Scarce: Not traced via STCV and only one copy of this edition located via RLIN and OCLC (at Harvard).

•  Not in STCV. Early 18th-century mottled calf, spine gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather markedly acid-pitted over sides and chipped over spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed. Title-page with early inked inscription from a seminary. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The present work argues that the various seeming “mysteries” of Christianity resulted from the contributions of different early Christian sects, and makes use of ideas found in Locke's Essay to dismiss the Trinity on logical and rational grounds; it was highly influential on the continent, althoughburned in Dublin in 1697 by order of Parliament.

•  ESTC R7180; Wing (rev.) T1763; Lowndes 2692.   Recent period-style speckled calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations (signed by Grace Bindings in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in). Preface with inked numeral in lower margin. Some ink smudges to outer margins of first few leaves, pages otherwise clean. (20723)

Copies of the Indexes that can be proved to have been used in colonial Mexico are virtually unknown. This is the first such pairing of 16th-century printings that we have seen in our 30 years of dealing in colonial Mexicana.

Provenance: Marca de fuego on top and bottom edges of the Convento of San Antonio Sultepec; later in the library of Santa Barbara of Puebla according to a 17th-century notation on the title-page of the first work (“Es de Sta. Barbara de la Puebla, por n[uest]ro her[man]o fr[ay] Juan de Santa Ana, g[uardi]an”).

•  Aed.I: Palau 118926 Aed. II: 118927 & 118928. Contemporary limp and cockled vellum, a little shrunken and with remnants of ties. Lower margins sometime exposed to water and with arrested mildew damage, causing loss of paper that has been repaired in heavy-handed fashion. Good copies, but not very good ones, of these remarkable survivors!

This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.