These publications are filled with documents concerning the imbroglio. Ancízar's preface to the first is dated 18 September 1855 and that to the second 10 January 1856; while the third has no preface, it dates from 1856 after 16 August, the date of the last document present.

•  In recent plain wrappers. The original printed front wrapper of the second pamphlet is present. A number is stamped in one margin. Some waterstaining is visible on some pages, otherwise this is quite clean.

Provenance: Partially erased presentation inscription on first title-page from Julio Núñez, dated 1862.

•  Palau 196836, 196837, 196838. On Núñez, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 665, frames 235-48. Mid-19th-century quarter cloth with marbled paper sides, spine discolored. Private ownership stamps.

The Court had just come through a period during which a military ruler had systematically dismantled the courts and undercut their authority and dignity. Olañeta had assumed his presidency only days before the first document in the collection was penned.

•  Very good condition. A few small tears at folds.

As with all early New World schoolbooks, this one is uncommon: We trace only four copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership signatures of Jose Simon Escobedo on front free endpaper and early 19th-century ownership inscription and signature of Jose Vicente Martinez of Ocotlan on the rear fly-leaf.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4839.   Contemporary limp vellum with its ties. Two small pieces vellum missing from fore-edge of front cover; spine with title anciently inked and an old shelfmark in red ink at base. Ownership signatures as above with another inked over on front free endpaper. A good++ copy.  (29854)

Handsomely printed on a single sheet, in two columns.

Rare: We fail to trace this piece of exile writing via OCLC, RLIN, NUC Pre-1956, or Palau.

•  In good/very good condition, save for short tears to margins. Good Venezuelan item.

•  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)

A minor observation on the printing: The paper used is wove, except that of pp. 21–24 which is fine quality laid; and p. 24 is misnumbered "17." One wonders if these pages are cancels. Not found via NUC, OCLC, or RLIN.

•  Posada, Bibliografía bogotana, 392. Modern marbled covered light boards. Brittle paper; small hole in final leaf costing two letters.

François Raymond Joseph de Pons (1751–1812) was archivist for the French Navy. This work also appeared in English, German, and Spanish editions; this is its first edition, and the sole French edition.

Provenance: Engraved armorial bookplates of Thomas Munro on front pastedowns. Unattributed note in pencil in top margin of half-title of vol. I (repeated in substance in the other volumes): “This was Talleyrand’s copy.”

This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”

The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.

Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.

•  Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin.   Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation.  (25862)

The binding is full marbled sheep (pasta española) with gilt-stamped red spine-labels and raised bands accented with gilt rules.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 275. Original red slipcase; rubbed, chipped and splitting along edges, with some paper loss at corners; case spine sunned. Spine leather a bit darkened, bottom of front joint starting. A very good copy, in a good slipcase.

•  BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.