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Choir Master ofPopayán, 1621

•  Detailed here is the last will and testament of the choir master of Popayán, Colombia. Ramírez was an absentee office holder, for he lived in Peñafiel, Spain, indulged in this failure to take up his duties in the New World by the bishop of Popayán—who happened to be his uncle. The choir master’s wealth was considerable and while not itemized as in an estate inventory, it is more than hinted at via the bequests here of real estate (with provenance), of silver and gold chalices and crosses, and of cash in the form of coin. The bequests also give an interesting picture of the size of his family and the ranking of nieces, nephews, etc.

Certified, contemporary copy of the original.

•  Sewn. In good condition. Very legible notarial hand.

The Choir Master’s Nephew’s Widow

  Gets the (that’s, HER!) Children

•  Don Alonso Ramírez was the past choir master of Popayán, Colombia, and his nephew Diego Ramírez Carrillo gave him power of attorney to his (Diego’s) last will and testament and to compile the requisite inventory of the estate. María de la Puente, widow of Diego is appointed the tutor and guardian of Diego’s and her minor children. The will is very standard with bequests for masses, etc. The inventory of possessions is lengthy and very detailed, showing Diego to have been a man of some wealth. Contemporaneous certified copy of the original document. Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

•  Written in a clear notarial hand, but with bleed-through in the inventory, making reading slightly challenging — not, impossible. Very good condition.

The Choir Master OwnedVineyards
   (& Maria Got Those, Too)

•  Don Alonso Ramírez was the past choir master of Popayán, Colombia, and by this document gives various properties to María de la Puente, widow of Diego Ramírez Carrillo (Don Alonso’s nephew) and Doña Isabel Ramírez Carrillo, Maria’s daughter. The properties include a vineyard (“nueve viñas” that Don Alonso bought from Diego on 9 March 1591; another (“viña a Manzanillo”) that he bought from Juan Arranz, the elder, citizen of Manzanillo, on 7 December 1612; a third vineyard (“viña a Majuelo”) that he purchased from Francisco Santos and his wife (María Muñoz), citizens of Manzanillo, on 20 April 1614; a piece of land in Manzanillo, in the region called “tierras de las Tapias,” sown with two cargas of seed, purchased from Gaspar Decian on 6 January 1586; and a house in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Mediavilla that he purchased on 16 July 1605 from the administrators of the trust that Joratalina Sarmiento established. Click the image for an enlargement.

A contemporaneous certified copy of the original document.

•  Written in a clear notarial hand. Very good condition.

ABogotá Newspaper Prospectus — 1822!

•  Prospectuses for colonial- and early-republic-era Latin American newspapers are virtually unknown, and this one does much more than announce the inauguration of La Indicación. The newspaper's editor, Sr. Ricaurte, also reviews the state of newspaper printing in the cities of Gran Colombia, and in doing so raises a bibliographical question: Writing in July of 1822, he here states that there is a weekly newspaper being published in Panama, then the capital of one of Gran Colombia's provinces. Today the earliest known newspaper from Panama is the Gaceta del Istmo de Panamá that was established in 1823—so to what newspaper did Ricaurte refer? Or was the Gaceta earlier than previously thought?

La Indicación survived only long enough to publish 26 numbers and is now a very rare newspaper. Ricaurte had begun his printing career as Galagarza's partner in the operation of the Colombian government's printing press (La Imprenta del Gobierno).

Very rare: No copies located in NUC Pre-1956 or on OCLC or RLIN.

•  Not in Posada, Bibliografía bogotana; not in Palau. Removed from a nonce volume but in excellent condition.

Very Early VENEZUELAN Imprint

Relating to INDEPENDENCE!

•  Young Rivas, son of one of the leaders of the first independent government in Venezuela, calls on all Venezuelans to unite, saying “the inhabitants of this city” have overthrown an illegitimate government, have established a “supreme authority,” and are now breathing “the air of Independence.” He points out the remaining provinces are the body of the new nation and that without them Caracas is merely a bodyless head. “Unite or die” is his plea, and by doing so, “[w]e will form a nation that will know how to maintain the honor of the Spanish people and that will make all others respect us.” Click the image for an enlargement.

The origins of printing in Venezuela are still, at this late date, shrouded in shadows. There remain questions of whether itinerant printers established themselves now and then for short periods of time, printing a form or booklet — and definitely some playing cards — and then moving on. The accepted date for “the beginning” of printing in Venezuela is October, 1808, with the arrival of the press of Gallagher and Lamb and this issuance of the first issue of Andrés Bello’s Gazeta de Caracas.

Very Rare. This broadside was unknown to Medina and is only the 16th item in Pedro Grases chronological list of things printed in Venezuela. In his entry he located only the copies in the Public Record Office (London) and the Archivo de Indias (Seville). Searches of NUC, OCLC, and RLIN fail to find any copy at all. Further, no copies were found when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, France, and England.

•  Not in Medina, Caracas. Graces, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela, Reportorio #16; Villasana, VI, 108. As issued; minor worming in foremargin; repaired. A very good copy.

First Account of Siamese Twins in the New World
With the “Monster” Plate Present

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  On 30 November 1694 Doña Teresa Girón, wife of Salvador de Olmedo, gave birth to conjoined twins (“Siamese twins” in popular parlance). They died shortly after birth but news having reached the viceroy, he ordered a full scientific investigation, including an autopsy.

The present work is the final report of the viceregal commission and, though by modern standards Desvios' science is wanting, it is one of the few truly scientific medical works printed in Peru in the period to 1700. In fact, the Wellcome catalogue of medical Americana lists only one medical treatise (Navarro's Sangrar y purgar en dias de conjuncion,1645) as preceding it.

Attribution of authorship to the great Peruvian polymath Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo is based on Peralta's claim in his Lima fundada. On the title-page “Rivilla Bonet y Pueyo” declares himself “natural de la Ciudad de Zaragoza Reyno de Aragon. Medico Professor de el Arte Chyrurgico y Cirujano de Camara de su Exc. y de el Hospital Real de Mugeres de la Charidad de esta Ciudad.” The writers of the preliminary licenses, etc., all refer to the author as Rivilla Bonet.

The work begins with preliminary matterincluding sonnets and other poetry and proceeds to a scientific account of the birth, death, and autopsy of the twins; there is considerable speculation of a medieval nature attempting not only to explain the phenomenon but also delving intosuch theological questions as whether the two-headed child had one or two souls, whether it required one or two baptisms and acts of extreme unction, etc.

A full-page copper etching shows the twins.  Full-page etchings and engravings are very uncommon in Peruvian imprints of this era, while the crudely printed text is entirely characteristic of the poor state of Peruvian printing at the end of the 17th century.

The work is rare: OCLC locates only two copies (The National Library of Medicine, Wellcome [lacking the plate of “the monster”]). And we have ourselves located one other (British Library). NUC Pre-1956 adds no additional copies.

•  Medina, Lima, 675; Hernández Morejón, Medicina española , VI,197; Palau 270506; Wellcome, Medical Americana, P.23; Lastres (1951), II, 143–45.   Contemporary limp vellum, cockled and a bit shrunk, with remnants of ties. Some soiling and staining in foremargins; small tear in lower area of title-page repaired with archival tissue. Lacks the etched plate of the sponsor's coat of arms, only; plate of the twins present. Topmost sewing station partially lost and some leaves loosening at that point, but binding overall sound. Now housed in a blue cloth clamshell box with red spine labels.  (21465)

Festivities at theUniversity

Rodríguez Guillén, Pedro,

•  Rodríguez Guillén was a distinguished orator and teacher in Lima at the end of the 17th century and during the first four decades of the 18th. Here he edits a large corpus of sermons, prayers, panegyrics, and descriptions of festivities in connection with the occasion of five Franciscans’ receiving masters degrees at the University of San Marcos. These descriptions include detailed portrayals of the examination of each candidate—the questions asked and responses given. The festivities took place over the span of a week, and among the orators were several “heavy hitters,” including José de Peralta Barnuevo y Rocha, the bishop-elect of Buenos Aires, and Father Alvaro Cabero, S.J. Peralta gave two orations and they appear on pp. 88–94 and 103–07.

Also found here is a word picture of the coat of arms of the university, but curiously not a woodcut of it. The stout volume was printed at the short-lived press that Antonio José Gutiérrez de Cevallos established in 1737 and was forced to give up in 1740 when he went to work for another printer. The typography is well–laid out but the type is clearly old and very much used. Gutiérrez had several interesting woodcut ornaments that he used effectively as tailpieces, and some very interesting initials are contained in woodcut frames reminiscent of renaissance title-page borders, reduced in size.

There are errata for the prefatory matter on pp. [75–76] and a topical index appears at the end.

•  Medina, Lima, 925; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 1467; Palau 274101. Contemporary limp vellum, yapp edges, manuscript title on spine. Contemporary marca de fuego (ownership brand) on top edge. Internally bright, clean, and crisp. A very good copy.

Printed in Philadelphia . . .

•  The author of this was a native of Antioquia, a lawyer, and a diplomat; he wrote this treatise while serving as the Venezuelan plenipotentiary minister to the United States. It was printed for the first time in Philadelphia, and appeared simultaneously in two editions, one in English and the other in Spanish. Writing in hopes of influencing the congress of Grand Colombia, which in 1826 was considering revising the constitution, Salazar offers his noteworthy, extended thoughts on what political organization would be best.

This is a very scarce book. Palau did not know of this English translation, and fewer than eight U.S. libraries report owning a copy of it.

•  Palau 286648 (for the Spanish-language edition); Sabin 75576; Shoemaker 35093a. Recent quarter dark green morocco with marbled paper sides. Pages 3 through 6 are supplied in xerographic facsimile. Browning and foxing.

ICAPTURED Their Guns
    & I Seized Their Press !

•  Commander of the Royalist forces and soon-to-be viceroy Juan Sámano publishes for the general public Gen. Morillo's operational report of 12 December 1817, from Calabozo, Venezuela. In it the Royalist general details his successful campaigns against Simón Bolívar and José Antonio Páez. He details the arms and armaments captured and records that in one engagement not only obtained two fine bronze cannons, but also one of Bolívar's portable presses!

•  Posada, Bibliografía bogotana, II, 322. Very fine condition.

From the Earliest Identifiable Press inBuenos Aires
Printed During ItsFirst Decade of Operation

•  The region that is now Argentina did not get a printing press until circa 1758 when one arrived in Córdoba, at the Jesuit school in that city. The press was uncrated but not used as there were no trained printers until circa 1764, when printer Paul Karrer, a German Jesuit, arrived, and the first known publication from the press is dated 1766. The very next year the Jesuits were expelled from the entire Spanish empire, and the press fell into disuse until it was discovered and taken over by Gov. Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo, who moved it to Buenos Aires. It was his aim to use it as a vocational tool, and to this end he installed it in 1780 in the city's orphanage for boys (“los niños expósitos”), hence the name of the press from that time forward. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

That the Niños Expósitos was a teaching press and not a “fine” one is evident on the last leaf of the volume where type size changes twice in order to get all of the text to fit on the allocated paper!

The production of the press of the Niños Expósitos that we offer here dates from the Press's seventh year of printing. It is a pastoral letter of the greatest colonial-era bishop of the southernmost viceroyalty of the Americas, whose see was the archdiocese of La Plata (now Sucre, Bolivia). He here continues his famous pastoral letter of 1781 concerning the role of the priest as exemplar and ambassador of Christ.

This is a rare book: Palau lists no copies in commerce between 1915 and 1967, and we find only two copies in NUC Pre-1956 (The John Carter Brown and Lilly Libraries); RLIN fails to add any others.

•  Medina, Historia y bibliografía de la imprenta en el antiguo vireinato del Río de la Plata, 87; Furlong, Historia y bibliografía de las primeras imprentas rioplatenses, 1700–1850; La imprenta en Buenos Aires, 264; Palau 289486-7; not in Zinny, Bibliografía histórica de las Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata . . . 1780 hasta . . . 1821. On San Alberto, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 865, frames 59–69.   Publisher's limp vellum with ties. Lacks free endpapers; truly minor old marginal waterstaining. A clean, attractive copy.  (22088)

An Easter Sermon

•  Easter-tide sermon on Christ and the Cross. Larrain eventually rose to be archbishop.

•  Not in Palau. Modern light wrappers, lacking original wrappers. Very good condition.

Alto Peru — An Exceptional “Natural Son”

•  While granting permission for one particular supplicant (in Alto Peru) to take religious vows and to obtain benefices despite his illegitimate birth, the King reiterates to the ecclesiastical authorities that natural and other illegitimate sons are not to be regularly accepted into holy orders.

•  Folded as issued.

The King . . . Appeases His Abused
    ACCOUNTANTS . . .

•  The officials of the Royal Accounting Office in Buenos Aires have complained to the king of ill-treatment at the hands of other government officials, and the king here declares how the accountants are to be treated.

•  Folded as issued.

Bureaucracies Were ALWAYS Bureaucracies
(Humans Have Always Been Human)

•  The Commandant General of the Department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, returns a circular misdirected to him. It should have gone to Administrators of the Treasury at Potosí and concerns the "number of letras de cambio" that they should be sending to the capital.

•  Very good condition. Waterstain in upper margin, not affecting text.

Colonial Support for theRoyal Retreat — MS. Accounting, 1781–85

(Subsidies for the Escorial).

•  Certified copy of a document relating to the 13,200 ducats annually due the monks of the monastery of the Escorial in Spain, promised them in perpetuity by King Philip IV in 1654. In exchange for this annual subsidy of proceeds from encomiendas in Huaylas, Chuquitanta, Conchucas, and other regions in Peru, the monks promised to say masses and to do certain other religious acts for the crown. This document contains specific and detailed accounting data for the years 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1785.

•  Sewn, in good condition.

History of Europe & America Too (1500–68)

Click the images above for enlargements.

•  In this work Surius (1522–78) seeks to cover world events in the 16th century and to present a continuation of the chronicle that Johann Vergen (a.k.a. Joannes Nauclerus) published at Cologne in 1564. Surius, Carthusian monk, compiled the work with the clear intention of presenting a Catholic viewpoint in opposition to other works then in circulation favoring a Protestant one of religious events in Europe, especially the work of Sleidanus, who is singled out repeatedly in the text for criticism.

Coverage of events is wide-ranging and includes Russia, Lithuania, Persia, Byzantium, and the New World. Columbus, Vespucci, and native American cannibalism are discussed under the year 1500; and under 1558 there is a combined account of the exploits of Pizarro in Peru and Cortés in Mexico, with some discussion of Brazil and other areas up to that time.

Printed in small roman type with side- and shouldernotes, historiated woodcut initials, and a printer’s device on the title-page.

•  VD16 S10244; Adams S2099; Alden 568/30; Sabin 93882. Modern full dark calf, in style of the 16th-century including bevelled boards; remnants of clasps retained from an earlier binding. Signature or other ownership mark excised from blank area of title-page. 19th-century ownership inscription at base of title-page. Light waterstaining in some margins. Lacks final blank leaf (only). A very good copy.

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