The page opposite the coat of arms leaf, opening the text, is richly illuminated and decorated in more than half of its area with red flowers on stems with green leaves, and with two birds; the whole is contained within a gilt-ruled frame. Toward the end of the petition proper there are two lines of text written all in majuscules accomplished in gold, with red highlighting; and the first three lines of the granting of the petition that follows are also indited in majuscules in gold with red highlighting, and with green foliage and a bird.

The binding: Contemporary reddish-brown morocco over pasteboards, with evidence of silk ties now missing; gilt double-fillet border with gilt corner devices and gilt center device on each board. Contemporary red silk guards protect all illuminated pages.

•  Bound as above. Small losses of paint to leaf of arms, else an artifact in excellent condition.  (40314)

Via WorldCat and NUC we locate only one copy of this edition and one of the 1759 reprint in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  Embossed stamp of Lic. Pedro Reyes Retana (Mexican, late 19th century).

•  Machado, I, 659; Catálogo Santa Casa da Mesiricórdia de Lisboa, I, p. 29.   Contemporary calf, plain style on covers, gilt spine; front joint starting and top of spine pulle., with board edges showing wear in places exposing paste boards. Some worming in margins. Private ownership embossed stamp. A good++ copy.  (35065)

•  Very good condition and easy to read.  (31203)

He also gives lengthy synopses of the histories of the Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez families and explains the elements of the coat of arms and their significance. Included here, and a most uncommon element of such documents, is the listing of all 26 exemptions and privileges that hidalgos enjoy by right of their status.

The text is written in a competent but not notable semi-calligraphic hand, 22 lines to a page, using sepia ink (sometimes pale though always legible), with rubrics in red outlined in brown and the first line of text in majuscules in red and brown. The coat of arms bears a bearded man’s head above a castle with a lion rampant sinister and a wolf rampant dexter. The border of the shield is set with the heads of men in the four cardinal directions and ladders sinister and dexter. The whole is accomplished in red, blue, silver. purple, and green, but curiously not gold. There is a contemporary orange silk guard protecting the leaf of arms, and the volume ends with endorsements on the last leaf, with the paper seal of the city of Madrid.

Provenance:  20th-century stamp on front free endpaper of the Argentine private library of the Moctezuma family.

An intriguing aspect of the binding is that faintly visible beneath the pastedowns is 15th-century manuscript waste.

•  Contemporary parchment over pasteboards with inked summary of contents and a large tulip-like flower on front cover; evidence of silk ties now missing. Text with some small holes from the very occasional inkburn, else in good and presentable condition.  (40295)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 396.   Never bound, sewn as issued, with edges untrimmed. Title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner and pencilled monogram in upper outer portion. One leaf with closed split running through several lines, without loss of text.  (30813)

Provenance:  Bookplate of the Clements Library, properly deaccessioned.

An interesting production of the “Orphans' Press” of Lima.

•  Medina, Lima, 1764; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2645.   Early decorative wrappers bound into 20th-century gray cloth binding; old, somewhat inexplicable stamp (in English) to front wrapper. A very good copy, complete with the errata leaf.  (35488)

heredity, marriage, and torture

The text is in Latin, decorated with woodcut initials, factotum initials, and intricate head- and tailpieces. The title-page, printed in red and black, features a large device of a fleur-de-lis in an elaborate cartouche.

Rare, WorldCat & NUC Pre-1956 locatingjust two copies in the U.S.

•  Palau 20846.   Modern boards covered with 18th-century religious manuscript on vellum, with red speckled edges and ink title to spine; tight, with paper cockled and boards a bit sprung. Title-leaf with small marginal tear and three repairs; the next 88 pages repaired/reinforced in upper outer margin; minor worming variously, mostly marginal and often unnoticeable; small hole from natural paper flaw on one leaf. Foxing generally, other spotting occasionally. A used, occasionally abused, still strong copy of a scarce work.  (30297)

The title-page of vol. II reads: Cornelii van Bynkershoek, icti et senatoris, Observationum iuris romani quatuor, quatuor prioribus additi, nempre V. VI. VII. et VIII in quibus plurima iuris civilis aliorumque auctorum loca explicantur et emendantur.

•  McCrank 0390.   Publisher's vellum over paste boards; one board broken across one corner under the vellum and held by it, another board with vellum of cover patched; cover attachments strengthened at top long ago by use of a strip of old vellum manuscript. Text browned, margins surrounding it not so much!  (30876)

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only eight U.S. holdings.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 19346.100.   Publisher's rose paper wrappers, rebacked in paper wrapper edges chipped and hinges (inside) reinforced. Half-title and title-page institutionally rubber-stamped, front pastedown with institutional bookplate and early inked numeral, half-title with small inked ownership inscriptions. Signatures unopened, edges untrimmed; pages age-toned throughout, some with a little foxing; a nice copy. Now housed in a neat rose-maroon cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather title-label.  (25268)

In doing so he pledge to his people that he obligated himself “to strictly obey your legitimate wants: I will protect your sacred religion as the faith of all Colombians and the code of all good men; I will make justice the first law of all transactions and the universal guarantee of our citizens.”

The promise of liberty is strangely addressed: “I will not say anything to you about liberty because if I fulfill my promises you will be more than free — you will be respected.”

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCILA, Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico, the OPACs of the Bibliotecas Nacionales de Colombia and Venezuela locate one copy in the U.S. and possibly three in the BNC and probably none in the BNV.

•  Posada 1042.   Removed from a bound volume and irregular along the left margin; without the integral blank. Eight wormholes in text but not costing any letters. Now housed in a quarter red morocco clamshell box, round spine, raised bands with gilt accenting. A good++ copy.  (34097)

Following the half-title is astunning added engraved title-page by Pietro Marini after the drawing by Pietro Andrea Bucciar di Barberi. The printed title-page is handsomely presented in black and red with an engraved vignette by C. Gregori.

Provenance:  In the 19th-century in the Theological Institute of Connecticut (i.e., Hartford Theological Seminary); deaccessioned ca. 1980; acquired by Pitts Theological, Emory University; deaccessioned and acquired by PRB&M in 2000; sold immediately to a private collector; reacquired by PRB&M in 2016.

•  Palau 41558; this title not in DeBacker-Sommervogel (in either language).   Vellum over heavy pasteboards, vellum age- and dust-soiled; board edges rubbed with some small loss of vellum, joints (outside) starting to crack, edges mottled red. Small pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in margins of some leaves. A very good copy of a handsome and noteworthy book.  (36744)

•  Removed from a nonce binding, with stab holes, signatures intact but sewing gone; title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, early pencilled inscriptions in upper portion. Edges uncut. Occasional light spotting, most to front wrapper, otherwise clean; some bits unevenly/lightly inked.  (30928)

Includes decisions of the Sacro Regio Consiglio and an index. Title-page in black and red; text printed in double-column format in roman and italic.

•  Palau 44244.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards with remnants of ties; vellum of the back cover of vol. I and front cover of vol. II rodent-gnawed along fore-edge with loss of vellum exposing the boards. Front hinges (inside) of of both volumes mostly open but text blocks still adhering nicely to binding. Occasional age-toning. Good++.  (29363)

Binding:  19th-century quarter brown sheep in ecclesiastical style with marbled paper sides; spine blind-embossed with elements of a church (rose window, arches, leaded glass window, etc.) and with gilt ruling and tooling. All edges marbled. Binding by B. Miyar (with his ticket).

Provenance:  16th-century signature of Juan de la Torre in lower margin of main title-page.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the Iberian Book Project locate only three copies of the 1519 edition in U.S. (Hispanic Society, Newberry, Huntington), no copies anywhere in the world of the 1546 (i.e., apparently a ghost), and only six U.S. copies of this 1552 (Hispanic Society, NYPL, Bancroft, Lilly, BPL, and UPenn).

•  On Castilla, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 195, frames 158–59. Brunet, I, 1632; Graesse, II, 66 & VII, 161, note; Palau 47981; Salvá, 522; Heredia, II, 1887; Wilkinson, Iberian Books, 2921; Iberian Book Project IB 2921; Sánchez, Bibliografia aragonesa, II, 332. Not in Alden & Landis; not in Harrisse.   Binding as above; spine ends rubbed. Text lightly to moderately age-browned, with scattered foxing; small chipping to fore-edges of some leaves, small piece torn from blank outer margin of title to second part, last leaf with a closed tear, repaired. Overall a very nice copy of a scarce Spanish work of the Golden Age.  (38121)

Provenance: Bookseller's label of Jean Clavreuil; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Evidence of readership: Indistinct early inscription to title-page, 16th-century numbers and German inscription to verso of last leaf (“abst Consilium / Wie sten heillicken aus (?)”).

WorldCat locatesone U.S. library (Pitts Theological, Emory U.) reporting ownership of this edition in the U.S.

•  EDIT16 CNCE 51283; Tinto, Annali, 104 (assigns it to Silber).   20th-century slate blue paper boards. Title-page and verso of last leaf soiled, text a bit dusty, and the odd marginal spot; first and last leaves strengthened at gutter.  (40842)

Pope Leo X issued the present bull on 17 June 1513. It details the work of the seventh session of the Fifth Lateran Council and announces the eighth session. It includes memoranda on the reform of the church and Curia, and proposesa plan for the establishment of universal peace.

The title-page hasa large woodcut, reverse-printed, of the papal coat of arms. The text is printed in single-column format in roman type. The bull is generally known by the title “Meditatio cordis nostri.” The imprint information is from Isaac.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. (DFo, PU, CLU, NNC) libraries reporting ownership.

•  Isaac 12231; Adams R721; EDIT16 CNCE 13933 & CNCE 79208.   Folded as issued; original stitching perished. Light foxing. Nice.  (39660)

Documents such as these showing the growth and development of haciendas in the central part of Mexico are fairly common but extremely uncommon for the Yucatan. Similarly colonial-era documents in Nahuatl are fairly commonly available in the marketplace but comparable ones in Maya are rare. This is the first gathering of land documents for the Yucatan and the first manuscripts in Maya that PRB&M has had in its decades of dealing in Mexican colonial-era manuscripts — see images below for the latter.

(We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the state archive of the Yucatan in explaining the significance of the stamps of the Land Inspection Section that appear in some of the documents. It is good to be assured that they are indication of private, not government, ownership.)

•  Each cahier is housed in a Mylar sleeve and the five are contained in a blue cloth clamshell box. Condition is extremely variable: as above, one cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink, and others are just fine. Stamps are present as mentioned above. A rare surviving compilation and one that is instructive from multiple perspectives.  (40308)

Signed by the crown with a wooden stamp, “Yo el Rey.”

This copy sent to Santiago, Chile, and docketed there.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and untattered.  (25817)

•  Briseño, I, 74; Palau 59709.   20th-century Spanish sheep. Stitching holes in inner margins. Very clean. A very good copy.  (28505)

This publication contains the Constitution of 1863 as ratified by the Ríonegro Convention as well as most of the other legislation that the Convention adopted. The constitution incorporated many anti-clerical measures, including: separation of Church and state; full freedom of worship, even for non-Catholics; suppression of religious orders; prohibition of corporate ownership of real property (which amounted to prohibition of Church ownership of property); and governmental supervision of worship. The document also thoroughly decentralized power and made each state a virtual law unto itself.

In an attempt to curb the power of Gen. Mosquera, the presidency was made an office of two-year duration, and immediate re-election or succession was barred.

IMPORTANT AND RARE: NUC Pre-1956 fails to locate any copies, and RLIN finds only one copy (SUNY-Buffalo).

•  Removed from a volume of pamphlets and now in later wrappers. Ownership mark eradicated from title-page. A very good copy of a rare item.  (4035)

•  Not in Medina, Mexico, nor González de Cossío, Cien, González de Cossío, 510.   As issued, one later horizontal fold. Worming touching four letters, a dark stain in a very slender stripe across parts(only) of the top edge, a clean and good copy.  (41009)

Cuadra was a noted lawyer who lived sometimes in Nicaragua and other times in Costa Rica but apparently eventually settled in Costa Rica.

No copy located via WorldCat, NUC, COPAC, CCILA, or Metabase.

•  Not in Valenzuela; not in Nicaraguan National Bibliography.   Very good condition.  (31045)

•  Posada, Bibliografia bogotana, 231; Palau 59632. Sewn as issued, without the wrappers. Minor soiling to title-page and last (blank) page. Old inked numbers at top of title-page. A very good copy.  (15174)