NEW & OLD WORLD 
HISPANICA — Una miscelánea

The Inquisition — “Si” or “No”?

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•  A separately published account of the discussions of this subject held in the Spanish Cortes between 8 December 1812 and 5 February 1813 and contained in vols. 16 and 17 of the Diario of the Cortes.

By the middle of the 18th century the Inquisition's power had waned and its role in daily life was confined almost exclusively to the censorship of books and attempting to control the spread of new ideas. During the French domination of Spain and the puppet reign of Joseph Bonaparte (1808–12), the Inquisition was abolished. The Cortes in 1813 debated reestablishing it and in the end decided not to.

•  Palau 74471.   Contemporary quarter speckled leather with gilt tooling on spine, marbled paper over boards on sides; front joint (outside) abraded and binding overall showing age, fading, and some use. As usual, lacking the frontispiece. Scattered light foxing. A good++ copy.  (30901)

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We Are SERIOUS, Here!

•  Announcing strict enforcement of the law that prohibits importation of all outer and under garments manufactured abroad. A woodcut of the royal arms on the title. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Removed from a bound volume; a few wormholes.  (24392)

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Encouraging Local Industry

•  Finds that local manufacture of linen and textiles is beneficial and removes restrictions on it; the "locality" is Vich, near Barcelona. The title-page has a nifty woodcut of the royal arms. Originally printed in Madrid. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Modern half vellum over burgundy cloth sides. Contemporary inked notation at top right corner of title-page. Very good. (21056)

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Dyers & Loomers areEngaged in Essential Services!

•  Exempts master dyers, and wool- and silk-loomers, from military service. Woodcut of the royal arms on title.

•  Lightly in later wrappers; small ownership stamp eradicated from title-page. A very good exemplar.  (24386)

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Protecting Cotton Growers

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•  Republication for the Catalan region of a royal decree (San Lorenzo, 14 November 1771) prohibiting importation of cotton goods manufactured abroad. Contains a decorative woodcut initial.

•  Half vellum with brown cloth sides by Brugalla. Very good copy.  (20392)

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Protecting theSpanish Fashion Industry

•  Royal decree forbidding importation of caps, gloves, stockings, sashes, and other goods made of linen, wool, and cotton. A very nice woodcut of the royal arms on the title. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Disbound, with a bit of pinhole worming not affecting text; lightly laid into later wrappers.  (24388)

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Earn Your Keep!

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•  The king asks all government officials to pay attention to the requirements of their jobs and to earn their salaries.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat findno copies.

•  Not in Medina, BHA.   Folded as issued; lower margin irregular with mild damp damage.  (33489)

War with England / Free Trade in American Corn & Wheat

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•  Royal decree (original promulgated in Madrid, 10 September 1771) permitting free entry into Spain of foreign grains including wheat and maize. A woodcut of the royal arms on the title.

•  Palau 239456ii.   Half vellum with caramel cloth sides by Brugalla. Excellent copy.  (20394)

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Wills & Inheritance — Religious Groups & Their Members

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•  Viceroy Branciforte promugates a royal decree concerning details as to religious groups' and individuals' being allowed (or not) to make wills or inherit; the decree reserves to civil authority the control of laws governing wills and inheritance.

This is amplification of the “Nuevo Codigo de Leyes” and the “Pragmática Sanción” of 6 July 1792, andWorldCat locates only one copy worldwide.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico.   One fold horizontally across center; a few creases and edges just a bit irregular. Very good condition.  (27950)

MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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Sumptuary Standards — Barcelona Edition

•  Reprinting in Barcelona of this royal decree promulgated 19 July 1804 and first published in Madrid. Regulating the gold braid and other ornaments worn by liveried servants, and concerning uniforms of coachmen and runners. With a woodcut of the royal arms on the title-page.

•  Folded and never sewn; as issued.  (24389)

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The KEYSTONE of Hispanic-American Colonial Law
A VeryHANDSOME Edition

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•  Handsome mid-19th century edition of the first comprehensive compilation of the laws of the Spanish Indies. Antonio Rodríguez de León Pinello compiled it by 1635, but it circulated only in manuscript until Fernando Jiménez de Paniagua brought it up to date and saw the result through the press in 1681. Prior to the publication of this massive work, it was common practice for lawyers and courts in the various legal districts of the New World (i.e., audiencias) to compile in manuscript the laws in force in order that they might be used as precedents. Upon publication of this code, the number of precedents did not (as might have been expected) decrease via "regularization" but instead increased: The courts continued to accept the cases and laws on point in the old local manuscript compilations and also those contained in the Recopilación!

In sum, this is a major work for all collections of international and Hispanic-specific law. The first edition is very uncommon in today's marketplace, meaning most scholars and collectors must settle for a later edition, such as this fifth—which has the happy advantage of being handsomely printed in double-column format. This copy is attractively bound, as well.

•  Palau 137466; Sabin 68390. Victorian acid-stained sheep with gilt spines extra. Marbled edges. Tape adhered to one title-page at inner margin. Ownership signatures on title-page. A nice set. (3584)

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MEXICANSILVER  MINING

Spain.

•  Royal decrees relating to mining in New Spain: discovery of new mines, operation of old ones, training of workers and royal officials, duties of experts, introduction of new technology, role of the Tribunal de la Minería and the requirements (including purity of blood) for appointment to it, and many more aspects of this important economic activity.

Carefully compiled and indexed by José de Galvez, this work is here printed for the first time. Sabin calls it a "rare and valuable compendium of the old mining laws and mineral customs."

Galvez was a special commissioner charged with making reforms in the governing of Mexico; his work greatly influenced the 1786 replacement of the Mexican provinces with 12 intendencias. The 18th century saw a rebirth of the Mexican and the Peruvian silver industry as new technologies and techniques were introduced. Concomitant with the increased production was increased wealth for the mine owners and the crown.

A tall copy, regular copies being only 31 cm tall.

•  Palau 251937; Sabin 56260; Medina, BHA, 5040. Contemporary acid-stained sheep with gilt spine, red leather spine label; marbled endpapers. Two ownership marks removed from title-page with resultant repairs. Without the full-page engraving of the royal coat of arms. Old damp-staining to lower inner corners, generally faint; withal a very crisp, clean copy.

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Bound forPresentation by Queen Isabella

Spain. 

•  Complete budgetary accounting for the year 1850, issued by the Spanish government, printed by a woman printer of Madrid, and here in an early example of the work of noted Madrid binder Ginesta.

Binding: Signed presentation binding by Miguel Ginesta II of Madrid, of oxblood straight-grain morocco, covers framed in double gilt fillets surrounding gilt-stamped arabesques and the gilt-stamped coat of arms of Queen Isabella II of Spain; spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesques. Board edges and turn-ins gilt-stamped, pink moiré endpapers, all edges gilt.

Provenance: Infante Duc de Montpensier (sixth son of King Louis Philippe), husband of the Infanta Maria Louisa (Queen Isabella’s sister), with his bookplate.

•  Palau 236716. Binding as described above, covers showing only very minor wear, spine slightly faded. Front pastedown with bookplate described above. Pages gently age-toned, a few showing mild foxing but most clean. Very attractive. (5749)

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He’s Back! — Occasional Poetry “del pueblo”
 An Ephemerum of 1814

•  An anonymous patriotic poem/song (without music), printed in double-column format, celebrating the return of Ferdinand VII to the throne of Spain. An interesting and rare example of this sort of Spanish poetry. 

Not in NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, or Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Español.

•  Not in Palau. Modern marbled boards with cordovan-colored gilt morocco title-label on front cover. A very good copy.

Rare1705 Newsletter

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•  A rare Portuguese newsletter on the dynastic wars in Spain with highly detailed descriptions of the war in Barcelona, and with a list of prisoners, among whom are many Neapolitan nobles faithful to the Aragonese dynasty. Covers events in September and October of 1705.

•  Not in Palau. Fold of outer bifolium mended with tissue. Disbound. (3656)

& Another of1710

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•  This very rare newsletter describes the victory of Count Guidobald von Starhemberg, Austrian field marshal, over the forces of Philip V (referred to here as the Duke of Anjou) at Almenara in July 1710. Woodcut coat of arms of Portugal on title-page, woodcut head- and tailpieces.

•  Palau 256896. Fold of outer bifolium mended with tissue. (3655)

Satirical Political Poetry

•  The political turmoil of Spain in the poetical form of a romance. References to Felipe V and to Lord Stanhope in Madrid.

•  Palau 308809 and 308810 (same work with different attributed dates; that of 1750 clearly erroneous). Disbound, with pen-trials and some worming in gutter margin.

The Most Immediate Literary FormSpaciously Represented — MANY Special Copies

•  Some enterprising Spanish dealer or collector assembled this considerable gathering ofSpanish 19th-century plays (including zarzuelas, sainetes, monologues, etc.) and then bound them uniformly in 33 quarter leather bindings with between 10 and 19 plays per volume. An impressive project and accomplishment even when it was carried out, this amassing of this era's popular, primary theatrical texts would be at least daunting and probably impossible today.

These images of the books on the shelves show something of the variety of individual items.   First, marked with pink slips extending upwards, the total number of plays (473);

second, marked with white slips extending upwards, the number of plays marked for performance (69);

third, marked with pink slips extending outward, the number of plays that are either 1) presentation copies from the playwrights (21), or 2) showing they have been read by censors (2), or 3) plays written specifically for an actor (2).

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Among the playwrights represented are Manuel Fernández Caballero, the Duque de Rivas, Enrique Prieto Enríquez, José Zorrilla, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga, Miguel Ramos Carrión, Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, Ventura de la Vega, Pelayo del Castillo, Antonio María Segovia e Izquierdo, Francisco Macarro y Gallardo, Luis Mariano de Larra, Manuel Tamayo y Baus, Jose López Silva, Joan Palou i Coll, Pantaleón Moreno Gil, Juan Belza, Antonio Gil de Zarate, José Sanchez y Albarran, Enrique Zumel, Vital Aza, Alejandro Rinchan, Jacinto Benavente, and Benito Perez Galdos.

Provenance or Evidence of Contemporary Use/Readership:  69 plays have evidence of having been marked for performance, 21 are presentation copies, two were read by local censors and approved for performance (one requiring a small revision that is carefully noted), and two are specifically stated as having been written for a specific actor (e.g., a three-act verse version of Hamlet for actor Antonio Vico).

Historians of the book will find the plays' array of bookseller's labels and stamps of considerable interest for documenting Spanish and even Argentine firms that specialized in theater.

•  Condition is highly variable from browned and brittle to white and clean, with other plays being closely trimmed in the foremargins costing final letters at line ends. A very few plays have pages loose. In present bound form, all is very safe and very usable.  (33214)

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An Art Collector's Estate

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•  Suárez de Toledo seems to have been a serious collector of oil portraits — including one of Hernando Cortés and one of the Queen of France — as well as of religious art, silver, and other “objets d'art.” The several inventories present in this cahier document his passion, with the other documents further telling the story of the complicated settlement of the estate by the heirs.

•  Written by several notaries so hands are varied. Stitching starting to loosen. A very few leaves with small loss of text to a hungry rodent.  (27598)

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Colonial Support for theRoyal Retreat — MS. Accounting, 1781–85

(Subsidies for the Escorial).

•  Certified copy of a document relating to the 13,200 ducats annually due the monks of the monastery of the Escorial in Spain, promised them in perpetuity by King Philip IV in 1654. In exchange for this annual subsidy of proceeds from encomiendas in Huaylas, Chuquitanta, Conchucas, and other regions in Peru, the monks promised to say masses and to do certain other religious acts for the crown. This document contains specific and detailed accounting data for the years 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1785.

•  Sewn, in good condition.

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The NorthernmostMAYAN Dialect — Two “Firsts”

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•  Huastec is the northernmost dialect of the Maya language. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was spoken in Puebla, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí. Works of any category in this language are rarely found, this beingthe first surviving published grammar and the first dictionary. The catechism is bilingual (Spanish and Huastec) as is the doctrine. Both are important for the study of moral and doctrinal concerns by the clergy among the indigenous population.

Tapia Zenteno was not only an important Mexican linguist and professor of Mexican languages at the Royal and Pontifical University, but was also a comisario for the Inquisition. This work of his is dedicated to Archbishop Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, a man deeply interested in the indigenous culture and the conquest of it, and the man who produced Cortés's letters in a fine and wonderfully illustrated edition in Mexico in 1770. He also paid for the publication of this work, and his coat of arms appears at the top of the Dedication in an engraving by Manuel Villavicencio, one of Mexico's finest engravers.

The volume is handsomely printed, with a nicely composed typographic border to its title-page, an elegant headpiece and a scenic initial “E” on its p. 1, and a modest but charming typographic “surround” for its final leaf's “O MARIA” (above).

Provenance:  Marca de fuego on upper edges of closed book, most likely of the Franciscan Convento de Santa María Magdalena de San Martín Texmelucan, Puebla; early 19th-century pressure-stamp of a private Spanish-language collector on title-page; faint 19th-century case and shelf rubber-stamp in English on front free endpaper.

•  Viñaza 355; García Icazbalceta, Apuntes, 73; Medina, Mexico, 5187; Sabin 94355; Palau 327486; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., 4678; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Huastec, 15; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3801.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking the leather ties. An attractive, crisp copy and only the fourth complete copy of this work we have seen on the market in 35 years.  (33590)

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“La Gloria de la Madre de Dio en su Prodigiosa Asuncion”

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•  Our author was a well-respected orator and sermon giver, as exemplified by his having been chosen in 1804 to present the sermon at the funeral of the recently deceased bishop of Michoacan, Antonio de San Miguel Iglesias. In this sermon, also preached in Michoacan (which had no press till some time later), Torre L. discussesthe virtues of Mary and the nature of Her humility.

Publication of this piece was due to a friend, “Lo da a luz pública un amigo del orador.”

•  Garritz, I, 255; Medina, Mexico, 10120; Beristain, II, p. 174; Andrade 2393.   Modern vellum over boards, waterstaining to rear cover and small crescent of same to top margins; remnant of marca de fuego on top edge. A few faint spots, a blurred ink-note (a monogram?), and two short ink-slashes to title-page, otherwise clean and unmarked. A good copy.  (32770)

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“The Day of Its Unveiling” — A Painting in Puebla, April 1682

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•  ART, colonial Mexican art specifically, is the subject of this “sermon” from the pen of the “Master of Students of theology in the convent [school] of . . . San Francisco of the city of [Puebla] de los Angeles.” The work of art under study is a painting called“Jerusalem Triunfante” that was installed in the office of the convent's porter in a grand ceremony on 19 April 1682.

Torres describes the painting and its elements, their biblical and theologic meaning, and relevance to life of the day. The number of works written in Mexico and published there during the 17th century that are art-related (widely defined) is small: The late great collector, historian, and bibliographer Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa's bibliography of these imprints lists 106 items. Tovar de Teresa did not know of this one.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, CCILA, COPAC, CCPBE, and of the OPACs of the national libraries of Spain and Mexico, and of the University of Puebla locate only two copies worldwide: one in Chile and one in the La Fragua collection in Puebla. We know of a third copy in the Condumex collection, where the Gavito collection of Puebla imprints resides.

The printer here was a woman, the widow of Juan de Borja y Gandia.

•  Medina, Puebla, 78; Beristaín, III, 191; Andrade 797; Palau 337161. Not in Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografia novohispana de arte.   In modern wrappers using long-stitch method. Title-leaf and one license leaf torn with loss: Missing area of title-leaf costs a portion of the imprint, portions of the printer's ornaments of border and title area and portions of the full-page woodcut coat of arms on the verso. Missing area of license leaf costs portions of seven lines of text and portions of the signature area. There possibly was an ownership stamp taken in that same area on the blank portion of the recto of the leaf. A responsible conservator dry-cleaned all leaves to remove surface dirt and bathed them in deionized recalcified water. Missing areas of title-leaf and one license leaf repaired using leafcasting: The same method used to “square” all leaves. A great rarity now nicely and professionally restored.  (34548)

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“Complete Lack of Subscribers”

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•  Issue number 40 (8 December) — the last published — of an early Peruvian newspaper that was issued every Wednesday; Cuzco's first newspaper came off the press in 1825. The existence of this newspaper isnot noted at all by Charno, WorldCat (serials), Union List of Serials, COPAC, or CCILA. And searches via the OPAC of the Hemeroteca Peruana also failed to find this newspaper listed.

In announcing that this is the last issue the editors give reasons that are stark and must have been bitter: a complete lack of subscribers, a law that requires them to publish opinions by others that are anathema to the editors' beliefs and ends, and failure of supporters of the editors' ideals to write for the paper.

•  Removed from a nonce volume; inner margin slightly irregular. Wormholes in text costing some letters and portions of words.  (34201)

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