The work was absolutely essential for all merchants and other business people, and for government workers in the treasury department — for milled coins were the exception in Mexican commerce, cob pieces the norm, and raw gold and silver, including dust, were extremely common.

The volume ends with the “Reglas varias, para sacar juntos, o separados en pasta, o en moneda los reales derechos, que se pagan a S. Mag. De el oro y de la plata, y para reducir a toda su ley estos metales.”

An uncommon economic work: We trace fewer than nine copies in the U.S.

This was printed by Doña Maria de Rivera with a red and black title-page, and with woodcut arms on first dedication page. The charming cut of a herald cherub appears after the decima dedicated to the author at the end of the preliminaries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4073.   Contemporary full Mexican calf, modestly tooled in gilt and with all edges red; recased, new endpapers. Final two leaves little ragged at edges costing a few letters and with small hole at center and short tears at inner margin; old staining and age-toning/browning throughout. There is every indication that this well-produced little volume saw time “in the field”!  (26850)

The prospectus includes the names of the instructors, information about examinations, and specifics of costs.

Prospectuses for schools in 19th-century Latin America are rare.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CICLA, and Metabase locate absolutely no copies.

•  Not in Valenzuela.   Never bound; as issued. Faint waterstaining in upper margin, corners bumped slightly; a very good copy.  (31055)

•  Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, II, 39; Palau 42732.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, lacking the ties, with some vellum lost; old ownership stamp eradicated from title-page. A bit of old spotting/staining; generally, though, a good clean volume.  (28583)

The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.

•  ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265.   18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean.  (30312)

Evidence of readership: This copy has extensive pencilled shouldernotes left by an unknown reader who thoroughly (and neatly) recorded numerous questions about and responses to the first 39 pages of the text — after which our reader is heard from no more.

•  ESTC T109696.   Period-style quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped publication information and gilt-ruled raised bands, leather edges with gilt roll. One leaf torn across from outer margin, without loss. Marginalia as above, pages otherwise clean. An attractive and interesting copy.  (31050)

Because the documents in this volume were all transacted using notaries, it is an excellent paleographical teaching tool. It is also a great source for teachingmercantile mathematics of the early 17th century, for there are many pages of cyphering and numerous accounting documents showing costs and expenses.

And, obviously, it isa primary source on the silk trade in the great port city of Seville during a full-decade period.

Binding:  Contemporary red goat nicely tooled in gilt to form two concentric oblong panels, each accented with corner devices and with a gilt central medallion in the middle of each cover. Strong, handsome gilt lettering to front cover. Green and gold silk ties.

•  Binding shows some abrasion and small loss of leather. A volume in good state, entirely legible and solidly bound.  (32637)

Also included is a woodcut map showing Europe, the Atlantic, and the New World.

•  Palau 159680; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 609/77; Medina, BHA, 123. Old vellum; red leather, gilt-lettered spine label; some staining, and chipping to edges and label. Old, careful repairs to interior worming occasionally cost individual letters (but never sense) or a little loss to an illustration. Old rubber-stamps and red and black ownership label on title-page; inked notations on title-page and front pastedown. All edges speckled red.

Rare: No copies traced via NUC Pre-1956, OCLC or RLIN.

Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Not in Palau. In recent wrappers. Light foxing, a few light waterstains, and a few shallow tears, the latter not touching text.

The last page here, while hoping for peace and amity based on a British change of mind and attitude, makes it very clear what a serious militia (such, for example, as Rhode-Island has) can do against great armies!

•  Evans 13764; Alden, Rhode Island, 530; Drake, Almanacs, 12842; ESTC W22707. Not in Adams, American Independence, but that conceivably was deliberate.   Uncut; stitched as issued. Browned, tattered, handsoiling, bug-spotting and an inkblot at lower edge; small piece torn from title-leaf and same leaf with pin-prick holes not affecting readability. Looks like a survivor of the American Revolution, which it is.  (30423)