
MEXICO - UNA PIÑATA BIBLIOGRÁFICA
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Garcés y Eguía, José. Nueva teórica y práctica del beneficio de los metales de oro y plata por fundicion y amalgamacion, que de orden del rey nuestro señor Don Carlos Quarto ... ha escrito y da al publico José Garcés y Eguia. Mexico: Mariano de Zuñiga y Ontiveros, 1802. Small 4to. [5] ff., 12, 168 pp.
[SOLD]
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
The most important treatise by a Mexican, printed in Mexico, and based on Mexican practices, on the amalgamation process used in mining.
A work also of considerable
scarcity in the marketplace.
Medina, Mexico, 9502; Palau 97721; Sabin 16551. Publisher's treed sheep binding, gilt spine extra, spine label mostly perished. All edges carmine. A very good copy.
Offering Land in
TEXAS
Gómez Farías, Valentín. Broadsheet, begins: “El Vice-Presidente ... en ejercicio del Supremo Poder Ejecutivo, usando la facultad que le concede la ley de 6 de Abril 1830, y penetrado de la necesidad de socorrer a la multitud de personas ...” Mexico City: no publisher/printer, 4 February 1834. Folio (29.5 cm; 11.75"). [2] pp., without integral blank leaf.
$1250.00
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The vice-president offers to assist Mexican citizens who have suffered by the discord and upheavals that have characterized the nation. His offer is to aid them in acquiring government lands in the state of Coahuila y Texas.
Rare: We locate only the copies in the Texas State Land Office, Yale, and Texas A&M.
Streeter, Texas, 812. Very good condition.
(21744)
González Bustillo, Juan. Extracto, ô Relacion methodica, y puntual de los autos de reconocimiento, practicado en virtud de commission del señor presidente de la Real Audiencia de este reino de Guatemala. Pueblo de Mixco [Guatemala]: Impreso en la oficina de A. Sanchez Cubillas, 1774. Folio (29.5 cm; 11.675"). [2], 86 pp. (without final leaf with one erratum)
$10,750.00
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mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Following the ruin of Santiago de los Caballeros by the big earthquake of 1773, the capital of Guatemala was moved first to the little town of Mixco and then later to the location of the present site of Guatemala City. Offered here is the highly important report of the commission headed by Juan González Bustillo on that devastating July, 1773 earthquake: It occupies pp. 1–55 and is followed by "Prosigue la relacion, ô Extracto de todo lo que resulta èvacuado en la Junta general, y demas que se ha tenido presente hasta la conclusion del assunto de translacion, e informe, que debe hacerse à Su Magestad” on pp. 57–86.

The careful, lengthy, and contemporary reports present here detail the day’s events, give the sequence of the destruction of various buildings and areas of the city, recount salvage and evacuation efforts, etc. The writers (and the citizens) erroneously blamed the nearby volcanos for causing the tremors and quaking, but that was logical at the time. Seeking historical perspective, the commissioners make significant and informed comparisons with earlier earthquakes.
This document is one of the very few printed in the temporary capital of Mixco, a press having been salvaged from the ruins in the former capital. Thus, Mixco was the second city/town to have a press in Central America, and then, for only a short time—appoximately two years.
In addition to being important for its contents and in the realm of printing history, the González Bustillo report is uncommon: We trace only half a dozen copies in U.S. libraries.
Medina, Guatemala, 384; Palau 105113; Sabin 27811. Modern full calf, very plain style. Without the final leaf with one erratum on it.

On
the Loyalty Oath
of 1820
[Granados, Francisco]. [drop-title] La cola de las zorras de Sanson, ó defensa de su autor. [colophon: Mexico: Alejandro Valdes, 1820]. 4to. 7, [1 (blank)] pp.
$285.00
This piece is signed "F. B. y E." at the end, but Garritz identifies the author as Granados. It concerns the oath of
allegiance that the constitution required of public officials.
Medina, Mexico, 11697; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3585; Sutro 112; Steele 12. Folded, never bound.
Minor worming affecting a few letters. Writing in pencil on first page.

Defending the Origins Story of the
Virgin of Guadalupe
Guridi Alcocer, José Miguel. Apología de la aparicion de
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Méjico, en respuesta a la disertacion que la impugna. Mexico: En la oficina de Don Alejandro Valdes, 1820. Small 4to (21.5 cm; 8"). [5] ff., 201, [1] pp., [4] ff. (without the plate).
$800.00
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In 1794 the Spanish historian Juan Bautista Muñoz published a tract attacking the history of the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It caused considerable outrage in Mexico but the strongest responses, perhaps, came late in the Mexican Wars for Independence — when the Virgin of Guadalupe had achieved super-stature as an expression of national identity. Thus in 1820, defending her against a Spanish national was a blow for Mexico vs. Spain linked to conflict in the political and military arenas. Guridi republishes Muñoz's attack in its entirety and then devotes almost 180 pages to rebutting it.
The work ends with a list of subscribers, making this one of the few colonial Mexican books with such a list.
Medina, Mexico, 11897; Palau 111216; Garritz 3593. Mid-19th-century sheep, nicely gilt-tooled; leather a little dry and rubbed. Faint 19th-century stamps of an ecclesiastical library. Without the Montes de Oca plate; else, a very good copy.
(23969)
Still
a Most Interesting “Read”
An Edinburgh Edition
Hall, Basil. Extracts
from a journal, written on the coasts of Chili, Peru, and
Mexico,
in the years 1820, 1821, 1822. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable & Co. and
Hurst, Robinson, & Co., 1826. 12mo (14.5 cm, 5.75"). Add. engr. t.-p., xii,
313, [1 (blank)], add. engr. t.-p., x, 311, [1] pp. (lacking map).
$215.00

Captain Hall, a curious, good-humored, and open-minded English observer
remembered for his later Travels in North America, here records his
impressions of the countryside, customs, and social and intellectual lives of
the areas he visited in South America and Mexico, which included Valparaiso,
Lima, Santiago, Talcuhuana, Arauco, Guayaquil, Panama, and Acapulco. The sketches
are strongly and consistently critical of Spain's government of her colonies,
though admiring of the fundamental "excellent character of the Spaniards."
Hall's journal was first published in 1824; the present fifth edition was
the second volume issued in the "Constable's miscellany of original and selected
publications in the various departments of literature, science, & the
arts" series. The text has been expanded from the second edition.
Sabin 29718; Palau 112072 (first ed.). Contemporary half calf
over marbled paper sides, spine ruled in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped
devices in compartments; worn and abraded with leather cracking over spine,
and joints cracked but holding, Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inked
ownership inscription. First and last few pages lightly spotted.
The
Mining Revival &
The Father of
Mexican
Independence
Hidalgo,
Miguel de, Father of Mexican Independence. Document
Signed (Br. Hidalgo), on paper, in Spanish. No place [mining region of Real de
Bolaños or Aguas Calientes], no date [1780]. Folio, 1 p., bound in a dossier
of documents relating to the execution of the provisions of the will of Augustina
Velázquez. [with] A number of other collateral documents relating
to the Condes de Vivanco. On paper, in Spanish. Mexico City, Real de Bolaños,
Aguas Clientes, Valladolid (now Morelia), and elsewhere in Mexico. Folio (31 cm,
12.25") and smaller.
Approximately
350 ff.
$7500.00
In 1780 Augustina Velázquez died and her will provided,
among other things, for a huge number of masses to be said for her. Subsidy
for the masses was spread among the priests in the mining region where she had
lived Real de Bolaños and Aguas Calientes. Those receiving sums
of money signed receipts, and among the dozens was a newly ordained minister
who signed his receipt "Br. Hidalgo." The young bachiller became famous
in 1810 for initiating the uprising that began the eleven-year struggle for
Mexican Independence.
This
is a fine, extremely early example of Father Hidalgo's signature.
The woman who provided the money for the above mentioned masses was the wife
of Antonio de Vivano (also spelled Bibano) Gutiérrez and mother of
Antonio Guadalupe de Vivano, the first two Condes de Vivanco. Cambridge scholar
David Brading credits Antonio de Vivanco with restoring the mining region
of Bolaños to prosperity in the early 1770s, following the region's
sharp decline in silver ore production during the first two-thirds of the
18th century whereby he became very wealthy.
In addition to payment for masses for her soul, Doña Augustina's will
provides for large sums of money to be spent on construction work on the chapel
of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the bishopric of Guadalajara. The paperwork, including
receipts, associated with the distribution of her largesse is weighty and
detailed.
Among
the collateral documents in this offering are copies of the last wills and
testaments of Antonio de Vivanco Gutiérrez (1796), Augustina Velázquez
(1780), and Antonio Guadalupe de Vivanco (1800); the inventory of the younger
Vivanco's massive estate (1801); and a marvelous
calligraphic
manuscript in which the bishop of Guadalajara grants
a special privilege to Vivanco the elder. All are notarially certified copies
of the originals.
All documents in very good condition, sewn, in contemporary
vellum bindings.
For
our MSS in SPANISH, click here.
(Hidalgo
Revolt). Mexico (viceroyalty). Mexico dividida en quarteles mayores
y menores...para plantear su nueva policía en el año de 1811. Mexico:
Manuel Antonio Valdes, [1811].
$300.00
As a direct result of Father Hidalgo's rebellion, the viceroy established
a new system of policing the capital, as explained in this publication.
Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1165; Medina, Mexico,
10591. Plain wrappers, lacking the engraved plan (which, though it is called
for in the bibliographies, we have never seen in any copy in trade). Excellent
copy.

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