In our considerable experience, works in Tarascan are considerably rarer than those in Nahuatl, the principal language of central Mexico.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3205; Viñaza 294 (giving wrong date of publication); García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 70 (also giving wrong date); Palau 309782; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3572.   Recased in contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties; some repairs to vellum; vellum cockled and with stains. Modern endpapers. Lacks the title-leaf and the full-page woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee. Marginal damage to first leaf of front index and to last three leaves (i.e., rear index), repaired. Small loss of perhaps a dozen letters total, all in the indices. Much damaged and priced accordingly — still, textually complete.  (23340)

Nine plates are included, the last of which an impressively oversized, folding map in French and Russian showing the river route from Yakutsk to Okhotsk; the map is labelled, “Par un Anglois nommé William Walton qui en envoya l‘original à Mr. Visher à Petersbourg le 15 fevrier 1743” and “Calquée d‘après l‘original et gravée par E. Dussy.”

•  Sabin 77608. Mottled calf, worn and cracking, covers framed with triple gilt fillets; spine with five raised, abraded bands and gilt-stamped, chipped floral devices in compartments. Front joint cracked and back starting, with cords holding. Some loss of leather to corners, base of spine.  Bookplate of the Bibliotheca Sobolewskiana.  Edges marbled; most pages clean, a few with varying offsetting.

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.

Click either image for an enlargement.

•  Ayer, Narratives of Indian Captivity, 280; Howes S-930; Sabin 91164; Shaw & Shoemaker 45795. Contemporary mottled sheep, worn; leather chipping over spine and lost over head of spine. Front pastedown torn and peeling; front free endpaper lacking; back pastedown absent. Title-page with upper inner corner torn away, just touching “T” in first “The” of title. Pages age-toned and spotted, with some edge nicks and chips. Sewing starting to loosen.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Sewn with original stitching. First and last leaves and page edges lightly age-toned; text with corrections and portions crossed out.

The title-page is printed in red and black; three full-page diagrams depict Tartarus, the Islamic paradise, and a world map showing where each religion is practiced.

•  ESTC R6111; Wing (rev.) T3347; European Americana 695/199. On Turner, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and old-style white-painted call number; leather a bit rubbed at corners, joints, and spine extremities. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp, introduction with stamped numeral in lower margin, first and last text pages each with rubber-stamp in lower margin, all edges rubber-stamped; all stamps faint. Light waterstaining and occasional pencilled letters in outer margins of a few leaves. One leaf with closed tear; one with outer corner (no text) torn away. (21093)

•  Not in American Imprints. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels. Title-page, preface, and first contents page with outer margins repaired; some subsequent leaves with short edge tears or nicks; last few leaves with outer edges chewed, some repaired. Light waterstaining to lower outer portions; mild foxing. (21115)

Not in OCLC; not in RLIN; not in NUC Pre-1956.

•  Not in Viñaza; not in Pilling, Proof-Sheets; not in Leon-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuicolli; not in Newberry Library, Ayer Collection; not in García Icazbalceta, Lenguas. Original printed wrappers; light foxing.

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. In fact, in very good condition.

This is the stated 15th edition; the work was originally printed in 1740, under the title An Essay towards an Instruction for the Indians. The author, an Anglican divine praised by the DNB for “his ecclesiastical discipline . . . his transparent purity, his uniform sweetness of temper, and his self-denying charities,” was bishop of Sodor and Man from 1697 until his death in 1755, and an early supporter of both the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

•  ESTC T85016; Field, Essay towards an Indian Bibliography, 1680 (for early eds.); Sabin 104691. On Wilson, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled decorations in compartments. Lower edges of closed book and half-title (in lower margin) institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). First and last two leaves slightly foxed, pages otherwise clean.