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

Let's Play Doctor! — Or,  El Juego del Gato!

Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Published collections of parlor games that were played in the viceroyalty of New Spain are few and rare. This compilation isthe first Mexican edition of a work that was first printed in Spain in 1798. All told there are fifty games with good, easy to understand instructions on playing them. The compiler's object is to offer “entretenimiento para pasar divertidas las largas noches del Invierno.”

Very uncommon: We traceno copies of this to any U.S. library.

• Medina, Mexico, 9842. Sewn, in original marbled paper wrappers, lacking the rear one. Last few leaves with light waterstains and final page with light dust-soiling and a very few red ink spots.

A RARE PoeticEncomium

•  Medina knew of this encomiastic poem only from the copy in the British Library; Garritz shows no locations in Mexico, taking her entry from Medina and Sutro. The work begins with an anagram and proceeds to laud the viceroy, the king, the queen, and aspects of the crown's regime in New Spain. Fulsome. Click either image
for an enlargement.

•  Medina, Mexico, 10842; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1826; Sutro, Supplement, 125.   Folded and never bound; uncut, unopened. Small hole in blank area of inner area of title-page and its conjugate. Faint stain. (21278)

Two Authors — Three Titles — Contemporary Marginalia
PETER MARTYR  

•  This volume consists of two works by Peter Martyr and one by Góis. Those of Martyr are the first three Decades and an abridgement of the fourth, together with his account of his diplomatic mission to Egypt. The De Babylonica legatione was first appended to the De rebus oceanicis et novo orbe in 1533. Martyr's Decades are, of course, one of the major sources for the early history of the New World, for as royal historian to the Spanish court he obtained information directly from Columbus, Cortés, Vasco de Gama, and other explorers and conquerors, as well as from memorials and reports submitted to the king.

The work of Góis is composed of various opuscula concerning Spain, Portugal, Ethiopia,India, and other regions visited and travelled by the Portuguese. Góis is one of the most highly regarded 16th century chroniclers of Portuguese overseas activity (cf. Europe Informed, pp. 76-77).

A worthy gathering with a good deal of interesting marginalia.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 574/1; Adams M755; Sabin 1558; Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 235; JCB, I, 253; Arents, Additions, 3; Palau 12595; Maggs, Spanish Americana, 471; Rodrigues 186 and 809; Borba de Moraes (2nd ed.), Bibliographia brasiliana, 532. Half vellum over late-17th-century, early-18th-century "Dutch" gold-stamped "wallpaper"; gilt-stamped leather label on spine, with small circular paper label pasted below; paper with abrasions and vellum soiled. A sound volume. All edges speckled. Light agetoning; one pin-type wormhole at base of outside margin through first quarter of the book, and a bit of other minor marginal worm-work in the first 10 pages neatly repaired.

Deputies for the Cortes

•  Our anonymous author writes concerning the enthusiasm in Mexico City for the readoption of the Spanish Constitution, but mostly addresses the number of deputies to be sent and their selection/election.

Scarce: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only a Bancroft Library copy in the U.S.

•  Sutro 166; Steele 67; Medina, Mexico, 11662; Garritz 4020. Folded as issued. Some pencilling. Clean copy.

Election Advice

•  Serious advice on selecting deputies for the Cortes, not endorsing anyone by name.

Uncommon: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC we trace only the copies at the Sutro and Bancroft libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 11719; Sutro 148; Steele 81, 82; Garritz 4240. Folded as issued; a little dog-earing and some short tears in fore-margin. A very decent copy of a very uncommon pamphlet.

Watch Your Language!

•  Mr./Ms. Anonymous here takes “El Amante de la Constitucion,” a.k.a. Mr./Ms. Pseudonymous, to task for the language used in his/her political diatribe concerning the soon to be readopted constitution—and, for doubting the king will live up to his promise to abide by the new scheme of government!

Hard to find outside of California!  All copies traced in the U.S. are in that state (Bancroft, Huntington, Sutro libraries).

•  Not in Medina, Mexico. Garritz 3445; Steele 66; Sutro 125. Folded as issued; old stitching holes. A clean, crisp copy.

Please Testify Against the Viceroy — An Appeal to the INDIANS
in their OWN Language

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•  Entirely in Nahuatl (i.e., Aztec) and as such one of the very few official viceregal publications in this indigenous language. Here Arangoyti announces he has been appointed to take the residencia of Viceroy Joaquín de Monserrat, the Marqués de Cruillas, and asks all with grievances to make themselves known to him — to come forward and give testimony against the viceroy.

In this particular copy a Nahuatl-speaking secretary (either José de Molina or Francisco Gerónimo de Luna, both of whom have signed the document) has corrected typographical errors. Arangoyti's full signature appears in the lower margin.

This is theonly known indigenous-language broadside reaching out to the indigenous population during the entire colonial period asking for its participation in a judicial review of a viceroy's conduct of office. Other official publications in Nahuatl dealt with health and insurrections.

VERY RARE.  Not listed in OCLC or any bibliography of Nahuatl publications. This is the only copy we have seen in our 40 years of dealing in and researching Nahautl publications.

•  Not in Viñaza; not in Medina, Mexico (but see 5036 where it is mentioned but as “not seen”); not in H. de Leon-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli; not in González de Cossío, Cien; not in González de Cossío, 510; not in Pilling, Proof-sheets.   As issued, with later folds. Some worming — pinhole-type in text, a meander in blank margin — none serious, none costing entire letters. A very good copy.  (23946)

Troublesome Deserters

(Army Discipline).

•  Expediente concerning military discipline. Included are certified copies of original decrees by Secretary of the Army Galvez and portions of royal decrees, as well as a printed document. Specifically detailed are the punishments for first-time deserters, second timers, and third-time or more runways.

•  Very good condition. Sewn.

The New Constitution Will
Ruin Us!

•  Second edition, published same year as first. This political tract is in the form of a dialogue between a barber and a merchant in which the former successfully argues against the constitution imposed by a Spanish military junta in 1820.
Single-click the image for an enlargement.

•  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.

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.

Classic 19th-Century Account of
  THE AZTECS   

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mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Exceptionally nice copy of Biart's classic account of the Nahua nation through initial contact with the Spaniards. Illustrated with 24 full-page or in-text wood engravings, two double-page maps, a large folding map, and a full-color plate reproducing a portion of the Codex Mendoza.

Provenance: Bookplate of Henry Stevens, the great 19th-century antiquarian bookseller.

•  Palau 28916.   Uncut copy, now in good quality green cloth with original wrappers bound in. As usual, scattered light foxing. A bookplate removed from the front pastedown. (21469)

Sur le Mexique

•  First edition, variant printing with additional Mexican imprint information, this being one of two 1868 Paris editions of vol. IV in the Collection de documents dans les langues indigènes pour servir a l'étude de l'histoire et de la philologie d l'Amérique ancienne series on the origins and development of indigenous American languages. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg travelled throughout Mexico and Central America as part of his ecclesiastical duties, and channeled his interest in archeology and antiquities into a number of publications on the original Mesoamerican sources he collected or copied. The present work includes commentary by him on the Chichicastenango manuscript, and much speculation regarding the prehistoric connections between the Old World and the New.

•  Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1082; Sabin 7437.   Contemporary half morocco and paper-covered sides, spine gilt extra; edges/corners rubbed, small repairs to spine and joints. Front free endpaper with institutional rubber-stamp; back pastedown with rubber-stamp partially touching the small affixed ticket of a New York bookseller. Outer margin of half-title and one other leaf chipped. A few leaves towards back of volume unopened. (20651)

Censoring the Clergy

•  This ministerial order is a copy of the message from the Secretario de Estado y del Despacho of 10 June 1813 from Cadiz, forwarded to the viceroy of New Spain by Juan O'Donoju four days later. It reminds the clergy of Spain and Spanish America that Law 7, Title 8, Book 1 of the Novísima recopilación de leyes de Indias calls for obedience to the king, and that any clergyman who "dares utter insulting or ugly words against the King or royal persons or against the state or government, shall be arrested and bound over to royal authority." Churchmen had been outspokenly critical of the Royalist government at Cadiz, and even the example of the executed Hidalgo did not deter the clerics in their quest for change. This decree was printed in Mexico City and is dated in text 12 January 1814.

This copy printed on blue paper.  Uncommon: NUC locates only two copies (at the Bancroft and the John Carter Brown libraries).

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1917; not in Harper, Americana Iberica.

Overseeing the “Indios miserables” — POSTAL HISTORY

•  Viceroy Florez reiterates Viceroy Bucareli's decree of 10 December 1771 concerning the royal mail monopoly and the penalties for infringing it. He goes on to add more bureaucracy to the Mail Service in order to oversee the "Indios miserables" who are the common mail handlers, whom he sees as a large component of the Service's inefficiency and unproductivity. Rare, not in NUC Pre-1956 or its supplements.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; González de Cossío, Cien or 510; Harper, Americana Iberica; or Maggs, Bibl. Amer. Removed from a bound volume in which it had been folded to fit; now in recent wrappers. Piece excised from a margin affecting the revenue stamp.

Why We Arethe Way We Are

•  Bustamante, the great post-Independence political thinker, here analyses the political and economic situation of Mexico and attempts to seek the roots of the problems in those areas in the nature of colonial Mexico's economic and political structures. A classic work. Click either image for an enlargement.

•  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)

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 . . .

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