Click the images for enlargements.

This work discusses his humility, obedience to the Agustinian rule and vows, and in part his work among the native population.

This second edition additionally contains Lucas Centeno's compilation of the documents relating to the reinterment of Fr. Basalenque's remains in the Convento de Santa María de Gracia in Valladolid (now Morelia), Mexico.

•  Sabin 75779; Palau 287455; Medina, BHA, 3996.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. Rodent damage to binding (bits devoured especially at back cover fore-edge) and some nibbling to lower edge of closed book (not anywhere near the text). Clean, solid, unwormed copy.  (28616)

Provenance:  Private bookplate on pastedowns and ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries and elsewhere. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Howes S200; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 9182; Sabin 77989.   19th-century half brown morocco and marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped titles and bands; moderately rubbed. Front pastedowns each with private bookplate of John Carter Brown as above, subsequently rubber-stamped by the library bearing his name (properly deaccessioned), title-pages each with faded early inked inscription (dated 1752 and 1753), sectional title-page of vol. I and first text page of vol. II each with Brown's red signature rubber-stamp. Lacking four maps and 58 plates. Scattered faint foxing and spotting, vol. II with lower portions of front endpapers and first few leaves waterstained, pages overall generally clean. Priced to reflect plate absences — but this is a worthwhile text, complete, solidly bound, and with an interesting association.  (29149)

No copy traced via OCLC.

•  Not in Banks. Not in Evans.   One leaf, folded. First page with half-inch long tear and another smaller tear at upper left corner, not touching text. Near fine.  (14758)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover with moose vignette stamped in brown, spine with brown- and black-stamped title and additional moose; rubbed, spots of soiling, spine sunned and with inked shelving number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate (no other library markings); back pastedown with bookseller's small ticket. Pages clean. Still fun and you can still learn stuff.  (27088)

This is numbered copy 146 of 425 printed, signed at the colophon by the author and additionally inscribed by him to “Professor Harry” on the half-title.

•  Publisher's half tan cloth and orange paper–covered sides, front cover with design printed in black, spine with printed paper label; lacking the slipcase, binding with old smudges and areas of discoloration, front cover with small scrape, back outer edge with small dent. Minor offsetting from illustrations, pages otherwise clean.  (28213)

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped hunting scene and title framed in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine head lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27113)

Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance: Title-page with affixed presentation slip from the State Historical Society; front free endpaper with affixed envelope flap addressed to the Rev. E.A. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD.

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title. Binding sturdy but with portion of spine cloth missing, exposing underlying material; corners bumped, extremities very lightly rubbed. Front pastedown with institutional stamp. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean.

The two volumes are illustrated with six steel-engraved portraits, an oversized representation of the “Talk with the Indians at Buffalo Creek in 1793,” and an oversized, folding map.

Brant had famously translated the Book of Common Prayer into Mohawk; in 1784, he led his tribe into Canada to live by the Grand River north of Lake Erie.

•  American Imprints 53125; Howes S1040; Sabin 92139.   Olive-brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. II in publisher's original binding and vol. I in recent reproduction of same (vol. I shorter than vol. II; vol. II with extremities rubbed, back cover discolored, back joint repaired and front joint starting). Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, rubber-stamp on each engraved title-page, pressure-stamp on each printed title-page, no other markings. Vol. I: Several early and a few subsequent pages with faint spotting; ten leaves with inner margins waterstained and subsequently slightly fragile, one with resulting tear extending into text without loss. Vol. II: some early outer margins waterstained. Folding plate with short tear from inner margin, touching image without loss. A more than serviceable copy of an essential work of American history, priced to reflect its previous service.  (29415)

Provenance: “Miss Carrie G. Skinner, Fort Ann Village, NY.”

•  American Imprints 43-4820; Sabin 93131.   Publisher's violet cloth, covers blind-stamped with central gilt-stamped urn vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations; cloth sunned especially at edges and spine, corners bumped, front joint with small spots of old insect damage. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription, as above. Foxed; a few poems with early pencilled annotations (brief) — one is, simply, “Splendid.”  (27650)

In addition to the grammar and dictionary the work includes in Quechua a confessionary, the questions asked during the wedding ceremony, the Litany of Blessed Virgin Mary, and “the hymn and prayer devoted to the taking out of the Holy Scripture that is sung in various of the churches of this diocese every day.”

Provenance:  In an 18th-century hand, “Es de . . . Dn. Mariano Navia de Bolaño. On rear pastedown, “Collated perfect. May 22d / [18]94 J.J.”

•  Medina, Lima, 1068; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 39; Viñaza 336; Sabin 96271; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 2409. Not in DeBacker-Sommervogel.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, yapp edges. Very limited, rather neat pinhole worming; occasional spots of soil and paper somewhat browned in some sections due to nature of water in manufacture; inscriptions as above and one page of the vocabulary with contemporary annotation. A very nice, crisp copy.  (28399)

•  Sabin 48484.   Contemporary Mexican mottled sheep with gilt spine extra; leather lightly worn at edges and with some scuffing. First and last few leaves with soiling/staining, and a few leaves browned due to the nature of their paper; else, clean with only the odd spot or smudge.  (27521)

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

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, beingall 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.

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.

•  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. Wrappers, edges, first and last leaves with smoke discoloration; many upper margins with intrusion of same. (3312)

WorldCat does not locate any U.S. institutional holdings of this first edition.

Provenance:  Frontispiece recto with early inked ownership inscription of Miss Mary Anne Lane, title-page with ownership rubber-stamp of Deziderio Pacheco.

•  This ed. not in NSTC (see NSTC W139 for fourth ed.).   Contemporary turquoise straight-grained sheep with blue and black paste paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, yellow endpapers still bright; binding scuffed, leather lost at all corners, spine leather slightly sunned. Front pastedown with small ticket of a Portuguese bookseller/binder; ownership marks otherwise as above. Frontispiece with mild waterstaining to margins, touching caption and upper edge of image only; title-page browned, with one short tear from outer edge. One leaf with tear along inner margin, touching several lines without loss. Pages clean.  (29571)

The Rev. Alfred Wright (1788–1853) was a missionary and physician who spent over 30 years among the Choctaw people in Mississippi and Oklahoma. He founded the Wheelock Mission (named for Wright's friend Eleazer Wheelock, Dartmouth College's first president) in 1832, where he was directly involved in developing the Choctaw written language, along with Cyrus Byington and Joseph Dukes; indeed his Choctaw translations were among the first books printed in that language.

•  Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3890; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Choctaw-59; Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 285; W. B. Morrison, “The Choctaw Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma 4 (June 1926).   Original cloth-backed light marbled boards, the inner covers and endpapers foxed (an effect of the glue used in the binding) and all leaves a bit puckered (an effect of the sewing); lower corners lightly bumped and small tear to outer margin of B1. A very good, clean copy.  (29478)

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.