
CENTRAL AMERICA
John Carter Brown's Copy, Acquired from Stevens
(An
Important Book, a Stellar Provenance). López
de Cogolludo, Diego. Historia
de Yucathan. Madrid: Juan Garcia Infanzon, 1688. Folio (29 cm; 11.5"). [1 of 15]
ff., 760 pp., [16] ff.
$9250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
In this account of the conquest and Spanish settlement of the Yucatan, López de Cogolludo, a Franciscan missionary and administrator originally from Alcalá de Henares, presents a sought-after account. He had access to a manuscript version of Bishop Landa's work and consulted such important printed sources as Torquemada.
He also presents his personal eye-witness accounts of events during his 30 years among the Maya (1634–65).
Robert Patch says in the Encyclopedia of Latin American History & Culture (III, 458) that López de Cogolludo wrote this history in the 1650s and that it is “a major source not only for the history of Yucatán but also for the study of Maya culture.”
Provenance: Small booklabel: “Marchio Regaliae D.D. 1741.” John Carter Brown (1797–1874) purchased this from Henry Stevens in 1845/1846. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.
Palau 141001; Sabin 14210. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, front joint (inside) starting to open. Scattered foxing, including on title-page; short tear, repaired, in title; some staining in early margins and into text; without the preliminaries or the added engraved title. Doodling in many margins; ink stains from a careless quill user on several pages. John Carter Brown's stamped signature on p. 1. A less than perfect copy that yet does not “feel” maimed; a copy with a distinguished provenance to match the distinction of the work. (27561)

A Real Jungle Book
Allee, Warder C., & Marjorie Hill Allee. Jungle island.
Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., © 1925. 12mo. Frontis., x, 215, [1] pp.; illus.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Fact-based tropical adventures set on Barro Colorado Island in
Panama,
illustrated with numerous maps and half-tone photographic views. Mr. Allee was
a University of Chicago biologist and ecologist and he and his wife visited
and studied Barro Island as part of their recovery from the death of their 10-year
old son in 1913. The work is a mainstream University of Chicago school study
in ecology .
Signed binding:
Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, front cover with jungle
vignette stamped in blue and title in green, spine with green-stamped title.
Binding signed with “H”: Frank Hazenplug (1874–1931).
Binding as above, minor wear
to edges and extremities. Front pastedown with inked gift inscription dated 1927. Pages age-toned with occasional smudges, endpapers spotted. (28932)

Volcanic Illustrations — Baily's Central American Survey
Baily, John.
Central America; describing each of the states of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador,
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; their natural features, products, population, and remarkable
capacity for colonization. London: Trelawney Saunders, 1850. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.6").
Frontis., xii, 164 pp.; 2 plts.
$600.00

First edition of this evaluation of the commercial and agricultural potential of the Central American countries. An officer of the British Royal Marines, Baily lived in Guatemala for many years, and was the translator of Juarros's Compendio de la historia de la ciudad de Guatemala; he was also a proponent of the “Canal de Nicaragua.”
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
The volume is illustrated with three engraved views, all three incorporating volcanos. As usual, this copy does not include the oversized map, which was printed and published separately.
Palau 21943; Sabin 2771; Nicaraguan National Bibliography 1476. 20th-century quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to corners and spine extremities. Plates with light waterstaining to lower portions; frontispiece, title-page, and plates backed with linen. (25454)

On Private Worship: An Oratory in One's Home
Baquero, Francisco de Paula. Disertacion apologetica a favor del privilegio, que por costumbre introducida por la Bula de la santa cruzada goza la Nacion Española en el uso de los oratorios domesticos, leida, en la Real Academia de buenas letras de Sevilla en 25. de octubre de 1771. En Sevilla: Por D. Josef Padrino, [colophon, 1777]. Small 4to (18.5 cm; 7.25"). [1] f., 104 pp.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Our author was the “cura mas antiguo del Sagrario de [Sevilla],
examinador Synodal de su arzobispado, comisario y revisor de libros del Santo
Oficio, academico numerario,” and the “censor de dicha Real Academia.”
His work was first read before the Real Academia on 25 October 1771 but because
of delays in obtaining the necessary licenses to print it, publication was delayed
until 1777.
In this work of canon law and Catholic Church customs and practices, Baquero
studies the privilege that the Bull of the Holy Crusade granted the Spanish
nation regarding oratories in private residences; it applied not only to Spain
but to colonies as well.
The first of three, this edition was published by “un amigo del author.”
The other editions appeared in 1781 AND
1861.
Only one U.S. library reports ownership of either the 1777 or 1781 edition.
It should be noted that there is NO 1771 edition, despite Palau and online
cataloguing; cataloguers have simply failed to look at the last page of the
supposed 1771 edition to see that the colophon is dated 1777.
This offers one very pretty large initial and some modestly nice work with
type ornaments.
Palau 23499 (giving wrong date of publication). Contemporary
limp vellum, a bit missing from back cover; evidence of ties, and binding
with light dust-soiling. Lacking rear free endpaper. A clean, nice copy. (29596)

The
Beginning of
Demographic
Studies
Botero, Giovanni. Relaciones universales del mundo ... primera y segunda parte. Valladolid: Impresso por los herederos de Diego Fernandez de Cordoua, 1603–1599. Folio (27 cm; 10.5"). [4], 207, 110 ff. (without final blank and without the maps).
$1875.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Botero (1540–1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, and after 1580 an expelled Jesuit. His Relaciones universales del mondo, originally published 1594 to 1595 in Italian, tells of the “universal church” (i.e., Catholicism) in various parts of the world, including America, the Old World, India, the circum-Mediterranean, Africa, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but also England, Scotland, Ireland, and “the realm of Prester John.” More than a few scholars view this as one of the first demographic studies.
This first edition, second issue in Spanish is the translation of Diego de Aguiar. It is composed of the sheets of first edition of 1600–1599 with a new title-page. Printed in roman type, double-column format, it offers a liberal sprinkling of large woodcut initials, some of which are historiated.
Provenance: 19th-century private ownership stamp on verso of title-leaf; bookplate of the John Carter Brown Library (with small release stamp) on the front pastedown.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 603/17; Sabin 6809; Palau 33704; Medina, BHA, 468. 18th-century mottled sheep, raised bands, gilt spine extra; spine gorgeously bright and covers with some abrasions. Title-page and final leaf with foremargins excised and the leaves mounted; first folio 113 with short tears repaired with with cello tape now darkened. Occasional foxing and the other odd spot or stain only; all edges red and a blue ribbon placemarker. A text volume only, this lacks the maps and is priced accordingly; it is an important and famous work with a good provenance in an otherwise very handsome copy, for the reader. (28307)
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“Genuine Specimens of Native Literature”
Maya & English Presentations — With Notes
Brinton, Daniel Garrison, ed. The Maya chronicles. Philadelphia: D.G. Brinton, 1882. 8vo (24 cm, 9.4"). [2], 279, [1] pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, uncut copy.
First printing in the U.S. of any pre-Columbian text in the original Maya. This is no. I in the “Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature” series, opening with a description of the Maya and including selections from the books of Chilam Balam of Mani, Tizimin, and Chumayel, along with the chronicle of Chac Xulub Chen. Each Mayan text is accompanied by an English translation and the editor's notes.
Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection. Publisher's brown textured cloth framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities a little rubbed, spine a bit sunned. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, half-title and title-page rubber-stamped. No other markings. (26511)
Snakes
Lost Civilizations
& an
Adventuresome
Artist
Catherwood,
Frederick! Views of ancient monuments
in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. London: Frederick Catherwood,
1844. Folio extra. 25 colored plates.
$50,000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The images above show mattings; images below are “close-ups.”
Before Indiana Jones stirred our imagination about lost civilizations and their treasures, there were Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens, whose explorations of the Maya ruins of Central America, Chiapas, and the Yucatan excited the Anglo-American world in the middle of the 19th century and helped spur the rediscovery of the Maya among the non–romance language nations. And it was Catherwood's illustrations that fixed forever what the temples and other buildings looked like to the Victorian-era and later visitors to the area.
Following the great success of Catherwood & Stephens' s two accounts of their travels in Maya land, Catherwood decided to convert his drawings to large-scale luxury prints, the illustrations in the two travel accounts having been in octavo format. In England he enlisted a crew of the best lithographers to transform his camera lucida drawings to grand, eye-filling lithographs, with George B. Moore, William Parrott, Thomas Shotter Boys, and Henry Warren among those putting the images on stone; he had no one less than Owen Jones design and accomplish the title-page, chromolithographed in red, blue, and gold.
This set of images is of the very rare colored issue on card stock.
Hill, Pacific Voyages, rev. ed., 263; Palau 50290; Sabin 11520; Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates, 133. Plates were removed long ago from their binding (not present) and sold as a set of plates; all have been expertly conserved (conservator's report provided) and mounted on acid-free board, now housed in a custom clamshell case. The plates have been trimmed within the images by between one tenth and three tenths of an inch in each direction, letterpress descriptions and map lacking; the plates are
handsome beyond easy imagining and fascinating in the detail and care of their coloring. (29366)
MEXICO
is one of our great specialties.
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here.

Legal Age for Marrying
Charles IV, King of Spain. Begins: Don Carlos ... Con fecha de diez de Abril de este año he tenido a bien expedir mi Real Decreto del tenor siguiente.” [Madrid: No publisher/printer, 1803]. Folio. [4] pp. (last blank).
$250.00

Clarification of an earlier royal decree concerning legal marriage age for “españoles” outside of Spain (and who were not orphans) was required and obtained from the
courts. Now the king orders local officials in the Spanish Empire to obey and publish the original decree with its amendments.
Signed by the crown with a wooden stamp, “Yo el Rey.”
This copy sent to Santiago, Chile, and docketed there.
Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and untattered. (25817)

“The most important documentary collection for colonial Spanish America”
Coleccion de documentos ineditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y organizacion de las antiguas posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía. Madrid: Various publishers, 1864–84 & 1966. 8vo. 42 volumes.
$6750.00
Woodrow Borah writing in Latin America: A guide to the historical literature (a.k.a., “the Griffin guide”) declares, “This is the most important documentary collection for colonial Spanish America, an invaluable source, especially for materials pertaining to the sixteenth century.” The data on AmerIndians, customs, early contact, etc., is outstanding.
A mixed set in mixed bindings: all volumes except 11 are first editions, the exception being a 1966 reprint. Many original wrappers bound in. Volumes 1–10 in early quarter cloth,
11–42 in modern full cloth.
Griffin, Latin America: A guide to the historical literature, 2063; Palau 56442. Bindings as above: Vols. 1–10 with abrasion/discoloration to spines, otherwise minor wear; moderate foxing, and some early annotations. Vols. 11–42, cloth bright; mostly clean internally, last 2 pages of last volume supplied in facsimile. Vol. 38 lacking fascicles 3, 4, 5, and 6. (25828)
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BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS,
click here.

A Costa Rican Constitution
Long Active
Costa Rica. Constitucion. 1871. Decretos y constitucion politica de la República de Costa-Rica, emitida en 1871 y adoptada el 26 de abril de 1882. San José: [Impr. Nacional], [1882]. 12mo. 39, [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (ndex)] f.
$500.00
First printing of the 1871 constitution, not adopted until 1882. The constitution was in force, although not formally adopted, during the Guardia administrations (1870–82) and it remained in force until 1949.
Click either image
for an enlargement.
Rare. The only copy we located in Latin America via METABASE is in the Biblioteca Monseñor
Sanabria Martínez (Biblioteca Asamblea Legislativa de la República de Costa Rica). In the U.S. we locate only the copies at Bancroft and Harvard Law libraries.
Wrapper title is “Decretos y constitución política de la República de Costa-Rica, emitida en 1871 y adoptada en 1882.”
Not in Palau. Original printed wrappers, wrappers dusty and with old pencil writing. (21258)

Who's In Charge of What & How Much They Are Paid
Díez de la Calle, Juan. Memorial informatorio al rey nuestro señor, en su real y supremo Conseio de las Indias, Camara, y Junta de Guerra. [Madrid: No publisher/printer], 1645. Small 4to. [11 (of 12)], 31 (of 32) ff. (lacks pi4 and a1).
$4000.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
In Latin American history the 17th century is generally characterized as “the century of decline,” which perception was simply inevitable given the robust and energetic nature of the events of the 16th century! The 17th was also the century of entropy: That is, disorder or randomness was becoming more and more prevalent in the administration of such a vast empire and that system of government was experiencing an inevitable and steady deterioration.
Apprehensive of this, the crown sought to stem its loss of control and to stop the development of regional and social “realities” not in accord with royal guidelines or desires. The contretemps between Viceroy/Bishop Palafox of Mexico and the religious orders wanting to enjoy extraordinary exemptions from governmental oversight provides one example.
To aid in getting a refreshed grip on the administration of the New World, Philip IV of Spain asked Juan Díez de la Calle, a member of the Consejo de Indias, to produce a concise administrative handbook for use solely by the Council of the Indies, the King, and his close advisors. Here one finds all of the administrative divisions with dates of creation; office holders and their salaries and when the office was created; differences existing between administrative districts; and an interesting section on the various “annual” convoys (“armadas”) and the general in charge of each.
Provenance: Ownership signature at top of title-page of “Guill[er]mo Godolphin,” i.e., Sir William Godolphin.
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 645/45; Palau 73741; Sabin 20133. Early limp vellum. Lacking two leaves: “Al Lector” leaf and the sectional title-leaf. A very good copy. (25808)

A Very Famous Conqueror
of Mexico
A RARE
Manuscript Document
SIGNED
Díaz del Castillo, Bernal. Document Signed ("Bernal Díaz"). Santiago de Guatemala, 24 July 1556. Folio, 2 1/2 pp.
$125,000.00
Bernal Díaz, a companion of Cortés in the Conquest of the Aztecs and author of the world famous Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España, signed his name many times before he died at the advanced age of 88, yet his is one of the most elusive autographs in the world. There are no records of his autograph ever having been offered at auction in England or the United States. Such famous collectors as Phillipps, Heber, Harmsworth, and Sang never owned an example of his handwriting; such famous dealers as Rosenbach, Fleming, Kraus, Maggs Bros., and Quaritch never offered a Bernal Díaz letter or document; and such famous libraries as The Library of Congress, The John Carter Brown, Harvard, Yale, The Bancroft, The Rosenbach Foundation, The Newberry, The Sutro, The University of Texas, and The New York Public do not count his signature among their treasures.
The document we here offer is a cabildo (i.e., town council) act. Bernal Díaz served as a member of the cabildo of Santiago de Guatemala for a number of years, an honor bestowed on him as a conqueror and early settler of the region. In this document the cabildo acknowledges receipt of a royal decree, reads it verbatim into its minutes, and formally agrees to comply. The king writes that he is informed that the post of notary public and "del número" in Santiago is vacant because Juan Núñez de Soria, who held the royal appointment to that position, "is gone to Our kingdoms of Peru." On the advice of the Royal Audiencia (i.e., High Court) the king appoints Juan de Rojas to be notary public and "del número."
The document is housed in a red half morocco slipcase with an internal corset. Six small wormholes in each leaf affect one or two letters each, but not the signature of Bernal Díaz.
MEXICO is
one of our great specialties.
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Early
El Salvador Imprint Nullifying an Appointment
El Salvador. Asamblea legislativa. Broadside, begins: “Ministerio general del Gobierno del Estado del Salvador ... La Asamblea legislativa ... decreta. Se declara insubsistente el nombramiento de magistratado par que fue electo el Lic. Atanacio Urritia. San Salvador: No publisher/printer, 1833. Small 8vo. [1] p.
$1000.00
In this early Salvadoran broadside the legislature nullifies the appointment of Lic. Urrutia to the Supreme Court and places Lic. Jose Felix Quiros on the bench instead.Printing seems to have arrived in El Salvador in 1825, placing this in the first decade of that art there.
Apparently rare: We trace no copy via NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, CCILA, or METABASE.
Removed from a nonce volume. A few small holds from insect damage, a few of the few repaired with archival tissue. Old bibliographical notations in pencil in margins. Light waterstaining in upper outer corner. (25791)

“Is a Maecenas More Necessary in Time of War or Peace?”
Garcia Redondo, Antonio. [Broadside, begins: “Egregio viro militum tribuno D.D. Felici de la Grava....” [Guatemala City]: Apud Betetam, 1820. Folio extra (41 x 30 cm; 16" x 12"). [1] p.
$750.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Antonio Gonzalez Corral dedicated his doctoral defense in Sacred Theology, under the praeses of Antonio Garcia Redondo, to Felix de la Grava. This handsome example of printing from the press of Ignacio Beteta is an invitation to the 22 November (1820) occasion, and in addition to its excellent typography and ample margins, the broadside offers
a very fine, unsigned, copper engraving of Grava's coat of arms.
The topic of the defense was the role of the macaenas in times of war and peace.
Chain lines are horizontal!
We trace no copy via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, Metabase, or the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico or Spain. We have failed to find the URL for the OPAC of the Guatemalan National Library.
Not in Medina, Guatemala. Old folds, left margin irregular. A very clean, crisp copy. (30334)
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BROADSIDES, click here.
González Bustillo, Juan. Extracto, ô Relacion methodica, y puntual de los autos de reconocimiento, practicado en virtud de commission del señor presidente de la Real Audiencia de este reino de Guatemala. Pueblo de Mixco [Guatemala]: Impreso en la oficina de A. Sanchez Cubillas, 1774. Folio (29.5 cm; 11.675"). [2], 86 pp. (without final leaf with one erratum)
$10,750.00
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Following the ruin of Santiago de los Caballeros by the big earthquake of 1773, the capital of Guatemala was moved first to the little town of Mixco and then later to the location of the present site of Guatemala City. Offered here is the highly important report of the commission headed by Juan González Bustillo on that devastating July, 1773 earthquake: It occupies pp. 1–55 and is followed by "Prosigue la relacion, ô Extracto de todo lo que resulta èvacuado en la Junta general, y demas que se ha tenido presente hasta la conclusion del assunto de translacion, e informe, que debe hacerse à Su Magestad” on pp. 57–86.

The careful, lengthy, and contemporary reports present here detail the day’s events, give the sequence of the destruction of various buildings and areas of the city, recount salvage and evacuation efforts, etc. The writers (and the citizens) erroneously blamed the nearby volcanos for causing the tremors and quaking, but that was logical at the time. Seeking historical perspective, the commissioners make significant and informed comparisons with earlier earthquakes.
This document is one of the very few printed in the temporary capital of Mixco, a press having been salvaged from the ruins in the former capital. Thus, Mixco was the second city/town to have a press in Central America, and then, for only a short time—appoximately two years.
In addition to being important for its contents and in the realm of printing history, the González Bustillo report is uncommon: We trace only half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.
Medina, Guatemala, 384; Palau 105113; Sabin 27811. Modern full calf, very plain style. Without the final leaf with one erratum on it.

The King & the Lawyers in
GUATEMALA
Guatemala. Colegio de Abogados. Real provision en que se erige el ilustre Colegio de Abogados de este reyno de Guatemala. Monte Pio, y Academia de Derecho theórico-práctico, y en que tambien se aprueban interinamente sus estatutos. [Guatemala]: Por D. Ignacio Beteta, 1810. 4to (19.5 cm; 7.75"). [1] f., 3, [1] pp., [1] f., 33, [1], 34–62, [1] pp. (lacks the leaf with coat of arms).
$850.00
Sole printing of the royal decree establishing the Colegio de Abogados in Guatemala with the interim statutes for its operation. Handsomely printed.
WorldCat and CICCLA combine to locate two copies of which one is in the U.S.
Click the images for enlargements.
Provenance: Ex-John Carter Brown Library; sold as duplicate.
Medina, Guatemala, 1677. Original plain wrapper. Without the coat of arms leaf. Upper corners bumped/dog-eared/creased, leaves with the odd spot or big of soil; generally, a clean copy. (28208)
The
King &
the High Court
— A Manuscript
ARCHIVE
1600-28
(Guatemala, Audiencia of). An unpublished collection of 56 royal decrees signed by Felipe III (some with a stamp) to the Royal Audiencia of Guatemala. Valladolid, Madrid, San Lorenzo, etc., 18 May 1600 - 15 June 1628. Folio. 100 ff. (some blank).
$35,000.00
The audiencia (or high court) was, according to Clarence Haring
(the dean, during the 1940s and 1950s, of American scholars of colonial Latin
America), "the most important and interesting institution in the government
of the Spanish Indies." He rightly points out that "It was the center, the core,
of the administrative system, the principal curb upon oppression and illegality
of the viceroys and other governors."
The first audiencia was established in Santo Domingo in 1508 with others
springing up as the Spaniards discovered and settled North and South America.
The Audiencia of Guatemala came into existence on 20 November 1542 through
the New Laws and had a troubled and peripatetic beginning: The documents that
compose this collection do not deal with things quite as dramatic as either
the judicial insanity or the big-time smuggling of those earliest years, but
they do, nonetheless, document various unstudied aspects of the presidencies
of Dr. Alonso Criado de Castilla (1598-1611), Don Antonio Pérez Ayala
Castilla y Rojas (1611-26), and Dr. Diego de Acuña (1626-33). The royal
cedulas fall into three broad categories: requests for information, demands
for action, and orders ending existing practices.
An example of the Crown's requests for information is a decree of 4 December
1601. The king would sometimes receive complaints that were best handled extrajudicially,
often involving political activities of clerics, over whom the civil and criminal
courts did not have jurisdiction and with whom, the authorities felt, the
ecclesiastical courts would deal ineffectively. In one case, the governor
of Honduras had complainedæ to the king that the dean of the church in Comayagua
was disrupting attempts to recruit men for the defense of the port of Trujillo:
The king, investigating, expects that the audiencia's information will be
unbiased because of its physical and emotional distance from Honduras and
its local politics and squabbling.
Another, much more ominous, request was handed down on 28 June 1621. The
king has "discovered" that "foreigners" are living in the New World. Since
they are there illegally, he wants a list of them and correlated inventories
of their possessions and land holdings. This was the beginning of the oppression
of Portuguese settlers who had moved to the New World during the "Babylonian
captivity" of Portugal by Spain.
The royal demands for action were usually grants of royal patronage or largesse.
On 10 July 1600 the king orders the audiencia to administer the terms of his
decree granting a one-time-only gift of money to the cathedral in Santiago,
and on 4 July 1601 he orders the court to give the mission church in Trinidad
de Sonsonate a chalice and a bell.
The Crown was fully aware that the physical distance between it and its
New World provinces would result in the development of local customs and practices,
and to a large extent it tolerated these deviations from "the norm." For example,
on 31 May 1600, Felipe III officially accepts the local custom of the audiencia's
appointing the majordomo of the Royal Hospital. But at other times the Crown
felt put upon and ordered the end of "local practices." On 12 December 1619
the king orders the audiencia to stop subdividing encomiendas and parcelling
the subsections out as parts of government pensions.
The
documents in this remarkable collection are unpublished.
They are an important unused source for the history of the high court
during the first quarter of the 17th century. Through them we find out what
the "local customs" of patronage and of usurpation of royal prerogative were.
Through the reiteration of previously issued decrees we discover which decrees
the court was ignoring, using the famous doctrine of "obedezco pero no cumplo."
Through these decrees we glimpse royal patronage and royal displeasure.
A
detailed calendar of the documents is available upon request.
Clarence H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America, pp.
126, 75-76, and 113-14; Murdo J. MacLeod, Spanish Central America,
pp. 390-91, on the audiencia's earliest years. The decrees have been very
carefully removed from a bound volume and, now stored in Mylar sleeves, are
housed in a blue cloth slipcase with blue morocco spine labels. This major
source for the study of the Royal Audiencia of Guatemala is in very good condition.

Exiled Jesuit on the
History of the New World
Iturri, Francisco Javier. Carta critica sobre la historia de America del Sr. Dn. Juan Bautista Muñoz escrita en Roma. Madrid: No publisher/printer, 1798. Small 8vo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). 120 pp.
$425.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Writing at Rome, Iturri, an expelled Jesuit and native of Santa Fé de la Vera Cruz, Argentina, severely criticizes Juan Bautista Muñoz's Historia general de las Indias e Nuevo Mundo (Madrid, 1793).Only the second copy that we have had in our 35 years of dealing in Latin Americana.
First edition.
Medina, BHA, 5842; Palau 122212; DeBacker-Sommervogel, IV, 688–89. Modern gray paper over boards with caramel-color leather author and title label on front cover. Title-page with some areas of loss, not approaching lettering; mounted. Small wormholes in margins, seldom touching text and taking at most a letter or two; pages roughened at tops by the very minor nibblings of a very small rodent. Lower margins of pp. 39–40, 77–80 irregular with loss of some of the bottom notes. Else a nice copy. (28414)

From the Libraries of
Two Organizations That Were
SUPPRESSED a Century Apart
Ledesma, Clemente de. Vida espiritual comun de la Serafica Tercera Orden, que instituyó Serafico, que fundó evangelico y que propagó Apostolico N.P. Angelico, y ilagado Patriarca S. Francisco. Mexico: Por Doña Maria de Benavides, viuda de Juan de Ribera, 1689. 4to (21 cm; 8.25"). [24], 208, [4] ff.
$2950.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole edition and sole volume ever published although more were planned. “Third Orders . . . are associations of the laity [both
male and female] whose members, while living a secular life, strive after Christian perfection by observing a a papally approved rule, under the direction and in the spirit of a religious order (New Catholic Encyclopedia, XIV, 93–96). Ledesma's work is a handbook for members of the Mexican Third Order of St. Francis containing a manual of practices, an organizational guide, a compendium of historical documents, a martyrology, and a history of the Third Order of St. Francis.
In the section of estimable lives that are meant to serve as models are capsule biographies of: the ex–black slave Antonio de Calatagirona (who lived in Sicily), Matias de Medina Gamez (of Mexico City), Anachoreta Juan Baptista de Jesus (native of Spain, who lived in Tlaxcala, Mexico), Pedro de San Joseph Vetancur (of Guatemala), and Francisco Pardo (born in Castile and a resident of Puebla).
Ledesma, a native-born Mexican and the Comisario Visitador of Mexico City's “branch” of the Third Order of St. Francis, indicates in the margins, via side- and shouldernotes, the sources of his information, showing he had access to a library containing books from all over Europe, Mexico, and Guatemala.
The volume also has literary and printing history interest: Among the prefatory matter is a sonnet by Bernabe Perez de Turcios, and Maria de Benevides was one of the colonial New World's notable printers, and she produced this with wide margins, some nice typography and initials, and a good woodcut of the Order's emblem.
Provenance: Marca de fuego of the Jesuit Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo of Mexico City on the upper edges; ownership-stamp of the Universidad Nacional y Pontificia on folio 1.
Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, and searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Spain. We do find a copy at the National Library of Mexico.
Medina, Mexico, 1446; Beristain, II, 153; Palau 134128. Mid-19th-century quarter brown leather with mottled paper sides and elegant foliate tooling to the spine; all edges speckled blue. Waterstain in lower outside corner of the margins of four leaves in the prefatory matter; a small amount of other spotting/foxing intermittently. A rather nice copy of an uncommon and important work. (29631)

The Language of
the Builders of Monte Alban
Levanto, Leonardo. Cathecismo de la doctrina christiana, en la lengua zaapoteca. Puebla: por la Viuda de Miguel de Orteaga, y por su Original en la Oficina Palafoxiana, 1776. Small 4to. [4] ff., 32 pp.
$7875.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Zapotec is one of the indigenous languages of Oaxaca, Mexico, a member of the Oto-Manguean language family, and was spoken by the builders of Monte Albán and Mitla. Prayers, the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Virtues, the three Theological Virtues, the four Cardinal Virtues, the five Senses, the Act of Contrition, etc. all appear here in that language and offered additionally is
a bilingual catechism.
The first edition of this, a truly rare book, was printed in Puebla in 1733. This second edition, printed in italic and roman type and from the famous Palafoxian Press in Puebla, is but an infrequent visitor to our bookstore despite our specializing in indigenous language books of Mexico.
The number of books published in Zapotec during the Mexican colonial era is much, much smaller than the number published in Nahuatl or even Otomi.
Viñaza 362; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 125; Medina, Puebla, 956; Palau 137035; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2281; Sabin 40732 (“Very rare”). Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties. One small pin-type wormhole through the text from front to rear.
A very nice copy. (27508)
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Cortés Historia in Italian — Signed American,
PROVIDENCE
Red Morocco
Lopez de Gomara, Francisco. Historia, di Don Ferdinando Cortes, marchese della Valle, capitano varlorosissimo. Venetia: Per Francesco Lorenzini da Turino, MDLX [1560]. 8vo (15 cm; 5.75"). [11 of 12], 348 ff. (lacks the title-leaf).
$3200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Following the achievement of the conquest of Mexico, Cortés did not know how to stop and rest on his laurels: He sought greater fame and honor and to do this embarked on several ill-conceived expeditions that added no luster to his name, and when it became clear that the king was not going to make him a viceroy, the slide down the slope was an unpleasant one. Still striving, he enlisted his chaplain Francisco López de Gómara to write a history of the New World that would include a laudatory biography.
The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.
In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz (first published with title Historia di Mexico, et quando si discoperse la nuoua Hispagna [Roma: appresso Valerio & Luigi Dirici fratelli, M.D.L.V]), López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of
Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.
The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. Leaves 292–96 contain
a brief study of Nahuatl and include lists of numbers, months, days, and years in that language.
Binding: American signed binding by Coombs of Providence, R.I., for John Carter Brown (ca. 1865), with his binder's ticket. Full red morocco, round spine, raised bands; author, title, place and date of publication in gilt on spine; gilt roll on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of John Carter Brown on front cover.
Provenance: Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries, supra-libros as above. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.
Alden & Landis 560/28; Sabin 27739; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2t; Medina, BHA, 159n. This edition not in H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 1692. Binding as above. Lacks the title-leaf; (therefore) first leaf of preliminaries with a John Carter Brown's personal ownership stamp and his bookplate on front pastedown. Waterstaining, barely visible in many margins and lightly across text in last half. Four leaves with very old scribbling (pen trials?) in margins. A treasure with a distinguished provenance, presenting itself in the classic fashion of a 19th-century “collector's copy.” (28914)
Maigne, W. Dictionnaire encyclopédique des ordres de chevalerie civils et militaires créés chez les différents peuples depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'a nos jours. Paris: Adolphe Delahays, 1861. 12mo (17.2 cm, 6.8"). xvi, 240 pp., fold. table/plt.
$175.00


Offering in encyclopedic form the history of chivalric orders of
Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the Americas,
this volume describes, among others, American orders such as the Society of
the Cincinnati (U.S.), Ordem de Cristo (Brazil), Ordem de Aviz (Brazil), Ordem
do Cruzeiro (Brazil), Orden de la Cruz de Honor (Guatemala), Légion d'Honneur
(Haiti), Ordre de Sainte-Anne (Haiti), Orden de los Libertadores (Venezuela),
Orden Nacional (Nicaragua), and Orden de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
(Mexico).
Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXème,
I, 772. Uncut, mostly unopened copy. Publisher's wrappers, printed in black
and red; front one off, with expectable chipping and with soiling. Some pages
lightly spotted; mostly, clean. Now housed in a simple acid-free phase-box.
(14356)

Eye-Witness to
Many Events Described
Marure, Alejandro. Bosquejo histórico de las revoluciones de Centro-America. Desde 1811 hasta 1834. Guatemala: Tip. de “El Progreso”, 1877–1878. 8vo. 2 vols. in 1. I: 191, [1 (blank), LII (documents) pp., [3] ff. II: 143, [1 (blandk)], LIX, [1 (blank)] pp., [3] ff.
$275.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Second edition (first was 1837) of Marure's still-consulted account of Cental America during the Federal Republic era (1823–40). In this edition, the “Prologo de la 2. ed.” (vol. I, pp. [1][–3], is signed “Lorenzo Montúfar.” Vol. II has the title “Bosquejo histórico de las revoluciones de Centro-America.”
Late 19th-century quarter red morocco, plain style, with marbled–paper covered boards. Leather lightly scuffed in places. All edges marbled to match endpapers. Occasional pencilling. (24596)

A Classic
ILLUSTRATED Travel
Norman, Benjamin Moore. Rambles in Yucatan; or, notes of travel through the peninsula, including a visit to the remarkable ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, Uxmal &c. New York: J. & H.G. Gangley, 1843. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.1"). Add. engr. t.-p., 304, 12 (adv.) pp.; 1 map, 24 plts.
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Second edition, printed in the year following the first, of a popular travelogue describing the author's adventures in Mexico, particularly through the Yucatan interior. Norman, an author and bookseller, was noted for his humanitarian efforts during the yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans in 1841; he was one of the first U.S. authors to publish an account of the ruins at Chichen Itza, racing against John Lloyd Stephens for that distinction.
In addition to what Sabin calls “a valuable ethnological disquisition,” the volume includes a “Maya vocabulary” and grammar, along with
a map of the region and 24 lithographic plates done from designs by the author, many being important images of Mayan architecture.
Binding: Rosy-purple publisher's cloth, covers blind-stamped with a border of ribbony strapwork and front one with a rather famous central gilt-stamped pictorial vignette; spine with gilt-stamped title, blind-stamped ornamentation mostly in bands, and an additional gilt vignette.
Provenance: Frontispiece with bookplate of Henry B. Noyes, his inked signature on the title-page (“220 E. Painted Post”) dated 1843, another pencilled and dated “Noyes” on front fly-leaf; front free endpaper with rubber-stamps of an Auburn, NY, bookseller.
Sabin 55494; Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library 721; Smith, American Travellers Abroad, N27. Binding mildly cocked with scattered small spots of discoloration, spine sunned as this color cloth loves to be. Ownership indicia as above and on one other page, outer edge of front free endpaper chipped through one of the bookseller's stamps. A few instances of minor offsetting from plates only; a nice, clean copy. (28418)
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The FIRST Press in Guatemala Memorializes
una Gran Fiesta
Núñez, Roque. Diario célebre, solemne novenario, pompa festiva, aclamación gloriosa, con que la ... provincia de la Presentación de Goatemala, del órden real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced Redempción de Captivos celebró ... el culto immemorial del ... S. Pedro Pasqual de Valencia. Guatemala: por Joseph de Pineda Ybarra, 1673. 4to (20.5 cm; 8"). [20], 197 ff.
$18,750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
On 14 August 1670 Pope Clement X confirmed the canonization of Mercedarian Pedro Pascual de Valencia (1227–1300) and a papal bull to the effect was issued. Its arrival in Guatemala was cause for the Mercedarians to plan and carry out a multi-day celebration that included the writing of poetry, the composing and singing of at least one villancico, the writing and performance of a short play, and other literary and religious events including sermons and special masses.
All are described or transcribed here.
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, it was
José Pineda Ibarra who 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 available to him in his new place of settlement, 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.”
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 1674 — 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 and was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.
All 17th-century imprints from Guatemala are extremely rare: Searches of WorldCat, NUC Pre-1956, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, COPAC, and MetaBase
fail to locate any copies of this one anywhere. We do know, however, of one copy in the Guatemalan national library itself.
Provenance: Marca de fuego on the upper edges of the text block of a Mercedarian convent. The marca does not matches those known to have been used in Mexico, leading one to believe this copy belonged to the Mercedarian convent in Guatemala.
Medina, Guatemala, 38. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties; without the final blank leaf (only).
A very nice copy of a very scarce early Guatemalan book. (29425)
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COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY,
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A Good, Old-Fashioned, INDEX to Complicated Law Stuff
Perez y Lopez, Antonio Xavier. Teatro de la legislacion universal de España é Indias. Madrid: Various publishers, 1791–98. Small 4to. 28 volumes.
$4000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
An important, practical, dictionary-like guide to the complicated plethora of legislation (en)acted in the Spanish legal “theater.” An especially useful shortcut to finding royal decrees, court decisions, etc., on any of the thousands of topics indexed.

Palau 221275; Sabin 60899. Modern quarter brown calf over marbled paper boards, with red and green spine labels. A clean, very nice set, with only a bit of minor dampstaining and the odd spot or paper flaw in all the many volumes. All edges red. (25829)
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EUROPEAN (Heritage!)
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MOST HANDSOME
Ruiz de Bustamante, Pedro. Broadside, begins: “Jesus Christus ... in disserttion auspicali pro supremis in Jure canonico....” [Guatemala City]: Apud [Ignacio] Beteta, 1810. Folio extra (40.5 x 29 cm; 16" x 12"). [1] p.
$750.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Ruiz de Bustamante declares his degree defense in canon law at the Guatemalan university, his announcement being contained within a three-element typographic border of printer's ornaments.
Above a Neo-Latin poem to Christ is an exquisite, unsigned, copper-engraved image of Christ crucified. The defense was set for 23 December, the verso containing a small printed announcement that the time for the defense was to be 9 AM.
Chain lines are horizontal!
We trace no copy via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio
Bibliográfico, Metabase, or the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico or Spain. We have failed to find the URL for the OPAC of the Guatemalan National Library.
Medina, Guatemala, 1683. Old folds, left margin irregular.
A very clean, bright, crisp, impressive exemplar. (30336)
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The KEYSTONE
of Hispanic-American
Colonial Law
A Very
HANDSOME
Edition
Spain.
Laws, statutes, etc. Recopilacion de leyes de los reinos
de las Indias. Madrid: Boix, 1841. Small folio. 4 vols. in 2. I: [6]
ff., 335, [1 (blank)] pp. II: [1] f., 334 (i.e., 332) pp., [1 (index) f. III:
[1] f., 319, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f. IV:[1] f., 147, [1 (blank)] pp., [1] f.;
105, [1], 31, [1] pp. (all indices).
$2150.00
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 fifthwhich
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.
Urbis,
& Orbis. Broadside.
Begins: "Vrbis, & Orbis. Sanctissimus D.N. Clemens Papa X de consilio Ementissimorum
Cardinalium Sac. Rituum Congregationi Præpositorum ad preces sibi porrectas...."
Guatemala: José Pineda Ibarra, 1673. 4to. Two copies printed on an uncut
half sheet (one on recto, one on verso); size of sheet 31 x 21 cm.
$12,000.00

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 sheetone 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. This is stored in a mylar folder, for its protection;
we did not remove it to photograph it. But it CAN be removed it
is not (we shudder to type it!) laminated as it may appear to be, on your
monitor.
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
Click any image above for an enlargement.
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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Individual Yankee Imperialism
Walker, William. The war in Nicaragua. Mobile & New York: S.H. Goetzel & Co., 1860. Small 8vo. Frontis. port., xii, 431 pp., fold. map.
$775.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Published the year he was executed, this is
Walker's own account of his filibustering expedition to take over Nicaragua, after having failed to wrest Baja and Sonora from Mexico. Walker was a man who wanted his own country and did not let initial failure deter him. His attempt to take Nicaragua was successful at first but a combination of local resistance, the Costa Rican army, and mercenaries in the employ of Cornelius Vanderbilt (who viewed Walker as a threat to his own interests in Central America) brought about Walker's downfall.
After a brief respite back in the U.S., where he was welcomed as a hero, Walker, the quintessential filibusterer, returned to Central America wanting to capture Honduras. He died there trying.
The map (14" x 16") is in four colors and is titled “Colton's Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador & Costa Rica.
Publisher's brick colored textured cloth stamped in blind. Top and bottom of spine pulled and frayed. Some foxing at front and rear. Newspaper articles at front and rear of volume. Some added owner's notes about Walker on blanks.
Clean. (21372)
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