MEXICO - UNA PIÑATA BIBLIOGRÁFICA
Una de nuestras especialidades mayores - If you collect in this area, let us know!

---

For a separate list of additional 19th-Century Mexicana,  click here. NOW, ILLUSTRATED!

Snakes Lost Civilizations & anAdventuresome Artist

Click the images for enlargements.
The images above show mattings; images below are “close-ups.”

•  Before Indiana Jones stirred our imagination about lost civilizations and their treasures, there were Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens, whose explorations of the Maya ruins of Central America, Chiapas, and the Yucatan excited the Anglo-American world in the middle of the 19th century and helped spur the rediscovery of the Maya among the non–romance language nations. And it was Catherwood's illustrations that fixed forever what the temples and other buildings looked like to the Victorian-era and later visitors to the area.

Following the great success of Catherwood & Stephens' s two accounts of their travels in Maya land, Catherwood decided to convert his drawings to large-scale luxury prints, the illustrations in the two travel accounts having been in octavo format. In England he enlisted a crew of the best lithographers to transform his camera lucida drawings to grand, eye-filling lithographs, with George B. Moore, William Parrott, Thomas Shotter Boys, and Henry Warren among those putting the images on stone; he had no one less than Owen Jones design and accomplish the title-page, chromolithographed in red, blue, and gold.

This set of images is of the very rare colored issue on card stock.

•  Hill, Pacific Voyages, rev. ed., 263; Palau 50290; Sabin 11520; Tooley, English Books with Coloured Plates, 133.   Plates were removed long ago from their binding (not present) and sold as a set of plates; all have been expertly conserved (conservator's report provided) and mounted on acid-free board, now housed in a custom clamshell case. The plates have been trimmed within the images by between one tenth and three tenths of an inch in each direction, letterpress descriptions and map lacking; the plates are handsome beyond easy imagining and fascinating in the detail and care of their coloring.  (29366)

This entry is repeated in the
“C” section of this
catalogue . . .

TWO Important Works ofLocal History

The Editor’s OWN Copies

Click any image above for an enlargement.

•  In 1680, in Mexico City, the Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (1645–1700) published the first edition of this highly important work of art history. Recounting the great celebrations surrounding the dedication of the “temple of Our Lady of Guadalupe” in Querétaro that the priest Juan Caballero y Ocio had built and donated, it not only describes the festivities in detail (“Frailes, monjas, gigantes, tarascas, cofradías, mulatos, indios, todos en la celebración’), but is profuse and precise in telling of the nature and minutia of the art within the temple.

Extraordinarily difficult to find today, that 1680 work was already rare and hard to obtain by the beginning of the 19th century — so José María Zelaa e Hidalgo decided, in the first years of the century before last, to bring out a new edition with some editorial revision and additions. This he accomplished in 1803. Zelaa was a zealous historian of his home town of Querétaro, and the combination of his scholarship with Sigüenza's earlier scholarship made this second edition of the latter’s work a true advance. Then, in 1810, Zelaa brought out a volume entirely made up of his own reportings, and that volume is here bound with his 1803 edition of Sigüenza.

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

This entry is repeated in the
“Q–S” section of this
catalogue . . .

“Los MEXICANOS Aun Conservan la Fé”

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Author “A.L.” (possibly Luis Abadiano) seems to have written several sonnets to the Virgin of Guadalupe, all with similar titles: “A nuestra Madre Santísima de Guadalupe. Soneto,” “A la Madre Santisima de Guadalupe. Soneto,” “Soneto a nuestra Madre Santísima de Guadalupe,” and this one.

The present sonnet is printed on wove paper and its typography points to the ten-year period indicated. Above the drop-title isan excellent wood engraving of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The first line reads, “Y que solo el dolor y la tristura”.

Apparently not in WorldCat or NUC.

•  Not in Grajales & Burrus.   Faint age-toning; edges a little crumpled and with a few short tears. Lower outer corner torn just touching the type-ornament border. A nice surviving copy.  (30216)

Poema americana Born of a Jesuit & Made Accessible by a Franciscan

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First Spanish-language translation of Abad's De Deo deoque homine heroica: Both the original work and this translation are the work of Mexican-born clerics. Abad (1727–79) was born in Michoacan, entered the Society of Jesus, and was exiled to Italy with his brothers when the Society was ejected from the Spanish empire in 1767. He authored several works in Spanish and others in Latin. This is considered his most important publication: a didactic poembegun in Querétaro and completed in Italy. The first edition contained only 29 cantos and was issued at Cadiz in 1769, with subsequent editions at Venice (1773) and Ferrara (1775). He continued working on the poem and the 43-canto definitive edition appeared posthumously (Cesana, 1780).

Diego Bringas de Manzaneda y Encinas was a Franciscan and his epitome of Abad's work is written in “octava rima”: as such it holds an important place in Mexican colonial-era poetry, especially in the subgenre of Christian poetry.

The work's chief themes are the Immaculate Conception and the attributes of God, but it also delves into the relation of science and our understanding of the cosmos: Newton and Huygens are specifically mentioned in the section on knowledge.

•  Palau 258 & 35854; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 3; Medina, Mexico, 7400.   Contemporary vellum over light boards. All edges green. A very nice copy of a significant work of early Mexican poetry, religion, and, at points, science.  (29433)

Jesuit Property in MexicoImmediately after the Expulsion

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Contemporary copy of the fiscal accounts of the Marqués del Astorga's administration of Jesuit properties following the expulsion of the Society in 1767. Included are these properties: Atrisco, Chalco, Chilapa, Campeche, Huachinango, Istlahuaca, Maninalco, Mestitlan, Metepec, Octupa,Otumba, San Juan de los Lianco, Santiago Tecali, and Zelaya.

•  Very good condition. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand; attractively, as well as sensibly, laid out on the pages.  (27600)

St. Augustine & Baltazar Gracián HelpedSor Maria Isabel Josepha
through Her Day

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition. Wonderful compilation of extracts from the works of St. Augustine for use on a variety of occasions; also present are extracts from Gracián's writing, these designed for use in conjunction with the taking of Communion. The whole was compiled and edited by Juan Antonio de Chavez, O.S.A.

This includes, after the title-page, a copper-engraving by Manuel Villavicencio of St. Augustine, cherubim, and St. Ignatius Loyola; following the printed text on the rear fly-leaf is a manuscript prayer in Spanish.

Provenance:  “De Sor M[ari]a Ysabel Josepha” in upper margin of title-page and in the lower blank margin of the engraving.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5509.   Contemporary Mexican dark mottled sheep, round spine with gilt rules forming spine “compartments” and owner's gilt monogram at base; lightly rubbed. Some foremargins closely cropped. Overall, a very nice copy.  (29103)

Indulgencias Plenarias y Perpetuas

•  First edition of this Mexican calendar of indulgences. The section titles are as follows: “Primera parte, en que se notician las indulgencias plenarias que se ganan en los dias fixos . . .” and “Segunda parte, en que se da noticia de las indulgencias plenarias . . . en las festas movibles y dias que no están fixos . . .” Click the images for enlargements.

•  Medina, Mexico, 7695; Palau 20393.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped compartment decorations and rules; binding moderately rubbed and spine with one spot of pinhole worming. Worming to upper inner margins, not touching text; last 25 leaves with longish meander of worming actually affecting only a handful of letters on each page, not obscuring sense; first and last few pages foxed. All edges red.  (25115)

On Private Worship: An Oratory in One's Home

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Our author was the “cura mas antiguo del Sagrario de [Sevilla], examinador Synodal de su arzobispado, comisario y revisor de libros del Santo Oficio, academico numerario,” and the “censor de dicha Real Academia.” His work was first read before the Real Academia on 25 October 1771 but because of delays in obtaining the necessary licenses to print it, publication was delayed until 1777.

In this work of canon law and Catholic Church customs and practices, Baquero studies the privilege that the Bull of the Holy Crusade granted the Spanish nation regarding oratories in private residences; it applied not only to Spain but to colonies as well.

The first of three, this edition was published by “un amigo del author.” The other editions appeared in 1781 AND 1861.

Only one U.S. library reports ownership of either the 1777 or 1781 edition. It should be noted that there is NO 1771 edition, despite Palau and online cataloguing; cataloguers have simply failed to look at the last page of the supposed 1771 edition to see that the colophon is dated 1777.

This offers one very pretty large initial and some modestly nice work with type ornaments.

•  Palau 23499 (giving wrong date of publication).   Contemporary limp vellum, a bit missing from back cover; evidence of ties, and binding with light dust-soiling. Lacking rear free endpaper. A clean, nice copy.  (29596)

The Andrade Set inQuarter Red Morocco

Click the page-images for enlargements.

•  Written under his nom de plume of Gabriel de Cardenas Z Cano, the Ensayo cronologico, para la historia general de la Florida of Andrés González de Barcía has enjoyed constant readership since its initial publication in the early 18th century, when it was composed as a companion to González de Barcía's magisterial edition of Inca Garcilasso de la Vega's La Florida. The Ensayo is a history of not just Florida but virtually all of America north of Mexico from 1512 to 1722 and details the activities of the Spanish, French, and English, covering not just wars but offering much on the indigenous populations, New World diseases, and so on.

The present edition forms volumes 8 and 9 of the series Historia de la conquista del Nuevo Mundo.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the great 19th-century Mexican collector J. M. Andrade on the front pastedown of each volume.

•  This edition not in Sabin.   19th-century quarter red morocco with red textured cloth sides. Spine with raised bands and very good gilt tooling including center devices in spine compartments. Interiors clean. A very good set.  (25271)

A17th-Century Puebla Imprint

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  First New World printing and the first separate printing of this work which had first appeared in 1692 in the author's Despertador eucharistico. The title is printed within a border of type ornaments and the text is rather handsomely printed in roman and italic types with a few large decorative woodcut initials. There are side- and shouldernotes. This edition was ordered to be printed by Antonio de Benavides y Bazan, the patriarch of the Indies.

Uncommon: We locate five copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Puebla, 159. Contemporary limp vellum with ties. Front hinge (inside) partially open and old repair to top of spine; text block starting to separate from binding, but still strong. Large private ownership stamp on front free endpaper. Unidentified marca de fuego on top edge. In all, a decent copy. (25111)

Very Neat Printing — The Bishop Reports (& Reminds)

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús.

•  The bishop of Monterrey had been to Mexico City to lobby for support for the Catholic Church, and here he lobbies his flock for the same.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean, nice.

La puntual observancia — Do It Right

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Quinta carta pastoral que sobre la puntual observancia de los sagrados ritos y ceremonias, en la celebracion de la santa misa y administracion de los santos sacramentos, dirige a su clero.... Mexico: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1836. 8vo. 34 pp.
$100.00

•  A call for attention to detail in the celebration of mass and other clerical duties and obligations.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and nice.

TheThreat of Protestantism

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Segunda carta pastoral que dirige a su clero y diocesanos..., el...obispo de Monterey [sic]. México: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1835. 8vo. 16 pp.
$100.00

•  Concerns the influx of Protestant theological and doctrinal publications.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light stain in upper outer corners, and on title-page (only) in an additional few places. Still, a crisp, good copy.

BeStrong in Your Faith

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Septima carta pastoral que el...obispo de Monterey, dirige a su venerable clero secular y regular y diocesanos. Mexico: Impreso por Jose Uribe y Alcalde, 1838. 8vo. 14 pp.
$100.00

•  Talks of how hard it is to be a Mexican because of the endless round of war, hunger, and turmoil, and of the need to be strong in one’s religion.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light foxing in some upper margins. Crisp.

Mystic Nun, Early New WorldPrivate Press

Click the images for enlargements.

•  One of the most substantial biographies written and published in Mexico during the colonial era, this has as its subject one of the outstanding figures of colonial Pueblan history, a Dominican nun, mystic, and Puebla native who has been described as “the other Mexican muse” both by way of comparing her to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and to rapidly situate her historically and literarily. Sor Maria Ana’s published works include spiritual texts of mystical nature, and she has been the subject of several recent biographies and studies.

The author (1700–83), a Jesuit and a native of Granada, includes 410 pages of the “Obras” of the nun, and his thick volume includes a fine engraved portrait of her by Ortuño.

The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

•  Palau 26854; Medina, Mexico, 4454; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 1220.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties. A copy that has seen more than its share of water: waterstaining variously throughout (though often light); first half of volume cockled; title-leaf repaired and now mounted, with four other leaves repaired along margins. Far from the ideal copy, but a decent and usable one priced for its shortcomings; portrait engraving, lovely.  (29736)

Gold & Silver Conversion Tables
  fromthe Press of a Woman Printer

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Mining was one of the chief industries of colonial Mexico, and after a century of decline during the 1600s, the 18th century saw a renaissance in ore extraction, chiefly due to new technologies that made it possible to rework old ore and to achieve higher than previously imagined levels of silver and gold extracted from newly mined ore. Berdugo's work is a vade mecum of conversion tables of values for gold of different carats and for silver of different values of purity.

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 Beginning ofDemographic Studies

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Botero (1540–1617) was an Italian thinker, priest, poet, and diplomat, and after 1580 an expelled Jesuit. His Relaciones universales del mondo, originally published 1594 to 1595 in Italian, tells of the “universal church” (i.e., Catholicism) in various parts of the world, including America, the Old World, India, the circum-Mediterranean, Africa, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Southeast Asia, but also England, Scotland, Ireland, and “the realm of Prester John.” More than a few scholars view this as one of the first demographic studies.

This first edition, second issue in Spanish is the translation of Diego de Aguiar. It is composed of the sheets of first edition of 1600–1599 with a new title-page. Printed in roman type, double-column format, it offers a liberal sprinkling of large woodcut initials, some of which are historiated.

Provenance:  19th-century private ownership stamp on verso of title-leaf; bookplate of the John Carter Brown Library (with small release stamp) on the front pastedown.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 603/17; Sabin 6809; Palau 33704; Medina, BHA, 468.   18th-century mottled sheep, raised bands, gilt spine extra; spine gorgeously bright and covers with some abrasions. Title-page and final leaf with foremargins excised and the leaves mounted; first folio 113 with short tears repaired with with cello tape now darkened. Occasional foxing and the other odd spot or stain only; all edges red and a blue ribbon placemarker. A text volume only, this lacks the maps and is priced accordingly; it is an important and famous work with a good provenance in an otherwise very handsome copy, for the reader.  (28307)

“Genuine Specimens of Native Literature”
Maya & English Presentations — With Notes

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition, uncut copy. First printing in the U.S. of any pre-Columbian text in the original Maya. This is no. I in the “Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature” series, opening with a description of the Maya and including selections from the books of Chilam Balam of Mani, Tizimin, and Chumayel, along with the chronicle of Chac Xulub Chen. Each Mayan text is accompanied by an English translation and the editor's notes.

•  Not in Pilling, Proof-sheets; not in Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection.   Publisher's brown textured cloth framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities a little rubbed, spine a bit sunned. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, half-title and title-page rubber-stamped. No other markings.  (26511)

From theEarliest Days of U.S. Nahuatl Studies

Click the images for enlargements.

•  The second publication in the U.S. of any Nahuatl poetry. Original edition, not a cheap reprint. Volume VIII in “Brinton's Library of Aboriginal American Literature.” “Edited, with a paraphrase, notes and vocabulary by Daniel G. Brinton” and yes, with the original Nahuatl.

•  Palau 35894; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 475; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Nahuatl-39.   Publisher's brown cloth with gilt spine title. Private collector's bookplate. Uncut, unopened copy. VERY GOOD.  (23607)

He Served UnderMORELOS

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Bustamante (1774–1848), the great post-Independence political thinker and historian, first published this work as Cuadro histórico de la revolución de la América Mexicana (México: M. Ontiveros, 1821–23), a work issued in parts, written in the form of letters, each letter separately paged with separate imprint. Bustamante had served under Morelos during the War for Independence and knew all of the major and many of the minor figures, making his work most valuable.

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)

TO Part II . . .

PLACE AN ORDER   |   E-MAIL US   |   PRB&M HOME