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NEW & OLD
WORLD 
HISPANICA Una miscelánea
A B Ca-Cb Cc-Cz D-Fe Ff-G H-J K-L
Ma-Mew Mex-Mz N-O P-R Sa-So Sp-U V-Z
Valdés, Rodrigo de. Poema heroyco hispano-latino panegyrico de la fundacion, y grandezas de la muy noble, y leal ciudad de Lima. Obra postuma. Madrid: En la Imprenta de Antonio Roman, 1687. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). §4–§§§§§§§4 a–g4 A–Z4 Aa4; [56] ff., 184 pp,
[4] ff.
$2875.00
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for an enlargement.
In this epic poem, Valdés (1609–82), a Peruvian-born Jesuit, tells in 572 quatrains of the founding, growth, and grandeur of the city of Lima. The poem is divided in “arguments” and the text is accompanied by extensive sidenotes of a comparative and explanatory nature. Included as part of the forematter is a life of Valdés by Father Francisco del Quadro (leaves a–g4). In addition to his calling to the priesthood, Valdés felt strong attractions to history and poetry; he acted on all three impulsions.
The poem was left unpublished at the time of the author’s death and Francisco Garabito de León Messía saw to its publication.
Palau 347681; Medina, BHA, 1806; European Americana 687/140; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 376–77. Recased in old vellum. A very good copy.
Vallejo, Fernando de. Pregon en que su magestad manda, que por quanto el abuso de las guedejas y copetes con que andan algunos hombres, y los rizos con que componen el cabello ha llegado à hazer escandalo en estos reynos, ningun hombre pueda traer guedejas ni copete. Madrid: En la imprenta de Francisco Martinez, 1639. Folio (28.2 cm, 11.1"). [4] ff.
$750.00
Proclamation regarding acceptable and unacceptable hairdressing
practices for men — in particular, the scandalously long hairdos or wigs
worn by fashionable beaux.
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the image for an enlargement.
Palau 236209. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages creased, with
small areas of light waterstaining to upper and lower inner margins; title-page
with early inked numeral and shadow of pencilled numeral in upper margin.
Vallejo, Fernando de. Pregon en que su magestad manda, que ninguna muger de qualquier estado y calidad que sea pueda traer, ni traiga guardainfante, ò otro instrumento, ò trage semehante, excepto las mugeres que con licencia de las justicias publicamente son malas de sus personas. Madrid: En la imprenta de Francisco Martinez, 1639. Folio (28.2 cm, 11.1"). [4] ff.
$750.00


Declaration forbidding farthingales (the “guardainfante” was so-called because it could be used to conceal pregnancy) and excessive displays of decolletage by women except for prostitutes and ladies with special licenses.
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Palau 236212. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small early inked numeral and shadow of pencilled numeral in upper margin; publication authorization leaf with small hole just touching letters, without loss of sense.

Famous, Devoutly Catholic; BUT He still Ran afoul
of
the INQUISITION
Valtanás, Domingo de (a.k.a. Baltanas, Baltanas Mexia, Baltanas Messia ). Exposicion de los evangelios con sermones desde primero domingo de adviento hasta el domingo. xxv. despues de la Trinidad ... co[n] anotaciones morales dignas de saber. Sevilla: en casa de Martin de Montesdoca, 1558. 4to (21cm; 8.25"). [3], 186, [8], lxxv folios (lacking Initial blank and fol.lxx).
[SOLD]
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“Multifaceted” would inadequately characterize the Dominican Domingo de Valtanás Mexia, the author/compiler of this work of sermons whose purpose was to explicate the Gospels. Valtanás (1488–1567) wrote more than a dozen books of religion and history, helped found monasteries, was a defender of the Jesuit Order, wrote on the importance of the Spanish language as an element of the expansion of the Spanish overseas empire, and late in life was arrested and tried by the Inquisition for his doctrinal writings.
The theology that entangled him in the net of the Inquisition was his leaning toward Illuminism, a belief system that in the 1520s came into conflict with the orthodoxy of the Inquisition and that later many found to be related to the teaching of Ignatius of Loyola in his Spiritual Exercises, a work that the Inquisition placed on the Index in 1559, just about the same time that Valtanás was having his troubles with the Holy Office.
The Exposicion de los evangelios con sermones begins with a visually complex title-page printed in black and red and featuring
a large woodcut of the Crucifixion, which in this copy has the wounds of Christ additionally touched in a penman's red; and it then proceeds to present 57 sermons, each centered on a moral state or quality (laziness, adversity, sin, patience, charity, love), a doctrinal topic (the trinity, confession, the Passion of Christ, prayer, false prophets, forgiveness of sins), or some aspect of the Gospels. Each sermon is printed in roman type with sidenotes in gothic and begins with two readings, one from one of the four Gospels and the other from another part of the Bible. The work continues with the “Segunda parte de la exposicion de los eva[n]gelios de sanctos en particular, y del comun, con sermones sacados de diversos autores catholicos,” which has its own sectional title-page, signatures, and foliation. It has a four-element woodcut border and
a small woodcut of the Annunciation.
All of Valtanás’s writings are scarce. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates only 9 titles (one catalogued under Baltanas) as held by Spanish libraries and one of those titles is not for a true work but rather for the just mentioned “Segunda parte.” The OPAC of the Spanish National Library shows one additional title not found via the CCPB.
This title is not traced via WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, or the OPAC of the Spanish National Library.
Palau 349174 (giving incorrect date of publication, as per Nicolás Antonio, and saying it is printed in gothic type when it is in roman). Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel., although one book is listed there under “Baltanas.” Late 17th- or early 18th-century dark Spanish sheep, gilt spine extra and with a red leather gilt label. Light to occasionally moderate waterstaining, mostly in margins, variously occurring throughout the volume; lacking an initial blank leaf and one text leaf (i.e., lxx) in the “Segunda parte.”
A darned good copy of a very rare book. (26174)
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A
Viceroy Who
Was the
Son
of a Viceroy,
& Good
Viceroys They Were
Velasco, Luis de; marqués de Salinas (viceroy of New Spain). Document Signed (“Don Luis de V[ela]sco”), in Spanish, on paper. Mexico: 7 July 1590. Folio (30 cm; 11.875"). [1] p.
[SOLD]
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Don Luis was the eighth viceroy of New Spain and the son of the second (also Luis de Velasco). He was one of the best of the 16th century and counted among his achievements the pacification of the Chichimec tribes.
In this manuscript he grants Maria Verdugo three caballerías of land in “el monte del pueblo de Quaguacan [sic, for Cuahuacan], terminos de Tlalnepantla.” The specific location is given as are the names of the property-holders bordering her grant.
Paper uniformly age-toned; mounted on a later, larger sheet of laid paper. Some chipping at the edges of the document with loss of a few letters. Written in a very clear notarial hand in black ink. Signature unaffected and bold. (24527)
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An Archbishop's Entail
Venero y Leyva, Carlos. Documents (some signed), in Spanish, on paper. Toledo, Spain: 16 May 1642. Folio (31.5 cm; 12.35"). [38] pp.
$225.00


Jeronimo de Venero y Leyva, the archbishop of Monreal, in the kingdom of Sicily, established an entailed estate in 1626, dying in 1628. The first family member to succeed to the entail was Carlos Venero y Leyva, a priest in Toledo. This
substantial cahier deals with the terms of the entail, succession to it, its restrictions, and its endowment; all as specifically relating to Don Carlos and the situation in 1642.
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Bound in a vellum wrapper handsomely indited on the front with two abstracts of the contents, writen in a fine modified gothic script. The documents' texts are written on paper in a hurried notarial hand, sometimes a little difficult to decipher.
A clean, attractive manuscript. (26980)
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Venezuela. Junta Suprema Gubernativa. Broadside, begins: “Americanos. El orden politico del otro hemisferio ha reducido la España á ser victima de la perfidio y ooresion y este pueblo generoso conducido de uno en otro infortunio va ya á ser borrado del catalogo de las naciones ... ” [Caracas: Gallagher y Lamb, 1811]. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). 1 p.
$8500.00
July 5, 1811, is Venezuela’s official independence day, there having been a full year of wrangling and temporary measures following the deposing of the viceroy in 1810 and the establishment of a caretaker government that used terms such as “independent” and “independence.” But the formal break with Spain came in the early Summer of 1811.
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This document dates from immediately after July 5th, as internal evidence shows. Here the Junta Suprema explains what it sees to be the political reality of Spain’s dissolution into non-nationhood under Napoleon and thereby justifies “Venezuela [having] entered now, Americanos, into the number of free nations of the Americas.”
Very Rare. This broadside was unknown to Medina. Grases located only the copies in the Public Record Office (London) and the Archivo de Indias (Seville). Searches of NUC, OCLC, and RLIN fail to find any copy at all. Further, no copies were found when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, France, and England.
Not in Medina, Caracas; not in Villasana. Grases, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela, Repertorio #72. As issued. Worming in foremargin; repaired. Pencilling in margins. A very good copy.

Venezuela
& Ecuador Combative
Venezuela. Legación. Ecuador. [cover-title] Legacion venezolana en el Ecuador. [drop-title] Documentos relativos a la mision del honorable Señor Coronel Andres Maria Alvarez, encargado de negocios de Venezuela cerca del gobierno del Ecuador. [Quito?, ca. 1858]. Tall 4to. 24 pp.
$250.00


The government of Venezuela demands of the government of Ecuador the complete and unconditional restitution to Gen. Juan José Flores and his family of all the property that Ecuador sequestered and confiscated by executive order on 7 December 1846 and 17 September 1847. Venezuela claims Gen. Flores as a citizen by birth and Ecuador refuses to recognize that citizenship, saying Flores was a general in the Ecuadorian army when the confiscation and sequestration occurred. The publication is entirely composed of documents relating to this question.
In modern wrappers, preserving the original front printed wrapper.
Uncommon
Spanish-Language
Edition
Vertot, René Aubert
de. Historia de las revoluciones de Portugal, escrita en Frances...y traducida
en lengua Castellana. Primera edicion. Leon de Francia: Hermanos De Ville, 1747.
12mo (17.2 cm, 6.75"). vii, [1], 372, [14 (index)] pp.
$500.00


First Spanish edition of this important Portuguese history by the
Abbé de Vertot, focusing on the 1640 revolution in which the "Spanish
captivity" was ended and the house of Braganza brought to power. Jefferson's
library contained a copy in the original French, and, following its first printing
in that language in 1689, the work was translated into a number of other tongues,
with the present Spanish rendition being now significantly less common than
most others.
Provenance:
With the armorial bookplate of D. Feliciano Ramirez de Arellano, Marqués
de la Fuensanta del Valle, and bookseller's ticket from a Lisboa dealer.
Palau 361040. Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with
gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing only light wear; joints and
board edges rubbed, leather lost over spine head and cracking over foot, spine
also with small traces of paper label. Hinges slightly tender.
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Vetancurt, Agustín de. Arte de lengva mexicana.... Mexico: Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio, 1673. Small 4to. π4A–P4 (-π2,3); [4 (of 6)], 49 [i.e. 50], [8] ff.
$12,500.00

In the 17th century, the study of Nahuatl (commonly called Aztec) reached a pinnacle, springing from the herculean, fruitful efforts of 16th-century Franciscan scholars and the perspicacious, intuitive understanding of the early-17th-century Jesuit linguist, Father Carochi. Later in the century another major figure was to appear: Agustín de Vetancurt (1633–1700), a distinguished Franciscan scholar and writer, the author of the Teatro mexicano, and vicar of the chapel of San José de los Naturales in the Franciscan monastery in Mexico City, in which latter role he perfected his understanding of Nahuatl.
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At the end of this highly important and extremely rare grammar are found a comprehensive index, a short catechism, and instructions on the commandments and the sacraments of the Catholic Church, being
all in Nahuatl. Part One of the text expresses Vetancurt's important insight that Nebrija's classical, early-16th-century paradigm for the study of European languages, specifically Latin and Spanish, had its shortcomings when applied to the major New World language under scrutiny—though in the end he resigns himself to using that five-part organization, which was the one most familiar to his readers.
We note that virtually all bibliographies have failed to state that leaf E1 is misfolioed as 14 (it should be 15 and the error is not corrected subsequently), and that leaf H4 is misfolioed as 19 (that error not affecting the subsequent numbering).
Provenance: Marca de fuego of an unidentified Mexican conventual library.
Viñaza 204 (failing to note error in foliation, as do all bibliographies except Graff); Medina, Mexico, 1103; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nahuatl 237; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 80; León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2816; Sabin 99385; Pilling 4002. Graff 4475 (this copy; giving correct collation). On the marcas de fuego, see: Sala, Marcas de fuego, pp. 28 and 39. On Vetancurt, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 118, frames 17–36 and 73–74. Contemporary limp vellum, shrunken and cockled, missing pieces along fore-edge of front cover and at base of spine. Some burn holes at tops of some pages resulting from embers’ straying during the branding of the book. Inner margins with expanded openings and occasional tearing around the sewing stations (i.e., paper has suffered from tight binding). Lacks two preliminary leaves containing approbations. Some foxing; last leaf (only) with foremargin insect-eaten. Text of the grammar complete.
A significant work seldom acquirable.
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Spanish Southwest Mexican Art New World Biography
Vetancurt, Agustín de (a.k.a., Vetancur). Chronica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de Mexico. Quarta parte del Teatro mexicano de successos religiosos. Mexico: por María de Benavides, viuda de Juan de Ribera, 1697. Folio (30 cm; 11.875"). [12], 136, [4], 153, 56 pp.
[SOLD]
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This is part 4, issued separately, of the author's Teatro mexicano: descripción breve de los sucesos exemplares. The Chronica de la provincia del Santo Evangelio gives detailed descriptions of the Franciscan houses and missions in all of New Spain — especially in Mexico City and Puebla, but also in such far-flung areas as New Mexico and California. Henry Raup Wagner, the dean of bibliographers of the Spanish Southwest, labels the Chronica “a prime authority for the history of New Mexico.” Vetancurt further offers a marvelous section on various apparitions of the Virgin across New Spain, each being given a lengthy paragraph with full details. He ends his volume with a menology of Franciscans and a biographical list of the bishops, writers, and other notables who served or lived in New Spain; a number of these figures were martyrs and their stories are recounted.
It must be pointed out, because it is often forgotten, that art historians will find the Chronica to be rich in architectural detail and brimming over with information about art work in 17th-century New Spain churches and convents. Guillermo Tovar de Teresa, the great historian and bibliographer of colonial-era Mexican books containing information on Mexican art, writes of the Chronica, “Para la historia del arte en México durante el Virreinato es capital; su lectura es imprescindible para los estudiosos de la arquitectura de los siglos XVI y XVII.”
Provenance: Augustinian monastic library of Morelia (marca de fuego on upper edge of closed book; on verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand: “pertenece al convento de San Augustin de Valladolid”); private use of Fr. Manuel Aigustin Farias (noted on the verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand, prelim. p. 12, first p. 1); later owned by José Martín de Infanzón (prelim. p. 9).
Medina, Mexico, 1684; Palau 361217; Sabin 99386; Andrade 1073; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, 105; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 68. Early vellum over boards, rebacked; new endpapers and title-page backed for strength. Stray stains and ink markings variously, the latter in margins; minor worming in some lower margins, with waterstaining notable in the final section and a brown stain perhaps of another nature in upper gutter-ward areas of the same section, sometimes into text. Final six leaves with loss of lower outer corner, including some text; paper replaced and text in excellent facsimile. Volume now housed in a quarter blue morocco tray case with gilt spine.
(26824)
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Plan
del Perú , with Considerable
Cuban
Content As Well
Vidaurre [y Encalada], Manuel Lorenzo de. Plan del Perú, defectos del gobierno español antiguo. Necesarias reformas....Contiene al fin...los motivos políticos que obligan á la isla de Cuba á declarar inmediatamente su independencia. Philadelphia: Impr. por Juan Francisco Hurtel, 1823. 8vo. 225, [1 (blank)] pp., [2] ff.
$1250.00
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries Philadelphia was a significant center of émigré activity. First were the French fleeing their Revolution, and they were succeeded by Spaniards and Spanish-Americans who were displaced by the Wars of Independence. Both émigré communities took advantage of the guaranteed freedom of the press in the U.S., and the city's printers issued a considerable number of important political works from the pens of the refugees, written in French or Spanish.
In this work printed in Philadelphia, Vidaurre calls for republican reforms in Peru. This was a major change of political stance for him, for he had loyally served the crown both in his native Peru and, after the commencement of the Wars of Independence, in Spain. His attack on the Spanish political system and call for liberal republican reforms involves passionate denunciation of slavery, and his "renuncia" (pp. 197-225) speaks at length about Cuba's current socio-political conditions and explains why Cuba should follow the lead of the former Spanish colonies of the American mainland.
On the basis of this work, dedicated
to Bolívar, The Liberator
appointed Vidaurre head of the supreme court at Trujillo.
Sabin 99491; Shaw & Shoemaker 14780. On Vidaurre, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 1012, frames 251-256 & 261-262. Modern quarter green morocco and marbled paper sides. Foxing, some staining. Complete with the errata leaf, and solid.
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Villagutierre Sotomayor, Juan de. Historia de la conquista de la provincia de el Itza, reduccion, y progressos de la de el Lacandon, y otras naciones de indios barbaros, de la mediacion de el reyno de Guatimala, a las provincias de Yucatan, en la America septentrional. Madrid: Lucas Antonio de Bedmar y Narvaez, 1701. Folio (28.5 cm; 11.5"). Engr. “frontispiece,” [32] ff., 660 pp., [17] ff.
$28,750.00
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Although the author never set foot in the New World, his high position in the Consejo de Indias and other royal councils gave him access to much important documentation for the writing of this prized history of the conquest of the Izta Maya and the attempted conquest of the Lacandón Indians during the last decades of the 17th century; the conquest of Petén and the misadventures of Roque de Soberanis y Senteno and Martín de Urzúa, two governors of the Yucatán make for very exciting reading.
This is the first published book dedicated solely to the history of the Yucatán and the Maya, here offered in its first edition, first issue (with the incorrect catchword “gla” at the foot of the recto of the 22nd preliminary leaf).

Bedmar y Narvaez printed the title-page in black and red and the text is in double-column format. This copy bears both the engraved “frontispiece” and the black and red title-page, but, as usual, not the very rare colophon.
Although touted as “Primera parte” on the title-page, there were no further parts; this Historia is complete, “all published.”
Palau 366681; Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 2051; Sabin 99643; Leclerc 1546; Salvá 3422; Heredia 3407; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 701/262. On Villagutierre, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 1019, frames 213–16. 19th-century Spanish sheep (“pasta española”), covers abraded and with pinhole-type worming to spine; loss of lower inch of spine leather to insects. Browning to text due to impurities in water during paper manufacture. Small insect damage to margins of first four leaves, not touching any text; similar small damage in inner margins of last four leaves. Over all, a decent copy of a scarce work.
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A Fundamental Work
Handsomely Printed
Villaseñor y Sánchez, José Antonio de. Theatro americano, descripcion general de los reynos y provincias de la Nueva España y sus jurisdicciones. México: En la Imprenta de la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, Impresora del Real y Apostólico Tribunal de la Santa Cruzada en todo este Reyno, 1746–48. 2 vols. in 1 (29.5 cm; 11.5"). I: [9] ff., 232 pp., [2] ff., pp. 233–382, [5] ff., lacks engr. title. II: [6] ff., 428 pp., [5] ff., lacks engr. title.
$7500.00
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The distinguished historian and bibliographer Don Guillermo Tovar de Teresa writes extensively of this work, but here we will quote only a small portion of what he says. “El Teatro Americano es una obra fundamental para todos aquellos estudiosos interesados en formarse una idea de la poblaciones de la Nueva España: su ubicación geográfica — longitud y latitud — con la descripción de los lugares circunvencinos; clima, aguas,y vegetacion; gobierno eclesiástico y civil, familias de indios, españoles y castas, templos y, sobre todo actividades económicas: comercio, ganadería, obrajes, minería, etc.”
Don Guillermo wrote that in his bibliography of works illuminating colonial Mexican art — and these two large volumes also have much to say, not noted above, about architecture, arts, sculpture, etc.!
The volumes are from the famous press of the widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, the Baskerville of Mexico, and they retain all of the fine characteristics that are associated with the Hogal name, including handsome black and red title-pages, great typography (here in double-column format), and use of good quality paper.
The author was general accountant of the Treasury's office of mercury accounting (the element was important in silver refining) and one of the most illustrious Cosmographers of New Spain. He wrote this treatise at the insistence of the viceroy, who was greatly pleased by it.
Sabin 99686; Medina, Mexico, 3802; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, II, 86/87. Recent full dark brown calf, round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules; green and red leather spine labels; gilt center devices. Covers with elaborate gilt roll at edges, concentric center compartments and gilt corner devices. Lacking the engraved title, only. Present are intermittent touches of limited worming and, in vol. II, the occasional old stain to a top margin's edge. This is a clean and indeed
BEAUTIFUL SET. (26378)
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Copiously & Usefully Illustrated
Vindel, Francisco. Solaces bibliográficos. Madrid: Instituto
Nacional del Libro Español, 1942. 12mo. xi, 193 [1] pp., illus.
$110.00
Short bibliographical essays on such topics as Spanish-language printing in Italy in the 16th century, Spanish books on chess and on women in the 15th through the 17th centuries, and the Ibarra press.
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This copy with an authorial inscription to a recipient whose name has been gently, but entirely, obliterated!
Good quality red cloth, original wrappers bound in; grey spine label. Very good copy. (21546)
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The ENDURING LAWS of the
VISIGOTHS
Visigoths. Laws, statutes, etc. Fuero juzgo en latín y castellano, cotejado con los más antiguos y preciosos códices por la Real Academia Española. Madrid: Por Ibarra, 1815. Folio (34.2 cm, 13.5"). [7] ff., pp. [iii], ivliv, [2] ff., X, 162 pp., [2] ff., XVI, 231, [1] pp.
$750.00
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The best pre-20th century edition: Edited by scholars of the Spanish Royal Academy. The Fuero juzgo (in Latin, Forum judicum) is, basically, the customary law of the Visigoths of Spain that existed and was maintained outside of and in parallel with the Leges romanæ, the Fuero juzgo being the code to which German-origin Spaniards were liable and the Leges romanæ that to which inhabitants of pre-Visigothic origin had to answer. The Visigoths achieved the code in written form during the high middle ages.
As a social and historical document of medieval Spain, the Fuero juzgo is of outstanding importance, but its significance does not stop there, for the code continued unrepealed into the 19th century and, indeed, was an important element in the formation of the legal status of the Indians of America under the Spanish rule. The verso of the seventh unnumbered leaf at the beginning of this edition has an engraved facsimile of a page from the Codex murcianus of the Fuero juzgo.
Palau 95528. Original printed wrappers with a little tattering and a small chip from the base of the spine. Light waterstaining in the outside margins of some leaves and title-page with some staining in the inside margin, not affecting printed area. In fact, in very good condition.

Men
of Cajamarca —
TWO
EYEWITNESS
Accounts of Events
Xerez, Francisco de. Libro primo de la Conqvista del Perv & prouincia del Cuzco de le Indie occidentali. [colophon: Vinegia {i.e., Venice}: Stampato per Stephano da Sabio, 1535]. 4to. [62] ff.
$45,000.00
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As one of the “Men of Cajamarca,” Francisco de Xerez holds a very special place among writers on the earliest period of Spanish contact with the Inca of Peru: He was there from day one, a member of the very small band of men who left Panama with Pizarro and Almagro to seek fame and fortune in South America. At Cajamarca he participated in the taking of the Inca leader Atahuallpa, the slaughter of his army, and the sharing of the ransom demanded of the Inca nation for the return of their leader. By training a notary public and practiced writer, he was by choice Pizarro's secretary/confidant, the two having been close since at least 1524, when they met in Panama; and when in 1534 he returned to Spain, he took with him his share of the wealth of Atahualpa, a broken leg, and a tale to tell that was significant, stirring, and in fact tellable by no other man. He conceived of his book as being at once a socially and politically useful celebration of Pizarro's deeds and his own, a celebration of the glory of Spain as that was expressing itself in a remote and wondrous New World, and as a
true
entertainment cast in the tradition of the romance of chivalry;
not surprisingly, it was a blockbuster.
Xerez's eyewitness account of the conquest of Peru was originally published
in Spain in 1534 in Spanish as the Verdadera relación de la conquista
del Peru y Provincia del Cuzco llamada la Nueva Castilla. Demand for news
of the new, “exotic” kingdom of Peru, which had only been conquered
in 1532, was found to be keen not only in Spain but all across Europe, leading
to this rapid translation into Italian.
Appended to Xerez's account (fols. [43v] to [55r]) is a translation of Miguel
de Estete's account of Pizarro's army's journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac
and then to Jauja. Estete too was present at Cajamarca and is said to have
been the first Spaniard to lay hands on Atahuallpa.
Both of these first translations into Italian are from the pen of Domingo de
Gaztelu (secretary of Don Lope de Soria, Charles V's ambassador to Venice) and
are taken from the second edition of the Spanish-language original. The text
is printed in roman type and has a large heraldic woodcut device on the title-page
and a xylographic printer's device on the verso of the last leaf.
Church 73; Harrisse 200; Sabin 105721; Alden & Landis 535/21;
Huth 1628. 20th-century boards covered with a stone-pattern marbled paper.
Old auction description on front pastedown, collector's bookplate on front free
endpaper, bookseller's very small stamp on rear pastedown. Light discoloration
to margins of first leaf and last leaf with a few small holes from insect damage
(silverfish?) in blank area; some signatures browned and others creamy.
A very good copy.
(25785)
Bulls
Bow Down &
Fiends Are Powerless
[IN ITALIAN]
Ximénez, Mateo. Compendio della vita del beato Sebastiano d'Apparizio, laico professo dell'ordine de' Minori Osservanti del Padre S. Francesco della provincia del Santo Evangelio nel Messico. Roma: Stamperia Salomoni, 1789. 4to (24.2 cm, 9.5"). xvi pp., port., 228 pp., [1] f. [with] Coleccion de estampas que representan los principales pasos, echos, y prodigios del Bto.. Frai Sebastian de Aparizio, relig[ios]o. franciscano de la provincia del S[an]to Evangelio de Mexico. Dispuesta por el R.P. Fr. Mateo Ximenez. Roma: por el incisor Pedro Bombelli, 1789. 4to (23.5
cm, 9.125"). Engr. title, [100] of [129] plts.
$7500.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
From humble carter to revered and beatified lay Franciscan is not an easy course to pursue in life, but Sebastián de Aparicio (1502-1600) accomplished it in Mexico. Although he was married multiple times, he is said to have remained chaste, deciding in 1574 to abandon his secular lifestyle for that of a lay Franciscan. He is said to have had great ability to manage and calm animals, including near-wild bulls. His life was filled with teaching, begging, and
accomplishing near-impossible things. Offered here is the first edition of Ximénez's biography and the fine album of plates illustrating events in Aparicio's life (see our caption, above).
Finding the "life" and the volume of plates together is uncommon. Only by happenstance did the two volumes come to us within months of one another, from two different continents, allowing us to marry them for this offering. For example, in the U.S., only the Lilly and Bancroft Libraries report owning both works. There is some question as to the number of plates in a complete copy of the Colección: Some sources call for an engraved title-page and 128 plates, while others call for 129 plates. There seems not to have been an edition of the Vita in Spanish.
Vita: Palau 377047; Sabin 105727A. Colección:
Palau 377048; Sabin 105728. Vita: Contemporary Italian binding of
quarter leather with "wallpaper" covered boards; edges of boards seriously
rubbed and exposing underlying paste boards. Internally very good. Colección:
20th-century Spanish quarter leather, with paper in imitation of treed calf
on the covers. Private ownership stamps on title-page. Missing 29 plates; the
other hundred in very good! condition.
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Ybrillos, Spain. Ecclesiastical Cabildo. Manuscript. On paper, in Spanish. Calahorra, 12 July 1750. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). [17] ff. [bound with and after] Castildelgado, Spain. Manuscript. On paper, in Spanish. Castildelgado, 22 April 1664. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). [10] ff.
$575.00
The ecclesiastical cabildo presents for approval its revised statutes as per the bishop’s request. The first version had failed to address the question of burials: The new statutes do so.
The Castildelgado document is the settling of a dispute with the town of Ybrillos over pasturing rights.
Bound in limp vellum with remnants of ties. Written in clear notarial hands. A very little tattering; in very good condition.
Peruvian
Conquest
Illustrated
Zárate, Agustín de. Histoire de la decouverte et de laconquete du Perou. Traduite de l'Espagnol...par S.D.C. Paris: La compagnie des libraires, 1716. 8vo (17 cm, 6.75"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [40], 360 pp.; 13 (2 fold.) plts., 1 fold. map. II: [8], 479, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Early French printing of this very successful Peruvian history, which went through numerous editions in languages including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, and English. Zárate arrived in Peru as part of the retinue of the first viceroy, and served there from 1543 until 1548. His work was first printed in its original Spanish in 1555, but did not appear in French until 1700; the present translation was done by S. de Broë, Seigneur de Citry et de la Guette. The first volume is illustrated with an oversized folding map and fourteen engraved plates, including the well known depiction of a nattily dressed European gentleman, reclining on a raft-like cushion, borne across a stream by two Indians.
Married set: The two contemporary bindings are similar but not identical; both are of mottled leather, one more coarsely grained (and acid-etched) than the other, while one has floral and the other pomegranate motifs gilt-stamped in spine compartments. The match was made by a previous, Spanish-speaking collector, who has left pencilled notes in Spanish in both volumes.
Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.
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Zárate,
Agustin de. Histoire de la découverte et de la conquête du
Perou, traduite de l’Espagnol d’Augustin de Zarate, par S.D.C. Paris:
Par la compagnie des libraires, 1774. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). I: Frontis., xl, 360
pp.; 1 fold. map, 10 engr. plts., 2 fold. engr. plts. II: viii, 479, [1 (blank)]
pp.
$445.00
Classic
and standard work on the discovery, conquest, and subsequent civil war periods.
Sent to Peru to examine the financial status of the viceroyalty, the Spanish
treasury official Zárate made use of his visit to compile a history of
the conquest of the Incas and the early portion of the subsequent civil wars
among the Spanish conquerors. The work was originally published in 1555 and
in 1700 was translated into French by S. de Broë, seigneur de Citry
et de La Guette; this Paris printing of de Broë’s translation
is illustrated with numerous maps and engravings of scenes including a ritual
sacrifice.
Sabin 106266; Palau 379645. Volumes bound in paper wrappers,
back wrapper lacking in both cases; front wrappers reinforced with printed
papers taken from other items. Reverse of frontispiece in vol. I and front
pastedown in vol. II with small bookplates of private collector. Edges untrimmed.
Scattered spots; pages and plates generally in good clean condition.

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