The front page bears two vignettes of brunette beauties, one in the process of applying tonic and one with an impeccably arranged hairstyle.

•  Folded as issued, back page with upper outer corner bent and small nick to upper edge. Gently age-toned.  (29194)

The volume also has literary and printing history interest: Among the prefatory matter is a sonnet by Bernabe Perez de Turcios, and Maria de Benevides was one of the colonial New World's notable printers, and she produced this with wide margins, some nice typography and initials, and a good woodcut of the Order's emblem.

Provenance:  Marca de fuego of the Jesuit Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo of Mexico City on the upper edges; ownership-stamp of the Universidad Nacional y Pontificia on folio 1.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, and searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the Spanish National Library find no copies in Spain. We do find a copy at the National Library of Mexico.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1446; Beristain, II, 153; Palau 134128.   Mid-19th-century quarter brown leather with mottled paper sides and elegant foliate tooling to the spine; all edges speckled blue. Waterstain in lower outside corner of the margins of four leaves in the prefatory matter; a small amount of other spotting/foxing intermittently. A rather nice copy of an uncommon and important work.  (29631)

His surviving unpublished works (some manuscripts were burnt at his death) were gathered in the early 1720s by an admirer — Fernando Monge — who paid to have them published beginning with vol. I in 1722 but with a hiatus before vol. II appeared in 1733. A third volume was promised but precious few copies of it are known. The Spanish National Library writes of vol. III: “El tomo 3o. desconocido de los bibliógrafos, tiene retrato del autor, pero carece de portada, y solo llega á la paga. 184 con interrupcion de las 91 á 94 y 171 á 174.”

Present here is vol. II which contains a full-page woodcut portrait and the author's “poesias sagradas,” including some fine villancicos.

WorldCat locates three U.S. libraries owning only vol. I, one U.S. library owning vols. I and II, and only one claiming ownership of all three. NUC Pre-1956 adds no additional copies.

•  Palau 135687 (knowing only of vol. I & II). On author, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 503, frames 12–20.   Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties; text block separating from binding at front, but still attached. Text browned (as usual), some gatherings heavily; dog-earing and some staining. Lacks one text leaf (pp. 185–86).An imperfect but worthwhile copy of a rarity.  (29090)

The final 264 pages offer a life of St. Igantius Loyola.

Neither WorldCat nor NUC Pre-1956 locates any copies in U.S. libraries, but we know of an unreported copy at the John Carter Brown Library; WorldCat finds one copy in Chile and one in Mexico. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico and the OPAC of the BNE find no copies.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3905 (incorrect collation, not noting the first 268 pp.); DeBacker-Sommervogel, IV, 1950.   Contemporary vellum, inked “label” with title to upper spine in brown/black and a charming red-inked shelfmark at bottom. Light waterstaining/soil to lower outer corners at rear, with a bit of other foxing/soiling elsewhere; headers touched by binder's knife in one small section. A very good copy.  (29539)

The number of books published in Zapotec during the Mexican colonial era is much, much smaller than the number published in Nahuatl or even Otomi.

•  Viñaza 362; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 125; Medina, Puebla, 956; Palau 137035; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2281; Sabin 40732 (“Very rare”).   Contemporary limp vellum, remnants of ties. One small pin-type wormhole through the text from front to rear. A very nice copy.  (27508)

Each catalogue limited to 550 or fewer copies. Price lists at end.

Very amazing books in great condition and of considerable rarity.  The shop too was impressive.

•  Contemporary quarter vellum with paper sides: Paper loosening at juncture with the vellum, tears repaired.Original wrappers bound in.  (21550)

Click the image for an enlargement.

Llamosas and Tovar Ponte were among the leading figures of the early Independence movement in Venezuela. Both served as president of Junta of Defense of the Rule of Fernando VII (later, The Revolutionary Junta), Llamosas 19 April – Aug 1810, and Tovar Aug 1810 – 2 March 1811. Additionally Tovar Ponte, the favorite son of an elite family, was a member of the 1811 Congress and a signer of the Venezuelan Act of Independence on 5 July of that year.

This historic document was printed by Venezuela's first press, that of Gallagher and Lamb, which only arrived in Caracas in October of 1808, and it is universally dated as having come off the press on 20 April!

Very Rare.  This broadside was unknown to Medina and is only the 14th item in Pedro Grases chronological list of things printed in Venezuela. 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 only the third known copy.

•  Not in Medina, Caracas; not in Villasana. Grases, Historia de la imprenta en Venezuela, Repertorio #14. As issued. Worming in fore-margin, touching but not costing three letters; repaired. A very good copy.

•  Palau 141001; Sabin 14210.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties, front joint (inside) starting to open. Scattered foxing, including on title-page; short tear, repaired, in title; some staining in early margins and into text; without the preliminaries or the added engraved title. Doodling in many margins; ink stains from a careless quill user on several pages. John Carter Brown's stamped signature on p. 1. A less than perfect copy that yet does not “feel” maimed; a copy with a distinguished provenance to match the distinction of the work.  (27561)

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

Click the images for enlargements.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz, López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. The title-page is printed in roman and italic and has the woodcut printer's device.

•  Alden & Landis 564/25; Sabin 27741; Medina, BHA, 159n; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2v.   18th-century vellum over paste boards, soiled and a bit rubbed; red leather spine label, with a chip, and an old circular paper shelf-label. Title-page dust-soiled, mounted; small, narrow, oblong portion of blank area of title-page excised and filled in at an early time. Lacks folio 1 and final blank. Top margins closely trimmed, sometimes costing the running heads and folio numbers.  (25767)

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. Leaves 292–96 containa brief study of Nahuatl and include lists of numbers, months, days, and years in that language.

Binding:  American signed binding by Coombs of Providence, R.I., for John Carter Brown (ca. 1865), with his binder's ticket. Full red morocco, round spine, raised bands; author, title, place and date of publication in gilt on spine; gilt roll on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. Gilt supra-libros of John Carter Brown on front cover.

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of John Carter Brown on first leaf of preliminaries, supra-libros as above. On his death to his son John Nicholas Brown (1861–1900). On his death deeded to the John Carter Brown Library. Deaccessioned 2008.

•  Alden & Landis 560/28; Sabin 27739; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2t; Medina, BHA, 159n. This edition not in H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, but see 1692.   Binding as above. Lacks the title-leaf; (therefore) first leaf of preliminaries with a John Carter Brown's personal ownership stamp and his bookplate on front pastedown. Waterstaining, barely visible in many margins and lightly across text in last half. Four leaves with very old scribbling (pen trials?) in margins. A treasure with a distinguished provenance, presenting itself in the classic fashion of a 19th-century “collector's copy.”  (28914)

Franciscan artist and engraver Matías de Irala provided thecopper-engraved frontispiece portrait here. In addition to the life, the volume also contains López's works Tratado del Apocalypsi (first published 1676) and Tesoro de Medicina (first published 1672), the latter a compendium of indigenous Mexican herbal remedies and Latin-American medicinal folklore. This, the stated fourth edition (in actuality the sixth, according to Medina), appears to be the only such to combine the three works.

•  Guerra, Materia medica mexicana, 194 (1672 ed.); Medina, BHA, 2619; Palau 142530; Sabin 42578; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 727/152.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early inked title; vellum a bit darkened, spine wrinkled with small nick, ties partially intact. Text block mostly separated from spine; sewing loosening in final signature. One lower outer corner torn away. Light smudges and small areas of waterstaining almost entirely confined to margins, touching some headers; a few pencilled marginalia; pages otherwise clean.  (29099)

Born in Córdoba, Spain, Lucan (A.D. 39–65) was the grandson of the elder Seneca, nephew of the younger Seneca, and the brother of the Gallio mentioned in Acts 18. He published the Pharsalia in A.D. 62 or 63, but it seems likely that his poetic talent aroused the jealously of the vain Nero, as after its publication the emperor forbade him to write or even plead in the courts, and then later compelled him to commit suicide for alleged treason.

The editio princeps of Lucan was printed in Rome by Sweynheym and Pannartz in 1469. This edition is based on the text of the Venice 1493 edition and improved upon by Aldus after an old manuscript given to him by Marco Antonio Mauroceno, who contributed the prefatory note. The short life of Lucan appended at the end is drawn from Tacitus.

This is anice and early Aldine with spacious margins, printed in the famous Aldine italic with guide letters and space left for initials (unaccomplished). The famous anchor and dolphin device is not found here for it did not make its first appearance until late in 1502, when one issue of Dante's Terze rime introduced the image to the world presses — this dates to the earlier part of that year. A second Aldine edition was issued in 1515.

Evidence of readership: One underlining and one inked correction of a typo.

•  Schweiger, II, 560; Renouard 33, 3; Goldsmid 40; Brunet, III, 1198; Adams L1557; Isaac 12775.   20th-century vellum over boards, spine very faintly blind-stamped just with author, printer, and date inked or black-stamped; early inked “Lucanus” on top edge. A couple ink spots on the fore-edge. Title-page with old Inkstain (covering an ownership inscription?) seeping through to next leaf and old round ownership stamp mostly erased; small pink water (or wine) stain in upper outer corner terminating at f. [33]; traces in some margins of old inactive mildew and mild foxing; a couple of old ink. A good copy for one's “Bibliotheca Aldina Vetustior.”  (30101)

•  Palau 108151. Recent neat vellum over light boards, spine lettered in black. Paper cockled with light to moderate waterstaining and small spots of soiling, not impeding legibility. Some marginal chipping with tissue paper repair on front fly- and title-leaf, a few shallow marginal tears elsewhere, and a wormhole in lower inner margin of final 22 leaves and rear fly-leaf; rear fly-leaf with some holing. Overall actually in very good condition.

For more CATHOLICA,  click here.

•  Palau 144343.   Contemporary limp vellum, lacking the ties; fore- and top edges of vellum rodent gnawed, top corner of all leaves slightly rodent gnawed, some staining to early fore-edges and a few others. Text almost throughout browned from iron in water used in paper manufacture, sometimes heavily enough to make this a good example of the extreme of the phenomenon, sometimes lightly enough to be called just “foxing and spotting”; paper absolutely unweakened and volume fine for use.  (28390)