Also accompanying the main text are a few of Rabanus's shorter writings (opuscula) on such topics as marriage, penitence and punishment, and magic. The treatise De ortu, vita, & moribus Antichristi ends the volume and is attributed to Adson, abbé of Montierender.

The work is printed in a cramped roman with side- and shouldernotes and a scattering of woodcut initials — mostly small, one large. A woodcut on verso of the title-page depicts a bishop writing and has the inscription: “Rabanvs Mav. Mogvn. arch. DCCCLV.” The handsome printer's device is found on the verso of the final leaf.

Provenance:  Several early (contemporary to ca. 1755) ownership inscriptions, some overwriting earlier ones. Decipherment is left to scholars with greater skills and apparatus then possessed by this cataloguer.

Evidence of readership: Some very early lining through; some marginal markings, not extensive; a good deal of writing on blanks.

•  VD16 H5269; Adams R2 (lacking last 60 leaves). Not in Coumont, Demonology and & Witchcraft.   Recent full dark brown calf, old style by Grace Bindings; raised bands, blind ruling above and below the bands as accents, gilt beading on the bands, blind-stamped center devices in spine compartments. Modest double fillets in blind on covers. gilt rules. Scattered waterstaining and age-soiling. Leaf A3 torn with loss of text; H6 with deckled bottom margin; I5 with lower outside corner torn out costing two letters of the catchword, & S6 with a natural paper flaw not affecting text.  (22531)

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

For other, related MSS,  click here.

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The three color plates are facsimiles of post-Conquest pictorial codices; and the fourth plate is a lithograph portrait of Alvarado with a facsimile of his signature.

Provenance:  Owner's stamp on title-page of Alfredo Chavero; later owned by Charles Minot; given by him in 1886 to Harvard College; in 20th century deaccessioned.

•  Sabin 67646.   Contemporary Mexican quarter black calf, gilt spine extra, dry and worn at spine; top of spine pulled with one inch of leather gone. Interior clean and good with ownership marks as above.  (21531)

•  Modern boards covered with old-style German sprinkled brown paper, with paper label on front cover. Title-page lightly soiled in top margin.

Rare: No U.S. holdings traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, or RLIN.

•  Contemporary half vellum with green marbled-paper sides; rubbed with loss to paper on edges and total loss of vellum over corners. Spine divided into compartments by black rules and with black-lettered title. Endpapers lightly browned and a brittle with a little chipping. Some light foxing, soiling, and waterstaining; inked ownership inscription on front free endpaper.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only the copies at the Bancroft and Chilean National libraries; although, clearly, there is or was one in the Sutro Library.

•  Sutro 175.   Removed from a nonce volume. A good clean copy.  (21742)

Schwarz critiques Protestant authors, such as Grotius, Puffendorf, Heineccius, and Thomasius, and other writers on these subjects, pointing out where they agree with and where they differ from Catholic teaching.

He first published his Institutiones juris in 1741, and, according to DeBacker-Sommervogel, this is the third of six editions. Present here are parts 1 and 2 of 4, in which, however, all the matters above listed are discussed. This edition is printed with the title-page in red and black, a woodcut headpiece and tailpieces, and a plethora of side- and footnotes.

Provenance: Inked inscription on title-page, "Rodriguez de Arellano."

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, 948. Limp vellum with remnants of ties; spine with inked title. Scattered spots of staining to spine and rear cover. Pp. 41–42 of the first series of pagination has a large chip out of the upper outer corner with loss of page numbers but no text. Pp. 155–56 has a tear in the outer margin, not touching text. Occasional worming in the outer margins, not touching text. Scattered age-spotting; a few occasions of light waterstaining in the outer margins.

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•  Palau 87353 (for Granada printing). Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with shadow of pencilled numeral and faintly inked earlier numeral in upper margin. Pages creased but clean, with tiny hole along fold of last leaf.

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•  Not in Palau. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with shadow of pencilled numeral and faintly inked earlier numeral in upper margin. Pages creased but clean.

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While Ferdinand VII remained the prisoner of Napoleon, the Regency promulgated several important human rights acts, and this was one of the most important. The Regency ratified and published it 29 January and on 31 January it was ordered distributed throughout the empire.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; not in Sutro. Folds from having been previously bound into a small folio volume. Left margin irregular from removal from that volume. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

•  Not in Garritz, Impresos novohispanos; Medina, Mexico; Sutro; Harper, Americana Iberica; or Steele. Sewn as issued. A remarkable copy of a very scarce imprint. (21013)

In sum, this is a major work for all collections of international and Hispanic-specific law. The first edition is very uncommon in today's marketplace, meaning most scholars and collectors must settle for a later edition, such as this fifth—which has the happy advantage of being handsomely printed in double-column format. This copy is attractively bound, as well.

•  Palau 137466; Sabin 68390. Victorian acid-stained sheep with gilt spines extra. Marbled edges. Tape adhered to one title-page at inner margin. Ownershjp signatures on title-page. A nice set.

Galvez was a special commissioner charged with making reforms in the governing of Mexico; his work greatly influenced the 1786 replacement of the Mexican provinces with 12 intendencias. The 18th century saw a rebirth of the Mexican and the Peruvian silver industry as new technologies and techniques were introduced. Concomitant with the increased production was increased wealth for the mine owners and the crown.

•  Not in Palau (?); not in Maggs, Bibl. Amer.; not in Harper, Catalogue XVI. Excised from a volume and leaves no longer integral, but now rehinged. Light stain in inner margin. Rubber-stamped numbers in upper margins. Manuscript notes indicating that this copy was sent to authorities in Chile. Now housed in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides. A nice copy of an important economic document.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1612. Not in Medina, Mexico; not in Sutro. Folds from having been previously bound into a small folio volume. Left margin irregular from removal from that volume. Revenue stamps on the verso. Viceroy Venegas’s paraph (“rúbrica”) below his printed name. A very good copy.

•  Folded as issued; some light foxing.

•  Modern half vellum. No problems.

Typically, pleadings such as these were printed to the minimal standards of "job printing," but most present here have interesting woodcut initials, some historiated, and among them they are decorated with an interesting array of type-ornaments; eight are begun with a good-size woodcut or engraving of the Virgin, the Virgin and Child, or the Crucifixion, typically unsigned. Usually there is no indication of where the item was printed, and dates must be inferred from the contents or from the watermark of the paper.

Such Spanish documents as these are rare in non-Spanish libraries.

•    All documents are removed from bound volumes, but, unless otherwise noted, are still sewn. They are in good, usable condition, and are unfoxed, with exceptions to these rules noted in the complete listing of the collection—available upon request.

•  Modern quarter tan cloth over light blue paper-covered boards in the style of the early 19th-century, spine with printed paper label; uncut copy. Tear and chips at top margin of title-page, repaired some time ago. Title-page and several early leaves lightly age-toned and with some traces of soiling. Old ink ownership signature on title-page and p. 22, and just a bit of ink smudging at top margin of p. 23.  (24445)

The volume was written on a single paper stock but by a (small) number of copyists. It bears an unidentified marca de fuego in the lower margins which usually indicates a religious library's ownership, increasing the possibility that the manuscript originated in the scriptorium of one of the orders. The purpose for compiling the documents is unclear, but since the various orders were in almost continuous litigation, and would often invoke the memory and spirit of a past monarch, a compendium such as this would have been extremely useful—especially when operating in opposition to the new, foreign monarchs, who, with their French ways of doing things, were to be challenged and "educated."

Provenance: Gavito collection; marca de fuego as above and below.

•  Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges; recased and new endpapers applied. Clean, crisp, unwormed text. Marca de fuego reading "CDS" within a rectangular braided border.

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•  Palau 236209. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages creased, with small areas of light waterstaining to upper and lower inner margins; title-page with early inked numeral and shadow of pencilled numeral in upper margin.

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•  Palau 236212. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small early inked numeral and shadow of pencilled numeral in upper margin; publication authorization leaf with small hole just touching letters, without loss of sense.

Bolívar had strong ideas about what the nature of the constitution should be, and he expressed them forcefully to congress as it worked on the constitution, but in the end, the legislators went their own way. Two years later, because Bolívar had freed Colombia and much of Ecuador, Venezuela merged with those two regions to form the free nation of Grand Colombia, being the former territory of the Viceroyalty of New Granada.

Searches of the standard library databases fail to find any copy of this important publication held by any U.S. library. Bolívar himself imported the press on which this outstanding document was printed, obtaining it in Trinidad. The man in charge of the press was Andrew Roderick, almost certainly an Englishman, but at least one source labels him Belgian, which seems most unlikely.

•  Not in Palau; not in Medina, Imprenta en algunas ciudades de la América Española. In modern wrappers. A very clean and crisp copy of a certifiable rarity.

•  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.

Williams, a Welsh philosopher, was a founder of the Royal Literary Fund and a close friend of Oliver Goldsmith.

These collected translations are fairly widely held institutionally, but seldom seen on the market.

•  ESTC T51661; Lowndes 2792; Allibone 2736.   Recent period-style mottled calf, framed and panelled with gilt rules and gilt-stamped corner fleurons, panelling in contrasting calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, raised spine bands set off by gilt double fillets. Frontispiece portrait lacking. Light foxing; one leaf with tear from lower margin, extending into five lines of text.  (23537)

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 18239; NSTC W529. Recent paper wrappers. Some instances of light foxing and offsetting.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 1446. 19th-century half vellum over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with inked titles; sides and edges a bit scuffed, with spines darkened. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates; title-pages with early inked ownership inscriptions. Most pages lightly to moderately foxed. All edges speckled blue. A good sound set.