatise.  (26023)

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The Lost Andrade Copy? — Dedicating a School for Girls

•  The charming parochial church in Tlaxcala was where Dr. Torres preached this sermon on the occasion of the dedication of the new building of the “Colegio de Niñas,” i.e., a secondary school for girls. The tie-in to St. Rita is that she was herself the patron of a school for girls.

In his sermon, Torres discusses the need for and goodness that comes from schools for girls. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes in italic, and contains two woodcut initials.

Rare: Medina knew of this only from the Andrade copy. WorldCat finds no copies, nor does COPAC; no copy was found via the OPACs of the Spanish National Library and the Mexican National Library. We must wonder if this IS the Andrade copy that was seen by Medina.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1260; Andrade 763.   Modern full red morocco, gilt extra on covers and spine; gilt roll of a chain design on the turn-ins. Partial, unidentified marca de fuego on top and bottom edges. A two-digit number in ink in margin of title-page; an old waterstain curving across the bottom outside page corners, light in front and heavier towards the back. In a neat cloth slipcase.  (25764)

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MORE War News . . .

•  Account of battles against the French, with the Spanish forces led by Don Diego Messia, Marquis of Leganes and governor of Milan.
Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Almirante, Bibliografía militar de España, 694; Palau 339184. Removed from a nonce volume; creased, with pages slightly age-toned.

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Preached in Morelia, Printed in Puebla

•  First published work of this author. Our sermonizer was the guardian of the convent of St. Bonaventure in Valladolid, now Morelia, and it was in that city in western Mexico that he gave voice to this sermon on the feast day of St. Peter of Alcantara (1499–1562). The work had to be printed in Puebla (or Mexico City) for Valladolid did not have a printing press until the 19th century. Click the images for enlargements.

This is printed in roman and italic type, the title-page with a double border of printer's ornaments. Adorning the dedication leaf is a woodcut of the coat of arms of the bishop of Valladolid. The text has three large woodcut initials and side- and shouldernotes.

In the U.S., we locate only the copy at the John Carter Brown Library.

•  Medina, Puebla, 204; Beristain, III, 199.   Removed from a nonce volume; closely trimmed at top, affecting some page numbers, type borders, and the word “approbacion” at the top of that leaf. Brown stains variably, as from spilled sacramental oil.  (26395)

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Survey ofLand Holdings

Ulloa Troche y Sesse, Diego.

•  Gracián and Angelina de Sesse and Sancha de Casasola established an entail (i.e., mayorazgo) and in 1731 Diego Ulloa Troche y Sesse held it. In this series of documents he sets out to get an account, via survey, of all the lands in the estate. In the end, it develops that there are 58 pieces of land in and around Olmedo.

Don Diego styles himself “señor de la Villa de la Ventosa,” and a citizen of Olmedo.

•  Bound in limp vellum. Written in a very clear hand. Very good condition.

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Unique Bifolium: AnUnrecorded Example of Early Printing
      from GUATEMALA

Urbis, & Orbis.

•  All 17th-century, and even 18th-century, printing from Guatemala is extremely rare, and the decree in hand is unrecorded.
Our image above shows clearly that we have in hand an intact bifolium, i.e., two copies, as printed, on an uncut half sheet—one on the recto (at right, in the image, showing through the paper), and one on the verso (at the left)—the two never having been separated.

Guatemala was the fourth Latin American city to have a printing press (after Mexico, Lima, and Puebla de los Angeles); the press was brought at the instigation of the bishop of Guatemala, Payo Enríquez de Ribera, who wished to have a work of his own published. In reply to the bishop's appeal for a printer, José Pineda Ibarra arrived at Antigua in 1660. He had worked as an assistant to several printers in Mexico, but according to Medina did not have his own press; when Payo de Ribera's representative found him, he had moved to Puebla, but was apparently not doing well there. (Medina does not list him as a printer in Puebla—presumably he was again working for others.) The bishop apparently paid for the press that was taken to Guatemala, and Pineda Ibarra later purchased it from him. Torre Revello (quoted in Furlong) remarks that despite the dearth of materials, Pineda Ibarra managed to print exceedingly well: "Ningún tipógrafo de los que le sucedieron, durante el periodo colonial, logró superar la pulchritud y elegancia de sus trabajos." This example shows not only several sizes of type, but a woodcut of a papal tiara, at the top of the edict, flanked by typographical ornaments; a line of typographical ornament also appears on either side of the date of the edict, near the bottom of the page.

The various religious orders in Guatemala had promised to make it worth the while of a printer to come, by giving him commissions. Judging from the list of over 30 works Pineda Ibarra printed before 1673—eulogies, sermons, constitutions, regulations, descriptions of religious festivities—the orders fulfilled their promise; his major productions, however, were Bishop de Ribera's Explicatio apologetica nonnullarum propositionum . . . , 1663, and Diego Saenz Ovecuri's La Thomasiada, 1667. Also a bookseller and binder, Pineda Ibarra died in 1679. He was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.

The text in hand, a papal edict of 23 July 1672, changes the office for St. Peter Nolasco used by Mercedarians from semiduplex to duplex, at the request of the Queen of France. The Orden Real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redemción de Cautivos, was already established in Guatemala (cf. Medina, Guatemala, 38), and probably paid Pineda Ibarra to print this work.

•  Not in Medina, Guatemala; on the printer, see: Medina's introduction, pp. xviii–xx. Not in Valenzuela, Imprenta en Guatemala; O'Ryan, Bib. Guatemalteca; NUC; BMC. See, however, Oswald, p. 539; Furlong, Orígenes, p. 91; and Woodbridge and Thompson, Printing in Colonial Spanish America, pp. 81–84.

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Avoiding aU.S. Navy Energy Crisis (1860)

U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Naval Affairs.

•  Steam-powered naval vessels of the 19th-century needed coal and lots of it. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy sought to obtain a reliable and abundant supply for the Pacific and Caribbean fleets through a contract with the Chiriqui Improvement Company of Nueva Granada; coal from the Chiriqui region of what is now Panama was to be extracted and transported for the navy's use to two ports, one on the Caribbean coast and one on the Pacific. Present here are the majority and minority reports of the House Committee on Naval Affairs. They are detailed and informative and include three highly important maps of the Chiriqui region.

•  Very Good condition, in recent wrappers.

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TO Part XV

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