South America: Philadelphia Rare Books

Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company - Early Printed Books, Substantive Manuscripts, U.S. and Latin Americana, Mexico & New World Languages, Hispanica, Histories & the History of Ideas, Travels, Cookery, Law, Religion, & Bibles (All Antiquarian)

SOUTH AMERICA

A-B • C • D-F • G-J • K-M • N-Q • R-S • T-Z

Grammar Dictionary & Religious Texts in Quichua/Quechua

Torres Rubio, Diego de. Arte, y Vocabulario de la lengua quichua general de los indios de el Perú. Lima: En la impr. de la Plazuela de San Christoval, 1754. Small 8vo (14.5 cm; 6"). [6], 254, [2] ff.
$4800.00

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• Interest during the Enlightenment in “the noble savage” helped to reawaken interest in the study of New World languages and that in turn resulted in some long out-of-print works of the early 17th century being reprinted or revised and reprinted.

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)

Please Try to Get Along!

Triunfo, José del Carmen. Letter Signed to the Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores of Bolivia. On paper, in Spanish. Lima, 12 May 1847. Folio, 3 pp.
$150.00

On official Consulate stationery.

• Very good condition. Private ownership stamp. Glue and paper adhering along top margin, as from mounting.

As Viewed from Mexico:
the Four Months Prior toNapoleon's Treachery

Valdes, Manuel Antonio (ed.). Gazeta de México. Mexico: 1808.
$850.00

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Gazetas de México

The present volume (XIV) covers 2 January 1808 through 16 April 1808, in other words till just before news arrived of Napoleon's treachery in Spain, with coverage of the war in Europe; British military actions in the Caribbean, Uruguay, and Argentina; ship arrivals; cargoes unloaded; notices from the provinces; Miranda's revolt in Venezuela; and even a comet seen in Europe.

Provenance: Ex-John Carter Brown library, properly deaccessioned.

• Sewn, removed from and now loosely laid into its original Mexican mottled sheep binding, this with a modestly gilt spine bearing a green leather gilt title-label and with an old paper label on its front cover. Some issues lightly soiled or with a bit of spotting/staining, else generally clean and very good. (29691)

Heroic Lima — Heroic Literature

Valdés, Rodrigo de. Poema heroyco hispano-latino panegyrico de la fundacion, y grandezas de la muy noble, y leal ciudad de Lima. Obra postuma. Madrid: En la Imprenta de Antonio Roman, 1687. Small 4to (20 cm; 8"). §⁴–§§§§§§§⁴ a–g⁴ A–Z⁴ Aa⁴; [56] ff., 184 pp, [4] ff.
$2875.00

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The poem was left unpublished at the time of the author’s death and Francisco Garabito de León Messía saw to its publication.

• Palau 347681; Medina, BHA, 1806; European Americana 687/140; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 376–77. Recased in old vellum. A very good copy.

In This Funeral Oration . . .
SomePointed Remarks Were Made

Vargas, Casimiro. Oracion fúnebre que pronunció...en las exequias solemnes que se celebraron en la iglesia de la Compañía el 5 de diciembre de 1854 por el alma de...José Gandarillas. Santiago, [Chile]: Imp. de la Sociedad, 1854. 8vo. 21, [1 (blank)] pp.
$80.00

• Not in Palau. Modern light wrappers, lacking original wrappers; some stains and exseminary library with stamp on title-page.

“AMERICANOS” — Proclaiming

VENEZUELA
One of the

Free Governments of the Americas

Venezuela. Junta Suprema Gubernativa. Broadside, begins: “Americanos. El orden politico del otro hemisferio ha reducido la España á ser victima de la perfidio y ooresion y este pueblo generoso conducido de uno en otro infortunio va ya á ser borrado del catalogo de las naciones ... ” [Caracas: Gallagher y Lamb, July, 1811]. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). 1 p.
$17,500.00

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This document dates from immediately after July 5th, as internal evidence shows. Here the Junta Suprema explains what it sees to be the political reality of Spain’s dissolution into non-nationhood under Napoleon and thereby justifies “Venezuela [having] entered now, Americanos, into the number of free nations of the Americas.”

Very Rare. This broadside was unknown to Medina. Grases located only the copies in the Public Record Office (London) and the Archivo de Indias (Seville). Searches of NUC and WorldCat fail to find any copy at all. Further, no copies were found when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, France, and England: Evidently, this is the third known copy.

• Not in Medina, Caracas; not in Villasana. Grases, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela, Repertorio #72. As issued. Worming in foremargin; repaired. Pencilling in margins. A very good copy.

Venezuela & Ecuador Combative

Venezuela. Legación. Ecuador. [cover-title] Legacion venezolana en el Ecuador. [drop-title] Documentos relativos a la mision del honorable Señor Coronel Andres Maria Alvarez, encargado de negocios de Venezuela cerca del gobierno del Ecuador. [Quito?, ca. 1858]. Tall 4to. 24 pp.
$250.00

• In modern wrappers, preserving the original front printed wrapper.

Men of Cajamarca — TWOEYEWITNESS Accounts of Events

Xerez, Francisco de. Libro primo de la Conqvista del Perv & prouincia del Cuzco de le Indie occidentali. [colophon: Vinegia {i.e., Venice}: Stampato per Stephano da Sabio, 1535]. 4to. [62] ff.
$45,000.00

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true entertainment cast in the tradition of the romance of chivalry; not surprisingly, it was a blockbuster.

Verdadera relación de la conquista del Peru y Provincia del Cuzco llamada la Nueva Castilla.

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.

Both of these first translations into Italian are from the pen of Domingo de Gaztelu (secretary of Don Lope de Soria, Charles V's ambassador to Venice) and are taken from the second edition of the Spanish-language original. The text is printed in roman type and has a large heraldic woodcut device on the title-page and a xylographic printer's device on the verso of the last leaf.

A very good copy

Peruvian ConquestIllustrated

Zárate, Agustín de. Histoire de la decouverte et de laconquete du Perou. Traduite de l'Espagnol...par S.D.C. Paris: La compagnie des libraires, 1716. 8vo (17 cm, 6.75"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., [40], 360 pp.; 13 (2 fold.) plts., 1 fold. map. II: [8], 479, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00

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• Early French printing of this very successful Peruvian history, which went through numerous editions in languages including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, and English. Zárate arrived in Peru as part of the retinue of the first viceroy, and served there from 1543 until 1548. His work was first printed in its original Spanish in 1555, but did not appear in French until 1700; the present translation was done by S. de Broë, Seigneur de Citry et de la Guette. The first volume is illustrated with an oversized folding map and fourteen engraved plates, including the well known depiction of a nattily dressed European gentleman, reclining on a raft-like cushion, borne across a stream by two Indians.

Married set

• Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.

In Paper Wrappers, 1774

Zárate, Agustin de. Histoire de la découverte et de la conquête du Perou, traduite de l’Espagnol d’Augustin de Zarate, par S.D.C. Paris: Par la compagnie des libraires, 1774. 8vo (18 cm, 7.1"). I: Frontis., xl, 360 pp.; 1 fold. map, 10 engr. plts., 2 fold. engr. plts. II: viii, 479, [1 (blank)] pp.
$445.00

Classic and standard work on the discovery, conquest, and subsequent civil war periods

seigneur de Citry et de La Guette

• Sabin 106266; Palau 379645. Volumes bound in paper wrappers, back wrapper lacking in both cases; front wrappers reinforced with printed papers taken from other items. Reverse of frontispiece in vol. I and front pastedown in vol. II with small bookplates of private collector. Edges untrimmed. Scattered spots; pages and plates generally in good clean condition.

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