An interesting work on confession and Christian ethics, this was written for confessors, covering a multitude of topics from the general concept of confession to superstition, sacrilege, adultery, lying during confession, and on to absolution. Tamburini also addresses condemned propositions and speculations.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate fewer than eight copies of this edition in U.S. libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico. 4745; this edition not in DeBacker-Sommervogel.   Contemporary Mexican sheep binding, gilt spine extra, all edges red; covers with wear and abrasions, spine tips pulled with loss of leather and a small area of old, red, transluscent staining at base. Lacks half-title (half-titles are rare in Mexican books of this era). Small worming to lower inner margin throughout, most often only pinhole but occasionally into the text and touching letters. Generally, a nice and clean little book.  (29855)

Also present in this edition are an “extracto de una carta, respuesta á la en que se pidiò informe de lo sucedido en Sicilia sobre la practica de esta devocion, y un triduo para celebrar la fiesta de la Madre Santissima de la Luz.”

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only six copies in U.S. libraries.

A scarce Mariology work.

•  Palau 32786; Medina, Mexico, 4856.   Original limp vellum; faded red shelfmark at base of spine. Clean, crisp copy.  (29847)

This Arte is consideredimportant in the history of Mexican colonial poetry and the teaching thereof and isone of the earliest works of the theory of poetics printed in the New World.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership inscription on the front free endpaper of Bach. Angel Francisco Valderas.

•  Medina, La imprenta en México, 4124; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 108; Pimentel, Historia crítica de la poesía en México, 458–59.   Contemporary limp vellum, lacking ties. Fore-edge of front cover and top edge of front free endpaper gnawed by a rodent, though not a very hungry one; vellum of back cover holed near center either by worm action or a natural flaw. Old waterstaining evident diagonally across most leaves, sometimes very faint and sometimes more striking but never offensive, with some corners minimally dog-eared; a neat, good, untattered copy.  (29520)

In his sermon, Torres discusses the need for and goodness that comes from schools for girls. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes in italic, and contains two woodcut initials.

Rare: Medina knew of this only from the Andrade copy. WorldCat finds no copies, nor does COPAC; no copy was found via the OPACs of the Spanish National Library and the Mexican National Library. We must wonder if this IS the Andrade copy that was seen by Medina.

•  Medina, Mexico, 1260; Andrade 763.   Modern full red morocco, gilt extra on covers and spine; gilt roll of a chain design on the turn-ins. Partial, unidentified marca de fuego on top and bottom edges. A two-digit number in ink in margin of title-page; an old waterstain curving across the bottom outside page corners, light in front and heavier towards the back. In a neat cloth slipcase.  (25764)

Guatemala was the fourth Latin American city to have a printing press (after Mexico, Lima, and Puebla de los Angeles); the press was brought at the instigation of the bishop of Guatemala, Payo Enríquez de Ribera, who wished to have a work of his own published. In reply to the bishop's appeal for a printer, José Pineda Ibarra arrived at Antigua in 1660. He had worked as an assistant to several printers in Mexico, but according to Medina did not have his own press; when Payo de Ribera's representative found him, he had moved to Puebla, but was apparently not doing well there. (Medina does not list him as a printer in Puebla—presumably he was again working for others.) The bishop apparently paid for the press that was taken to Guatemala, and Pineda Ibarra later purchased it from him. Torre Revello (quoted in Furlong) remarks that despite the dearth of materials, Pineda Ibarra managed to print exceedingly well: "Ningún tipógrafo de los que le sucedieron, durante el periodo colonial, logró superar la pulchritud y elegancia de sus trabajos." This example shows not only several sizes of type, but a woodcut of a papal tiara, at the top of the edict, flanked by typographical ornaments; a line of typographical ornament also appears on either side of the date of the edict, near the bottom of the page.

The various religious orders in Guatemala had promised to make it worth the while of a printer to come, by giving him commissions. Judging from the list of over 30 works Pineda Ibarra printed before 1673—eulogies, sermons, constitutions, regulations, descriptions of religious festivities—the orders fulfilled their promise; his major productions, however, were Bishop de Ribera's Explicatio apologetica nonnullarum propositionum . . . , 1663, and Diego Saenz Ovecuri's La Thomasiada, 1667. Also a bookseller and binder, Pineda Ibarra died in 1679. He was succeeded in 1681 by his son, Antonio de Pineda Ibarra, under whom the press operated until 1721.

The text in hand, a papal edict of 23 July 1672, changes the office for St. Peter Nolasco used by Mercedarians from semiduplex to duplex, at the request of the Queen of France. The Orden Real de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redemción de Cautivos, was already established in Guatemala (cf. Medina, Guatemala, 38), and probably paid Pineda Ibarra to print this work.

•  Not in Medina, Guatemala; on the printer, see: Medina's introduction, pp. xviii–xx. Not in Valenzuela, Imprenta en Guatemala; O'Ryan, Bib. Guatemalteca; NUC; BMC. See, however, Oswald, p. 539; Furlong, Orígenes, p. 91; and Woodbridge and Thompson, Printing in Colonial Spanish America, pp. 81–84.

The work is illustrated with a fine full-page engraving by Jose Morales of the biographee kneeling in devotion before an elegant shrine to the Christ Child in her book-graced cell. A woodcut of the Trinity appears at the top of the dedication page, and there are a few nice initials and head- and tailpieces.

Provenance:  Marca de fuego in upper edges of the Convento de San Cosme of the Franciscans of Mexico City, and another marca de fuego in the lower edges.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5022; Puttick & Simpson, Bibl. Mej., 1703.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of green silk cord ties, with title, cross, and old red shelfmark inked to spine; text block loose, held by threads. Light waterstain across early leaves and the occasional spot or soiling elsewhere; worming in lower margins, extending into text beginning on p. 355, touching or costing letters but not whole words (some appropriately repaired). A nice book.  (29522)

•  Sabin 48484.   Contemporary Mexican mottled sheep with gilt spine extra; leather lightly worn at edges and with some scuffing. First and last few leaves with soiling/staining, and a few leaves browned due to the nature of their paper; else, clean with only the odd spot or smudge.  (27521)

The present volume (XIV) covers 2 January 1808 through 16 April 1808, in other words till just before news arrived of Napoleon's treachery in Spain, with coverage of the war in Europe; British military actions in the Caribbean, Uruguay, and Argentina; ship arrivals; cargoes unloaded; notices from the provinces; Miranda's revolt in Venezuela; and even a comet seen in Europe.

Provenance:  Ex-John Carter Brown library, properly deaccessioned.

•  Sewn, removed from and now loosely laid into its original Mexican mottled sheep binding, this with a modestly gilt spine bearing a green leather gilt title-label and with an old paper label on its front cover. Some issues lightly soiled or with a bit of spotting/staining, else generally clean and very good.  (29691)

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

At the end of this highly important and extremely rare grammar are found a comprehensive index, a short catechism, and instructions on the commandments and the sacraments of the Catholic Church, beingall in Nahuatl. Part One of the text expresses Vetancurt's important insight that Nebrija's classical, early-16th-century paradigm for the study of European languages, specifically Latin and Spanish, had its shortcomings when applied to the major New World language under scrutiny—though in the end he resigns himself to using that five-part organization, which was the one most familiar to his readers.

We note that virtually all bibliographies have failed to state that leaf E1 is misfolioed as 14 (it should be 15 and the error is not corrected subsequently), and that leaf H4 is misfolioed as 19 (that error not affecting the subsequent numbering).

Provenance: Marca de fuego of an unidentified Mexican conventual library.

•  Viñaza 204 (failing to note error in foliation, as do all bibliographies except Graff); Medina, Mexico, 1103; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nahuatl 237; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 80; León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2816; Sabin 99385; Pilling 4002. Graff 4475 (this copy; giving correct collation). On the marcas de fuego, see: Sala, Marcas de fuego, pp. 28 and 39. On Vetancurt, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 118, frames 17–36 and 73–74. Contemporary limp vellum, shrunken and cockled, missing pieces along fore-edge of front cover and at base of spine. Some burn holes at tops of some pages resulting from embers’ straying during the branding of the book. Inner margins with expanded openings and occasional tearing around the sewing stations (i.e., paper has suffered from tight binding). Lacks two preliminary leaves containing approbations. Some foxing; last leaf (only) with foremargin insect-eaten. Text of the grammar complete. A significant work seldom acquirable.

Father Vilaplana (1712–63), a native of Benimarfull, Valencia, Spain, was a Franciscan, a university lecturer in theology, and an “examiner” for the Inquisition. His handbook gives examples of abuses, lays out the pertinent canon laws and papal edicts, and has a section of questions to be asked of accused priests during court proceedings. The work also discusses punishment and other disciplines that the crimes demand.

Since abuse of the confessional fell under the authority of the Inquisition, this work is de facto a manual for Inquisitors.

This is the “Editio secunda locupletior in paucis.” The Bibliotheca Mexicana was the private press of the great bibliographer, writer, and secular cleric Juan Jose de Eguiara y Eguren.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5026; Palau 365782.   Contemporary limp vellum, rodent-gnawed along several edges with a small loss of vellum. Front endpapers with loss to silverfish. Text unwormed and clean.  (29773)

Although touted as “Primera parte” on the title-page, there were no further parts; this Historia is complete, “all published.”

•  Palau 366681; Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 2051; Sabin 99643; Leclerc 1546; Salvá 3422; Heredia 3407; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 701/262. On Villagutierre, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 1019, frames 213–16. 19th-century Spanish sheep (“pasta española”), covers abraded and with pinhole-type worming to spine; loss of lower inch of spine leather to insects. Browning to text due to impurities in water during paper manufacture. Small insect damage to margins of first four leaves, not touching any text; similar small damage in inner margins of last four leaves. Over all, a decent copy of a scarce work.

The volumes are from the famous press of the widow of José Bernardo de Hogal, the Baskerville of Mexico, and they retain all of the fine characteristics that are associated with the Hogal name, including handsome black and red title-pages, great typography (here in double-column format), and use of good quality paper.

The author was general accountant of the Treasury's office of mercury accounting (the element was important in silver refining) and one of the most illustrious Cosmographers of New Spain. He wrote this treatise at the insistence of the viceroy, who was greatly pleased by it.

•  Sabin 99686; Medina, Mexico, 3802; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, II, 86/87.   Recent full dark brown calf, round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules; green and red leather spine labels; gilt center devices. Covers with elaborate gilt roll at edges, concentric center compartments and gilt corner devices. Lacking the engraved title, only. Present are intermittent touches of limited worming and, in vol. II, the occasional old stain to a top margin's edge. This is a clean and indeedBEAUTIFUL SET.  (26378)