WORLDWIDE CATHOLICA

Printed by the"Niños Expósitos" — Yes, Think about the Name

•  The second Niños Expósitos edition. The first appeared in 1782 and is a work of the utmost rarity, all bibliographical references to it stemming from an entry in Gutiérrez's bibliography: Neither Zinny, nor Medina, nor Furlong succeeded in seeing a copy. This second edition is very uncommon: No copies are located via NUC Pre-1956.

The press of the Niños Expósitos, at which this item was printed, was the first identifiable and successful press in Buenos Aires. It was located in a boys' orphanage and served as a training tool as well as a practical, government-related press.

•  Furlong, Historia y bibliografía de las primeras imprentas rioplatenses, 1700-1850; La imprenta en Buenos Aires, 445; Medina, Historia y bibliografía de la imprenta en el antiguo vireinato del Río de la Plata, 179. Recent boards covered with marbled paper; green morocco label on front cover. Some foxing and other discoloration. The "Prólogo" of the preliminaries lacks ff. A4 and A5 (preliminaries); priced accordingly.

Constitutions of theSpanish Discalced Carmelites

•  Constitutions governing the Spanish congregation of the Discalced Carmelite Friars, the Brethren of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, known to the English as the White Friars from the color of their habits. Founded as an order in Palestine by St. Berthold about 1154, and reorganized along the lines of the mendicant friars by St. Simon Stock (ca. 1165–1265), they originally were among the strictest of the friars, but like many of the mendicants they fell into laxity in the later Middle Ages, and it took the exertions of St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross to restore to them rigor of observance. The reformed friars and sisters were, thereafter, known as discalced, i.e., unshod, from their custom of wearing sandals instead of shoes, and their newly reformed discipline was incorporated into their constitutions, as here exemplified.

This has a lovely title-page device of the Virgin and Child.

Rare: A search of NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN revealed only two U.S. copies.

•  Palau 58873. Contemporary vellum with inked title on spine: a few holes and some staining to vellum; paper label at base of spine. Hinges (inside) open. Some tattering and a little worming to endpapers; i Interior generally clean with occasional small spots of foxing. Paper label, with rubber-stamped numeral thereon, affixed to front free endpaper. Inked ownership inscription on title-page; rubber-stamps, including one on title-page.

With aWoodcut Frontispiece Portrait

•  Meditations of an itinerant evangelist, born in Connecticut and known throughout America and Great Britain for his passionate rhetoric as well as for his personal quirks and eccentricities. Among Dow’s favorite topics were abolitionism and anti-Catholicism, both of which make appearances in this work; he was for both of 'em.

This copy includes the list of subscribers.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 25292. Period-style quarter tan cloth and blue paper sides, with a printed paper spine label. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages age-toned, with occasional light spots and a few short edge tears.

Anti-Catholic Satire with 50 Etched Plates

[Dusart, Cornelius,

•  Beginning with a double-page engraved frontispiece entitled “L’abregé du faux clergé romain” (“the epitome of the false Roman clergy”)—which shows monks milling coins out of the very figure of Jesus—these striking caricatures with their accompanying verses in French and Dutch cast aspersions fairly broadly, impugning Catholic male religious and a few female religious of all kinds—Austin friars, Benedictines, Cistercians, Franciscans, and Jesuits. Each is shown in a highly unflattering pose, each exemplifying a specific vice or abuse, from the gluttonous or libidinous monk to a fearsome Dominican of the Holy Office who holds the severed head of an heretic. These 50 plates are expertly drawn satires, humourous though often nasty.

To add to the book’s interest, it is something of a bibliographical conundrum: The exact number of editions and their dating is difficult to determine, as is the date of the first edition (some cataloguers speculate that it was about 1676), for none of them are dated, no doubt to avoid the censor. Apparently the work first appeared in the late 17th century, and was printed into the 18th and perhaps the 19th. The short title catalogue for the Netherlands lists only two editions: The signature composition and plate count of one match this copy, and the cataloguer of the Royal Library speculates that this edition may have been printed in Switzerland.

This work was first published with 25 plates, preceded by full descriptions of each in French and Dutch. An additional 25 plates (present, with their descriptions, in this copy) were later added, with short verse descriptions given in French only. None of the plates are signed, though some cataloguers speculate they are by Corneille Dusart and the frontispiece by Romeyn de Hooghe.

•  20th-century green marbled paper over boards; spine with brown paper label, gilt-lettered. Moderately rubbed, corners bumped, spine label chipped. All edges speckled red. Generally clean with a few spots of light foxing.

False Imprint?   Wonderful Engraving!  Much Matter!

•  In 1680 the city of Los Reyes (i.e., Lima), Peru, celebrated the beatification of Toribio Alfonso Mogrovejo (1538–1606), the city’s second archbishop, with numerous ceremonies and extravaganzas. This volume contains the a list of attending dignitaries, descriptions of the city and of events, printings of the sermons preached, and, most importantly for art historians, descriptions of adornments, altar arrangements, changes to interiors of participating churches, etc. For literary historians the volume contains a sizable compilation of the poetry written for the events.


Mogrovejo is remembered for his zeal as a proselytizer, baptizing and confirming thousands, including St. Rose of Lima, St. Francis Solano, and Blessed Martin of Porres. He travelled his diocese on foot and made the 8000-mile trek on three separate occasions. He did great charity work and his synods and provincial councils established the moral and religious codes for colonial Peru.

Single-click images where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for enlargements.

Peeters-Fontainas states that Echave y Assu is the pseudonym of José de Buendía and that the book was actually printed in Seville at the atelier of Tomás López de Haro. Others have refuted the former claim; but the latter, based on typography and the use of culs-de-lampe and other ornaments that are identical to those the López de Haro used in his editions of Ortiz and Palafox, has much more the ring of truth, and most bibliographers now catalogue this as having been surreptitiously printed in Seville by López Haro for Verdussen. Another point of bibliographic interest is the existence of two issues of the work: One has a dedication to Pope Innocent XI, the other to Carlos II, King of Spain. And then there are a very few copies that are known to have a map of Lima in them.

This exemplar is dedicated to the king and does not have the map.

•  Sabin 21675; Medina, BHA, 1813; Alden & Landis 688/83 ; Palau 78066; Peeters-Fontainas 366; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 366. 20th-century quarter mottled sheep. Old library stamps eradicated. A clean, crisp copy.

ALSO ANTI-   

[Egmont, John Perceval,

•  Signed “T.F. Philo Cumberland”and attributed to Lord Egmont, a member of the House of Commons, this short piece engages in anti-Catholic and anti-Jacobite rhetoric, and concludes with a fervent prayer that the nation might be saved from “an Unnatural succession.”An alternate, one-sheet issue appears to be more common than the present edition, which is not widely held institutionally.

•  ESTC T31645. Marbled paper–covered boards, old-style, front cover and spine with printed paper labels. Both leaves stamped by a now-defunct institution; minor creasing and spots of foxing.

In Praise ofAugustinians

•  Philippus Elssius (d. 1654) was an Belgian Austin friar of the Brussels convent who spent the greater part of his life compiling these biographies of notable members of his order. He employs a very broad definition of what it means to be an Augustinian (Alcuin is included), and narrates the lives of male and female Augustinians, including St. Thomas of Villa-Nova (probably the best-known Augustinian, p. 653), with accounts of Augustinians in Africa, the New World, and the Far East, among them Andrés of Urdaneta, who supplemented the work of Magellan by charting a course from the Philippines to Mexico in 1565 (pp. 55–56).

Before each letter of the alphabet, Elssius has added a short history of an image of the B.V.M. in an Augustinian church, including some of the miracles associated with that image. Among these are three New World images, all in Peru, the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Pacasmayo, of the Mother of Grace in Lima, and of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God in Pucará.

The volume opens with an engraved title-page, by Jan van Troyen, displaying, within an architectural border, the attribute of St. Augustine, a heart pierced with arrows. The title-page has an engraved vignette showing Christ the good shepherd, who is also represented in a woodcut headpiece. There are also a few woodcut tailpieces, and a goodly number of woodcut foliated initials.

This sole edition (though a facsimile reprint was issued in 1970) is rare. We were able to trace only one copy in the U.S. via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN—appropriately, at Villanova University, an institution with a rich Augustinian heritage.

Binding: Recent deep walnut full calf old style: Round spine with raised bands, accented in gilt and with gilt-tooled devices in compartments; red leather title label.

Single-click images where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for enlargements.

•  Not in Alden & Landis, European Americana. Binding as above. Very good copy: fine chipping to first two leaves, some shallow bumping to edges of pages, and a hole in the outer margins of the last leaf; occasional small spots of ink-staining; foxing and light soiling to first and last few leaves; some light browning, especially around edges of pages. Inked ownership inscription, crossed out, in top margin of engraved title-page and a rubber-stamp in the bottom margin. All edges gilt, though rubbed.

See: "The Greatest Authority [& the]Greatest Impiety"

•  Julius II is known as the warrior pope, and, for all his accomplishments, was more of a worldy Renaissance prince than a shepherd of souls. In this short ironic piece in the form of a prayer, the author prays for the salvation of Julius, in whom was joined "the greatest authority with the greatest impiety," while giving a catalogue of his purported vices. No printing information is given, probably to avoid the censor; but the colophon reads "IN GERMANIA TANDEM IAM SAPIENTE"—"In Germany at last now wise." This work is variously attributed to Erasmus, Publio Fausto Andrelini, and Ulrich von Hutten—Harvard supporting Erasmus. There is some uncertainty as to the publisher and date; VD16 gives the publication information as above, though Yale lists the date as 1521 and the publisher as V. Corio. A quarto edition was also issued in 1520.

•  Not in Adams; VD16 0839. On Julius II, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, II, 250–52. Modern wrappers. Remnants of paper labels, attractive old German library rubber-stamp and inked "s.l. et a." on title-page. Small wormhole through all leaves, not touching letters. Traces of soiling around edges of title- and last, blank, page. (7430)

Rare Sermon Preached inXilotepec!

•  Sermon of thanksgiving for the birth of Louis Philip (1707–24), first son of Philip V (1683–1746), the first Bourbon king of Spain, and his first wife, Mary Louise of Savoy. Louis reigned briefly upon the abdication of his father in 1724, but died later that year. Escoto, a Franciscan, was retired from his earlier life of as an upper-level administrator of his order and was living in the small town of Huichiapa in the province of Xilotepec when he preached this sermon there.


Sermons preached in the provinces of colonial Mexico were rarely published, and this one has the distinction of having been printed at the press of a woman printer. Additionally, this publication has the most elaborate and detailed woodcut coats of arms that we have ever seen in a Mexican sermon. The artist was a master, presenting the coat of arms in an elaborate architectural frame—but s/he was, as usual, anonymous.

Single-click either image for an enlargement.

Rare: A search of NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN revealed only two copies (Lilly Library and the Marian Collection at the University of Dayton).

•  Medina, Mexico, 2207. Not in Palau. Removed from a nonce volume. Light waterstaining and faint foxing with a few dog ears only.

MEDITATIONS — For Mini-Retreats

•  Meditations for the conduct of a short retreat according to the model of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius were welcomed in the 17th and 18th centuries by people who did not have the thirty days to do the full Exercises. Compiled by Camillo Ettori (Camillus Hectoreus, † 1700), an Italian Jesuit priest who also wrote other spiritual works, this work went through several Italian editions before being translated into Latin by Heinrich Heinsberg, another Jesuit and an instructor in humanities and philosophy at Cologne. Parts three and five have separate title pages.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, IV, 224–25. On Ettori, see DeBacker-Sommervogel III, 478–81. Contemporary alum-tawed pigskin, covers with blind rules and floral tooling surrounding a panel containing a supra-libros: On the front the supra-libros has the initials "IHS" and on the back the initials "MBA" under a coronet. Spine with blind rules above and below each band. Brass clasps still in working order. Covers somewhat abraded and soiled; spine abraded. All edges stained green with some discoloration. First few pages with foxing; title-page with ownership inscription dated 1717. Pp. 131–32 torn at upper outer corner with some loss of text and paper repairs. Light waterstaining throughout. Two page tabs, one torn off at the edge of the paper.

Details — The Jesuit Expulsion

•  When Rev. Fabián (1719–1801) wrote and published this pastoral letter (1767) he was the bishop of Puebla, Mexico, and this first European edition appeared while he was the archbishop of Valencia. In it he seeks to explain the expulsion of the Jesuits and in doing so deals at length with the 17th-century conflict between Bishop Palafox and the Society.


•  Palau 85965. Modern cloth with leather spine label. Remains of cello-tape on front pastedown; carta clean and nice.

Learn Araucanian NOW!

Febres, Andrés.

•  Uncommon first edition of this important book for the study of the Araucanian language of Chile. The contents are a grammar, a dialogue in Araucanian, a short Spanish-to-Araucanian dictionary, the Araucanian alphabet and dipthongs, and Catholic prayers, doctrine, and a brief catechism in Araucanian, plus extended Spanish–Araucanian and Araucanian–Spanish dictionaries.

Febres, a Jesuit, was a native of Cataluña who arrived in Chile at a young age. His work among the Araucanian Indians led to his acquiring a great command of their language, and this work still stands as a monument to his erudition.

Medina's researches discovered that when the Spanish authorities made their inventory of the Jesuits' library in Chile in 1767, only 255 copies of this book were found, leading him to suppose that the total press run was only 500 copies.

The title-page and the rest of the initial half-signature of the copy in hand are printed in red and black, but according to Harper (American Iberica, item 476A) some copies do exist printed in black and gold(!), while Medina (Bibliotheca hispano-chilena) says he has seen copies printed in black and green, or perhaps just green. The final leaf here displays a typographic sampling of the press's fonts.  There are a few tailpieces—one unusual and a charmer.

•  Medina, Lima, 1228; Medina, BHC, 461; Viñaza 345; Palau 87065; Sabin 23968; Vargas Ugarte 1923; DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 576. On Febres, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica, fiche 309, frames 216–49. Contemporary stiff vellum, remnants of ties. Endpapers damaged with some loss of paper. Title-page with pressure stamp of the American Antiquarian Society (properly deaccessioned). Interior very clean.

Summary of Facts, 1777

Fernández de Uribe, José Patricio.

•  The author of this Marian sermon was a native of Mexico City who died at age 54 in the town of San Agustín de las Cuevas in 1796. His 1777 sermon was not published until it made this posthumous appearance. More than a sermon it is a disquisition on the apparition—the body of evidence in support of its miraculous nature; this is further expanded on, artfully, in a large appendix, “Disertacion historico-critica en que el autor del sermon . . . sotiene la celestial imagén de Maria Santisima de Guadalupe de México, milagrosamente aparecida al humilde neófito Juan Diego.” Fernández examines a large number of sources and evaluates what the writers say and do not say. A very important source.

Provenance: Bookplate (early 19th-century) of Dr. Don Victoriano de las Fuentes.

•  Burrus & Grajales 295 & 296; Medina, Mexico, 9428; Palau 89823. Contemporary acid-stained sheep, round spine gilt extra, marbled endpapers. Two small stains in lower margins of leaves, not touching text. Small piece cut from bottom blank areas of title-page and a text leaf. A very good copy.

FLORIDA’s First Author — FIRST EDITION

Florencia, Francisco de.

•  First edition of a major work by the first Florida-born author. Francisco de Florencia (1619–95) entered the Jesuit Order in 1642 and was a noted preacher and highly regarded author. The present work recounts the discovery and early history of the image of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, whom several important modern scholars (e.g, David Brading) think to have been more important in the general psyche of colonial Mexicans than even the Virgin of Guadalupe. He tells of the cult that surrounded this apparition, the numerous aspects of her veneration, and the many miracles attributed to her. Hers was the image paraded through the streets in times of plague, drought, famine, war, and tribulation in general.

This volume begins with a full-page frontispiece that incorporates a large anonymously carved woodcut of the Virgin surrounded by text and a border of printer’s flowers. Below the woodcut is an epigram about her.

This volume comes from the press of one of Mexico’s premier woman printers—María de Benavides, widow of Juan de Ribera, himself a decent printer.

Provenance: Marca de fuego in the upper margins of the St. Augustine conventual library of Puebla; 20th-century bookplate of the great Mexican collector Florencio Gavito.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1337; Palau 92338; DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 796. Contemporary limp vellum. Woming in gutter margin, occasionally affecting text. Marca de fuego in upper margin. Erratum pasted on licence leaf. A good copy.

Florida’s First AuthorAGAIN

Florencia, Francisco de.

•  Second edition of the above.

•  Palau 92338; DeBacker-Sommervogel, III, 796; Sabin 24814; Medina, BHA, 3375; Alden & Landis 745/84. Contemporary limp vellum, slight damage at base of spine and along lower edge of front cover. Front endpapers damaged with loss of paper. Occasional light waterstain, some cockling of paper. That said, in reality, a good+ copy of a scarce book.

For Franciscan Novices

•  Second edition of this primer based on the doctrines of St. Bonaventure, but adapted to the practices of the Franciscan Order—here specifically as a primer for novices. The first edition appeared in Mexico in 1721.

A scarce work, having been printed in a limited number of copies for the very limited-sized audience of Franciscan novices.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5761. Contemporary limp without the ties. Very clean and crisp. A truly excellent copy.

MARY   

•  Preached in Puebla, seen into print by a devoted follower of the preacher but, printed in Mexico City. Franco examines Mary's mother, Mary's birth, and Mary's role as mother of Jesus.

•  Medina, Mexico, 7793. Sewn into later wrappers; lacking rear wrapper. Bookplate of Rodolfo Foquero.

Spanish Edition of the Spiritual Conferences in a Handsome Binding

•  Here translated into Spanish by Francisco de Cubillas Donyague, the Spiritual Conferences of St. Francis de Sales (1567–1622), bishop of Geneva, were written as addresses to the Sisters of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, an order founded by St. Jane Frances de Chantal with his assistance. They cover the virtues to be practiced in the religious life and have been valued by both laity and religious for their common sense, sensitivity, and insight. Also included in this edition are an essay on preaching well, a funeral sermon, and a few shorter works by the saint. The first Spanish edition was issued in 1667. This edition is rare, only one copy being traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN.

•  Palau 290780. Recent quarter red morocco over red cloth, spine gilt extra, red marbled endpapers, and top edge red. Clean, attractive interior.

Lady Georgiana's "Lady-Bird" Fullerton, Georgiana. Lady-Bird. A tale. Three volumes in one. New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1855. 8vo. 328 pp., [4 (ads)] ff.
$65.00

•  Upon her conversion to Catholicism in 1846, Lady Georgiana Fullerton, daughter of the first Earl of Granville, co-founded a religious order and devoted the rest of her life to charity, donating the profits from her book sales to the poor. In Lady-Bird, she explores this theme of religious devotion through her heroine, who gives her life to the Church after failing in love.

•  Publisher's cloth stamped with an interesting pattern. Top of spine frayed, bottom tender. Signature containing pp. 3–23 loosely laid in.

TO Part V

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