Provenance:  This copy from the library of author and diplomat Don Juan Valera y Alcalá Galiano; vol. I with a presentation inscription addressed to him on the half-title, with the bookplate of his son Luis Valera on the front pastedown of each volume. The inscription to Valera waswritten by one of the work's editors, Remón Zarco del Valle.

•  Palau 97065.   Contemporary brown morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title and volume number, vols. III and IV matching I and II very closely but not quite identical; joints, edges, and extremities rubbed, spines of III and IV lightly sunned. Vol. I with inscription and all vols. with bookplate as above. One leaf of vol. I with paper flaw, noticeable but not touching text; six leaves of vol. II each with tear at inner margin repaired some time ago, not touching text. Vols. I and II: pages slightly age-toned with occasional faint spots, almost entirely clean. Vols. III and IV: somewhat more pronounced age-toning, scattered mild spotting. Overall a clean, solid set with an interesting provenance.  (29360)

The subject of this work is the rivalry between Spain and France for political and religious supremacy in the Catholic realm of Europe, but the author also discusses national traits, as he sees them, such as manner of dressing, walking, eating, and talking.

•  Palau 97802.   Recent boards covered with marbled paper; leather spine label gilt with title. Some lower margins irregular due to natural paper flaws. All edges speckled red. A very good copy.  (25812)

This particular edition has long been a mystery, but a fine cataloguer at the University of Salamanca has worked out what many others have not: This printing of Raquel, is a “separada del vol. I. de las “Obras poéticas” de Huerta, editadas por Sancha en 1778–79,” and this is why it seems complete by the pagination and signature collation, but yet seems to lack a title-page. It doesn't: One was never printed for it.

•  Aguilar Piñal, IV, 862; Herrera Navarro, Autores teatrales, 205; Palau 99106; Rodríguez Moñino, Antonio Sancha, 162.   Contemporary acid-stained sheep (“pasta espanola”), spine label lost. Light foxing and old staining. Upper margin of the plate closely cropped, taking upper portions of all letters of first line of caption but not rendering reading impossible. A nice copy.  (34987)

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.  (13841)

In 1852 González Vigil responded to the pope with his Carta al Papa y análisis del Breve de 10 de junio de 1851, which is here in English translation from a Boston publisher.

A scarce American Catholicum.

•  Removed from a nonce volume; a little dusty and some dog-earing.  (37963)

Printed in double-column format, roman type, this has headlines in italic and offers woodcut headpieces and initials.

Binding:  Late 19th- or early 20th-century mottled calf, spine brightly gilt extra with author and title gilt on red leather label, speckled edges. Binder's label of Jaime M. Alves, Lisbon.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signatures of Ruy Gago and Cristobal Martinez at top of title-page; 20th-century bookplate of Alfonso Cassuto.

•  Palau 108157.   Bound as above, a little scuffed with boards lightly bumped at corners and spine still notably shiny. Bookplate “Biblioteca Alfonso Cassuto” on front pastedown and small embossed stamp of same to main title-page and section titles. Some sections browned or with foxing, and with light, limited waterstaining in others; last section and a few other places with generally marginal worming that can or cost a few letters; lacking the prologue leaves of part II. Short closed tear in bottom margin of one leaf from a natural paper flaw; last leaf with corner repaired. A solid, handsome volume though not quite complete, offering a text of great repute and importance.  (32627)

•  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. (3905)

Only 210 copies were printed: Florencio Ramírez composed the text using Dante, Centaur, Poliphilus, and Blado type. Juan Pascoe and Martín Urbgina printed the work on Tamayo De Ponte paper using a Vandercook cylinder press and two Washington handpresses. The work was bound by Fermín Urbina.

The two folding plates are printed in black and red, as is the title-page and the first page of text. Other illustrations are an Antonio Espinosa vignette, a woodcut of a kneeling Mexica man, and two printer's ornaments. All are printed from zinc plates.

•  Green shelfback with yellow paper spine label and matching yellow paper on the boards. Author and title printed on front board in a frame of printer's ornaments. As new.  (40095)

Provenance:  Early 19th-century ownership signatures on front free endpaper of Anthony Coe Ogilvie and E.H.(?) Ogilvie.

•  American Imprints 31923. Not in Palau.   Publisher’s quarter cloth with paper-covered sides; binding waterspotted. Scattered light foxing. A good copy.  (26144)

This pamphlet presents the treaty and two separate articles with more specific details on implementation of its arrangements in French, Spanish, and English, with the British ratification statements recorded in Latin and English and the Spanish ones in Spanish and English. Several ships are mentioned by name, and the West Indies and Puerto Rico appear as locales for conflict.

•  ESTC T4473; Sabin 16195; not in Alden & Landis, European Americana; Goldsmiths'-Kress 07664.   Removed from nonce volume, first leaf separating from text block; light age-toning, one top margin trimmed closely, light marginal pencilling on first and final leaves. A good printed relic of a failed peace effort.  (38080)

No copies located via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, or CCILA.

•  Removed from a nonce volume; worming in text costing letters but not whole words, and not impairing ability to read. Good ++.  (34438)

Minister Aycinena announces that he will assume the presidential powers until a new leader can be appointed.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CICLA, and Metabase locate only one library copy worldwide — in the U.S.

•  Valenzuela, VI, 119.   As issued; one small piece of blank paper torn from lower outer corner. Overall age-toning.  (31054)

The state of Los Altos came into being because of political differences and tensions between Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango and other parts of western Central America.

No copy traced via WorldCat, COPAC, CCILA, or METABASE; there is no OPAC at the Biblioteca Nacional de Guatemala to be searched.

•  Almost-overall waterstain giving the paper an aged look. Upper margin with small area eaten by vermin and repaired with archival tissue; lower foremargin damaged with loss and repaired with undetermined tape. Overall good+.  (30884)

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CICLA, and Metabase locate only two copies, both in the U.S. However, we do know of a third copy at Tulane.

•  Not in Valenzuela.   Folded and stitched as issued; minor chipping in lower margins. Scattered faint foxing. A very good copy.  (31053)

•  The 1870s saw changes in the printing industry in Guatemala; printing could be done on thinner paper and this collection bears witness to that, with some chipping at edges, some brittleness over all, and some items damp-damaged with loss of blank areas (only). Over all, good to very good condition, with a very few exceptions.  (36863)

Finally, the printers are the usual admirable suspects: Bracamonte, Beteta, and Arevalo. It is interesting to see them represented by such UNusual ephemera!

•  Medina, Guatemala, 761; 814; 852; 1523; 1525; 1557; 1577; 1580; 1596; 1613, 1626; 1758 1898; 1806; 1918; 2138.   All items are in very good condition, in Mylar sleeves, the entire collection in a quarter morocco clamshell case.  (33845)

Further, “[e]ach Oratorian community enjoyed locally autonomous government by their own elected officials, and acquired many of the benefits of both religious and lay corporations without the burden of formal vows, or professional exclusion from religious offices” (Reed). Scholars have noted that Oratorians used preaching to help shape the formation of patriotic culture and historical writing in colonial Mexico.

The author (1676–1740) was a member of the order and had served as its provost. He dedicated this work to Archbishop and Viceroy Juan Antonio de Vizarron, y Eguiarreta, whose coat of arms appears in a woodcut on the recto of the leaf following the title-leaf. The title-page is printed in black and red and has a woodcut of the “logo” of the Mexico City Oratory. The text is printed in double-column format in roman and italic, with head- and tailpieces and woodcut initials.

The tome comes from the shop ofone of Mexico's famous widow printers, Maria de Rivera — daughter and granddaughter of other woman printers (her mother Maria de Benavides, her grandmother Paula de Benavides). This three generations of women printers spanned the period 1641–1754 and printed 860 known books, sermons, pamphlets, and broadsides.

The Mexican engraverJose Antonio Amador provided a full-page plate, which a cataloguer at the John Carter Brown Library describes as “A priest [Saint Philip Neri?] wearing a biretta and holding a flower stand[ing] on clouds, flanked by angels. Below him is a group of priests [Oratorians] who carry a book, birettas, and rosary. One angel throws flowers down on the priests while holding a rosary, the other holds a sacred heart and a book.”

Provenance:  Marca de fuego in upper edges of an unidentified Oratorian monastery

In all, a very important book for its text, illustration, printer, and genre.

•  Sabin 18778; Medina, Mexico, 3418; Palau 11568; Streit, Bibliotheca missionum, III, 389; Lathrop C. Harper, Three catalogues of Americana, II, 333; Benjamin Reed, “Devotion to Saint Philip Neri in Mexico City, 1659-1821" (digital repository, University of New Mexico).   Modern quarter brown leather with red and green title and author labels to spine; handsome blind tooling with gilt accents. Text with variably light old waterstaining to leaves' lower half nearly throughout and occasionally another sort of spot or blot; yeta copy that impresses one as clean and crisp.  (36013)

The listings are augmented in the first three volumes by numerous in-text reproductions of illustrations and title-pages from the books. This copy includesauction prices neatly inked alongside every book.

•  Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-ruled bands; sides showing minor rubbing, edges, joints, and extremities moreso. All hinges (inside) cracked or tender, some endpapers with pencilled notations. Vol. I: Two pages with light offsetting from now-absent item, one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Vol. IV with bookplate of Alvaro de Fontagud y Aguilera. Pages gently age-toned, most noticeably in vol. IV, with occasional light smudges; each volume with last page browned.  (29161)

•  Crumpling at all edges, light brown stain in upper third of the leaf; good condition. Written in a slightly difficult hand: A good paleographical specimen.  (31209)

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 marvelouscalligraphic 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.  (3731)

•  Palau 262674. Wrappers.  (4787)

Some copies have a frontispiece but not this one. Of the nine copies we trace to U.S. libraries, we know that at least two lack the frontispiece, but others may also. We have checked the OPAC records for the other seven but because all seven are clearly copy cataloguing we have to wonder about their accuracy.

Binding:  20th-century half dark green crushed morocco with marbled paper sides in a swirl pattern and top edge gilt, signed “Alfred Farez” who was active 1909 to ca. 1930. Unidentified owner's gilt monogram at base of spine. Binding signed “Alfred Farez” who was active 1909 to ca. 1930.

•  Sabin 58530; Streit, Bibliotheca missionum, III, 932; Palau 56514; Maggs, Bibliotheca Americana, I, 887.   Bound as above with old “wall paper” wrappers bound in. Title-page with a very little light soiling and one other leaf with a single spot likewise light; text notably clean and with good margins. A very good copy.  (34707)

This is a 180-degree turn-around stance from that of 12 November 1859 when the town published a decree fully supporting Barrios.

Pres. Carrera of Guatemala, a Conservative with ambitions to control all of Central America, did unseat Barrios and in October of 1863 installed Francisco Dueñas as president.

The meeting at which this document was drafted occurred on 27 February 1863, months prior to the Guatemalan invasion, but this first printed version did not appear until after the fall of Barrios and the installation of the Conservative government. It is dated 11 November 1863.

A postscript to the “Pronunciamiento” states “esta acta no se pudo dar a luz en su oportunidad por haber sido persequidos, encarcelados y confiscados los firmantes.” The names of the signers are present (in type) above the postscript.

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, CCILA, and Metabase locate no copies.

•  Top margin crumpled and with a few tears and some small loss of paper, but not of text. One horizontal fold.  (31068)

THIS IS JUST SUCH A WORKING EPITOME, and that it speaks both to laws relating to Indians generally and, as per its title, tolaws relating specifically to Indians settled in reducciones helps to localize it. In regions where the indigenous populations were sedentary (e.g., Mexico, Guatemala, central Peru) there was no need to force them into “reducciones” (essentially, created communities with a high degree of “townness”); but in places were the natives were nomadic (e.g., Paraguay, and some jungle regions of the Viceroyalty of Peru) enforced resettlement was the norm.

Whether the Indians within the ken of this law practice were sedentary by tradition or “resettled,” they were to enjoy numerous privileges and exemptions and also were prohibited from doing certain things. The first chapter headings here are a good summary of these privileges, exemptions, and prohibitions: “On the treatment of Indians,” “Personal service,” “Privileges in legal matters,” and “On criminal behavior.” A second section of the manuscript, in a different hand, offers chapters titled “On the service of Indians,” “On the privileges that the Indians enjoy because of their status as miserables [i.e., a Roman law term for certain categories of individuals],” “On conducting legal proceedings against Indians,” and “Other privileges granted to the Indians.” The many dozens of laws recited here sketch the legal parameters of Indian life under Spain: the requirement of fixed addresses, the ban on white and black residents in the Indian reducciones, bans on polygamy and wine, whippings for those who move to another settlement without permission, and more.

We assign the manuscript's place of composition to the viceroyalty of Peru because in the period to 1776 it included regions were there were reducciones, whereas there were none in the viceroyalty of Mexico.

•  Written in a clear secretarial hand on two different paper stocks: One for the first six leaves, a different for the last four. Original stitching. Some stray ink stains. Slight loss of text in one corner, minimal worming, otherwise only minor wear. Overall, very good.  (36916)

WorldCat locates only six U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  Medina, Mexico, 8139; Palau 317550.   Original plain wrappers, front one lacking. Light dust-soiling. Very good copy.  (28210)

Searches of OCLC, RLIN and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 11808; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3654; Steele 46; Sutro 134. Removed from a volume with ragged inner margin. Faint rubber-stamp in one margin.  (10727)

Binding:  Gorgeous 19th-century acid-stained autumnal binding: Covers framed with a gilt floral roll and brilliantly crossed with bands of walnut brown, ochre, deep green, russet red, black, and grey, allvery bright. Spines gilt extra with compartment devices and multiple interesting rolls, and bearing black leather gilt labels; board edges touched at corners with gilt; marbled endpapers.

Provenance:  Signature of Sam Baird on front endpaper and title-page of vol. I and half-title of vol. II.

As described in the BAL, signature sign 6 is not present on p. 41 in vol. I and the last page of vol. III is unnumbered.

•  BAL 10124.   Bound as above, bindings moderately rubbed with one sliver of leather lost at a joint and a small patch lost near the bottom of one back cover. Age-toning, foxing, and some other spotting; some corners creased (some corners improperly trimmed during manufacture. Inscriptions as above, light pencilling on endpapers of one volume; map wrinkled with some old light staining and a tear repaired some time ago from back, with cloth tape — folds strong. A classic semi-historical work most strikingly bound.  (36170)

On the bottom half is a signed receipt, in Spanish, dated Granada 8 May 1501, wherein Germán de Paris and Jacques acknowledge receiving the above mentioned payment.

•  The usual slash of cancellation (faintly visible above), indicating that this has been entered into the account books. Remnant of stiff paper at top of verso indicating it was once mounted in an album.  (19360)

Public works and land use are traditionally fraught with concern and intransigence on the part of the various parties involved, and in the Cuban case at hand, this was certainly so; the Junta had appointed a four-member committee “para meditar los arbitrios que conceptuasen mas oportunos y menos gravosos para la formacin de caminos” (“to decide the tax rates that will be least burdensome but still will bring about the most timely creation of [good] roads”). Jáuregui's opinion was clearly and concisely expressed and shows a progressive tax structure differentiating users of the roads and the wear each category was most likely to create.

Handsomely printed on extremely good quality paper.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico and Spain locate only three copies: two in the U.S. and one in Chile. One of the U.S. copies is incomplete. How many copies may be in Cuban libraries is unknown.

•  Sabin 35823; Trelles, Bibliografía cubana de los siglos XVII y XVIII (2nd ed.), 166; Medina, Habana, 130.   A fine copy in original plain wrappers. Housed in a quarter dark red morocco clamshell case.  (34735)

Uncommon: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only 9 U.S. holdings.

•  ESTC S107911; STC (2nd ed.) 14831.   Period-style calf framed and panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Lacks initial blank leaf, as is the case with virtually all copies. Two leaves with tattered outer edges, one leaf with small hole affecting a few letters; pages with some moderate offsetting, a few browned.  (25084)