•  Medina, Mexico, 5174; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 55; Viñaza 356; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., II, 2154; Sabin 52413; Palau 190159.   Original limp vellum, cockled and a little shrunken, upper front edge chipped, original ties partially surviving. Ex-AAS with its attractive bookplate (properly deaccessioned); private ownership stamp on title-page and one other. Lacks the very rare engraved frontispiece; a facsimile reproduction was inserted some time ago and is now loose. Text block separating from spine. Title-leaf torn, taking a bit of border, and next leaf same with first letters of three lines on verso taken; errata plate opposite p. 12 shaved at fore-edge, with loss to line (not page) references. A bit of thread-like worming, without text destruction, towards end. Overall clean. Not a pristine, but certainly a good copy of an important and scarce book.  (2154)

WorldCat finds only the copy at the National Library of Chile.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8090.   Folded and a little dog-eared; four instances of worming, two meander-type holes repaired. With manuscript certifications on verso that the document has been recorded in the official acts of three different towns.  (26044)

WorldCat locates only one copy.

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1702. Not in Medina, Mexico.   Folded, otherwise as issued. Clean.  (26040)

In addition to what Sabin calls “a valuable ethnological disquisition,” the volume includes a “Maya vocabulary” and grammar, along witha map of the region and 24 lithographic plates done from designs by the author, many being important images of Mayan architecture.

Binding:  Rosy-purple publisher's cloth, covers blind-stamped with a border of ribbony strapwork and front one with a rather famous central gilt-stamped pictorial vignette; spine with gilt-stamped title, blind-stamped ornamentation mostly in bands, and an additional gilt vignette.

Provenance:  Frontispiece with bookplate of Henry B. Noyes, his inked signature on the title-page (“220 E. Painted Post”) dated 1843, another pencilled and dated “Noyes” on front fly-leaf; front free endpaper with rubber-stamps of an Auburn, NY, bookseller.

•  Sabin 55494; Catalogue of the Avery Architectural Library 721; Smith, American Travellers Abroad, N27.   Binding mildly cocked with scattered small spots of discoloration, spine sunned as this color cloth loves to be. Ownership indicia as above and on one other page, outer edge of front free endpaper chipped through one of the bookseller's stamps. A few instances of minor offsetting from plates only; a nice, clean copy.  (28418)

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

•  Palau 197255; Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana, 6093. Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and gilt-stamped decorations and volume numbers; corners and extremities slightly rubbed, boards with some scuffs and scrapes. Title-pages with decorative “BR” monogram stamp. Moderate offsetting to a number of pages in vol. I and a few in vol. II; occasional light spotting throughout. All edges speckled.

All 17th-century imprints from Guatemala are extremely rare: Searches of WorldCat, NUC Pre-1956, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, COPAC, and MetaBase fail to locate any copies of this one anywhere. We do know, however, of one copy in the Guatemalan national library itself.

Provenance: Marca de fuego on the upper edges of the text block of a Mercedarian convent. The marca does not matches those known to have been used in Mexico, leading one to believe this copy belonged to the Mercedarian convent in Guatemala.

•  Medina, Guatemala, 38. Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of ties; without the final blank leaf (only). A very nice copy of a very scarce early Guatemalan book.  (29425)

As with all early New World schoolbooks, this one is uncommon: We trace only four copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership signatures of Jose Simon Escobedo on front free endpaper and early 19th-century ownership inscription and signature of Jose Vicente Martinez of Ocotlan on the rear fly-leaf.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4839.   Contemporary limp vellum with its ties. Two small pieces vellum missing from fore-edge of front cover; spine with title anciently inked and an old shelfmark in red ink at base. Ownership signatures as above with another inked over on front free endpaper. A good++ copy.  (29854)

Binding:  Publisher's brick red cloth, elaborately stamped in black and bold on front cover (“Catholic Presentation Library”) and spine; stamped in blind on rear cover.

Prize book / Provenance: In manuscript on a slip of paper attached to the front free endpaper, “Premium / awarded to / Master Frank Von Au / for / Regular Attendance. / June 30, 1898.”

•  Bound as above, cloth of front joint starting to open; bright and fresh. Presentation slip as above, and presentee's name also rubber-stamped on front fly-leaf. Light foxing to guard tissue between frontispiece and title-page; offsetting to these, therefrom. A clean, nice copy.  (25786)

Efforts to canonize Maria de Jesus began almost immediately following her death and received the support of numerous well-respected clerics, including Bishop Palafox. Copies of letters to Pope Clement X in support of her sainthood fill the final 16 numbered (in roman) leaves. The efforts continued into the 19th century but failed.

The period 1670 to 1800 saw a dramatic growth among books printed in Mexico in the hagiographical genre and this work was one of the first published in that sub-set of biographical writings.

Binding:  Early 18th-century Mexican sheep, dark brown and mottled; spine gilt extra. Very, very handsome in a most “antiquarian” way!

WorldCat locates only four copies in U.S. libraries, one in Spain, one in Mexico, and one in Chile. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates two additional copies in Spain.

•  Palau 212277; Medina, Mexico, 1144; Andrade 672; Sabin 58567.   Bound as above; gilt flaked off here and there; spine a little crumpled. Worming in some margins, occasionally in text and occasionally touching some letters. Expert repairs: leather spine readhered to back of text block; tears in leather at joint, hinges, and panel areas reinforced subtly with toned repair tissue; worming repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste. Foxing and old stains, neither dark nor distressing.  (29692)

•  Sutro 756 ("19p." being a typographical error for collation given here); not in Steele, Independent Mexico: A Collection of Mexican Pamphlets in the Bodleian Library. Folded and never sewn or bound; as issued.

•  Single sheet without the integral blank. Irregular margins. Very good condition.

•  Palau 215473; Sutro 871. Stitched. Some very shallow tattering, a little shallow chipping, and some dog earing. Light brown-staining. Some pages out of order. Better overall than the condition details suggest.

This is a handsome production from the Hogal press, which is considered one of the finest operating in Mexico in the 18th century. It sports a full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of José de Castorena y Urzúa, the bishop of the Yucatan, and a notably strong, lovely one of St. Joseph and the Infant Christ; neither is signed.

Provenance: Marca de fuego of the main Mercedarian convent in Mexico City, in upper and lower edges of the book.

WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 combine to locate only five copies of this in the U.S., one of which is incomplete.

•  Medina, Mexico, 3086; Palau 218002; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 480.   Contemporary limp vellum with ties. An occasional spot or stain; two short, slim, delicate wormtracks to (in each case) perhaps six leaves, across text but not affecting reading, and a third even shorter, slimmer, entirely marginal.foray in a number of other leaves. A very nice copy.  (29581)

•  Palau 221275; Sabin 60899.   Modern quarter brown calf over marbled paper boards, with red and green spine labels. A clean, very nice set, with only a bit of minor dampstaining and the odd spot or paper flaw in all the many volumes. All edges red.  (25829)

The views begin along the Caribbean coast, move inland to Mexico City, then north, and then back to the Gulf Coast. Scenes include Campeche, Jalapa, Orizaba, Perote, Puebla, Popocatepetl, the Valley of Mexico, the Cathedral of Mexico, Veracruz, Zacatecas, a battle scene of Chapultec Castle, el Paseo, and several others.

Provenance:  Bookplate (early 20th-century) of Almeric Hugh Paget, 1st and sole Baron Queenborough (1861–1949). Among his many and remarkably various interests, in all senses of that word, Lord Queenborough in a Mexican connection was president of the Ferrocarril Chihuahua al Pacifico (Chihuahua and Pacific Railroad).

•  Palau 224780; Sabin 62498; Abbey, Travel, II, 671; Mayer, México ilustrado, 13–21.   The portfolio is intact and strong in good++ condition, with the plates expertly conserved and rehinged so that the volume now safely opens perfectly flat for better appreciation of the contents. Binding with some rubbing to expectable places, and spine with small rectangular area of rubbing/discoloration one inch from the bottom, possibly from an old label; corners bumped with some loss of cloth and cloth generally with light soil, a scattering of small spots, and (to back cover) a patch of old waterstaining not reaching inward. Queenborough bookplate as described to front pastedown; old abrasions and adhesions to rear endpapers. Lithographic title-page and margins of some other plates with small marginal tears at edges, nicely repaired; printed title-page with blank portion at bottom right corner (6" by 9") excised and replaced long ago; one leaf of letterpress description with similar (blank) portion excised and replaced. Text leaves and plates with only the very occasional spot of foxing or “other”; in fact a copy that isnotably appealing, and suitable both for study and for exhibition.  (27591)

•  Uncut, unopened copy in later wrappers (which are tattered). Text block split in two: requires binding. Edges dog-eared, some dust-soiling.  (21470)

•  Sutro 117; Steele 42; Medina, Mexico, 11696; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3584. Modern marbled boards with paper label.

•  Publisher's acid-stained sheep, round spine with gilt tooling and two spine labels; rubbed at corners and extremities and with evidence of old worm attack at lower part of front joint. Interior clean; in fact, a very good copy. (25094)

Uncommon: We trance only the copies at Lehigh, Berkeley, the Sutro, and the Huntington.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico. Sutro 152; Garritz 3995; Steele 14 & 64; Palau 241263. Folded as issued.