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•  Medina, Mexico, 11586; Steele 12; Sutro 120; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3227. Removed from a nonce volume; stapled. Some foxing, a little soiling, a few short tears, and a small wormhole in the lower inner corner. A few pencilled notations.

Provenance: Bookplate of Stellita Stapleton (first half of 20th century; see image above right).

•  Palau 24060. Contemporary limp leather with traces of ties; binding worn with a little holing. Title-page torn and repaired with some obscuring of letters; paper browned and text dog-eared with some staining and tattering, resulting in no apparent loss of text. Inked ownership inscriptions on title-page.

It was sung for the first time by Cayetano Carreño and six other voices, the night of 23 April 1810 with the accompaniment of the military orchestra of the “Batallon Veterano.” The performance took place below the balcony on which were assembled the members of the Supreme Junta.

In addition to the historic collaboration of Bello and Carreño, this fabulous document has the distinction of having been printed by Venezuela’s first press, that of Gallagher and Lamb, which only arrived in Caracas in October of 1808, and was almost certainly printed on 24 April, the day after the hymn was first sung!

Very Rare.  This broadside was unknown to both Medina and Pedro Grases. Searches of NUC, OCLC, and RLIN fail to find any copy at all, as is the case when searching the OPACs of the national libraries of Venezuela, Colombia, Spain, France, and England.

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

Provenance: Late-20th-century booklabel of Michael Zinman on front pastedown.

•  Darlow & Moule 8495; Shoemaker 11841; not in O'Callaghan. Contemporary sheep; spine with gilt rules and a black leather title label, gilt-lettered. Some rubbing and abrasions; spine leather dry with fine cracks, top of front joint opening. Pages with scattered foxing and browning; in a few places chipping in the margins, not affecting text—typical degrees of this only. Paper label probably from a lending library, affixed to front pastedown; pencilled notes, including ownership inscriptions, on endpapers. All edges speckled red.

Copies of this constitution are difficult to come by: none have appeared at auction in the last 50 years, we are unaware of any having been offered by booksellers in the last 30 years, and searches of the standard library databases locate only one copy in the U.S. (New York Public Library).

•  Palau 59774; René-Moreno, Biblioteca boliviana, 762. Sewn as issued but a copy that has suffered vicissitudes: Waterstaining, especially at inner quarter of all leaves; silverfish or other insect damage to inner margins of early leaves. Upper outer corners of all leaves with significant loss of blank margins to hungry rodent. Tattered and dog-eared.   Still, . . .

•  Not in Palau. Original yellow printed wrappers, removed from a nonce volume with stab holes in the inner margins; inside wrappers with a short closed tear and a little shallow chipping, light soiling and a few stray marks. Fold mark down the center and traces of soiling on the top edges.

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•  Library tan buckram with gilt lettering on spine. Ex–American Antiquarian Society copy with small “Sold by AAS” stamp on front pastedown and blind-embossed stamp on title. A very nice copy. (21509)

In this edition Lic. Pablo de Mendibil has edited the letters into four large chapters and added lithographic portraits of Hidalgo, Morelos, Bravo, Guerrero, and Guadalupe Victoria. They are variously from originals by Gauci or unidentified artists, and are lithographed by either R.Cooper or Englemann & Co.

•  Sabin 47810; Palau 163362 (under Mendibil).   Mid–19th century half red leather, flat spine, machine-made marbled paper on covers and as endpapers, marbled edges. Leather abraded and refurbished; interior clean and nice.  (21727)