MEXICO - UNA PIÑATA BIBLIOGRÁFICA
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For a separate list of additional 19th-Century Mexicana,  click here. NOW, ILLUSTRATED!

Sor Juana & Her Arch Enemy

•  "The Tenth Muse" to the Anglo-American audience is Anne Bradstreet, but throughout Spanish America and Spain, and in goodly parts of Europe, that sobriquet is associated only with Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.   Born in a small town in Mexico in 1651, she learned to read Latin before she was six. Denied admission to the Royal University in Mexico, she was to enter conventual life instead, develop a close friendship with the great colonial Mexican polymath Sigüenza y Góngora (the Cosmographer of New Spain), and write and publish the finest known poetry of the Spanish colonial empire in the period to 1821, as well as some plays and "Christmas carols."

In the year before her pen is silenced and less than three before she falls victim to the plague while caring for her sick Sisters, Sor Juana attests to a legal document concerning her convent’s economic investments. She was the nunnery’s contadora (bookkeeper). By way of horribly evocative contrast, opposite her signature on the facing page is that of Francisco Aguiar y Seijas, Archbishop of Mexico, the misogynist who caused her to give up her writing and quasi-secular ways.

Able to bully the most gifted member of his religious community only following the return to Spain of her last viceregal patron and protector, the Marquis de la Laguna, Aguiar y Seijas applied increasing pressure to Sor Juana and the prioress of her Hieronymite convent. It took him from 1688 until 1693 to put “la decima Musa” “in her place.”

Documents signed by the polymath Sor Juana are very rare and highly sought after; this one desirably shows the trust her Sisters placed in her. The pairing of her signature with her arch enemy's is chilling and visually impactful.

•  In very good condition.

Alfredo Chavero's Copy

•  Amador (1848–1917) would be pleased to know that his work on the history of Zacatecas, where his 25,000 volume library is still housed, continues to be source of historic data for researchers. This is vol. I, and covers pre-Contact to 1810. The second volume seems not to have been published until 1943.

Provenance:  Alfredo Chavero's copy, with his bookplate on front pastedown and his stamp on the title-page.

•  Contemporary half black morocco over green and grey stone-patterned boards. A very good copy.  (21739)

A RARE PoeticEncomium

•  Medina knew of this encomiastic poem only from the copy in the British Library; Garritz shows no locations in Mexico, taking her entry from Medina and Sutro. The work begins with an anagram and proceeds to laud the viceroy, the king, the queen, and aspects of the crown's regime in New Spain. Fulsome. Click either image
for an enlargement.

•  Medina, Mexico, 10842; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1826; Sutro, Supplement, 125.   Folded and never bound; uncut, unopened. Small hole in blank area of inner area of title-page and its conjugate. Faint stain. (21278)

Two Authors — Three Titles — Contemporary Marginalia
PETER MARTYR  

•  This volume consists of two works by Peter Martyr and one by Góis. Those of Martyr are the first three Decades and an abridgement of the fourth, together with his account of his diplomatic mission to Egypt. The De Babylonica legatione was first appended to the De rebus oceanicis et novo orbe in 1533. Martyr's Decades are, of course, one of the major sources for the early history of the New World, for as royal historian to the Spanish court he obtained information directly from Columbus, Cortés, Vasco de Gama, and other explorers and conquerors, as well as from memorials and reports submitted to the king.

The work of Góis is composed of various opuscula concerning Spain, Portugal, Ethiopia,India, and other regions visited and travelled by the Portuguese. Góis is one of the most highly regarded 16th century chroniclers of Portuguese overseas activity (cf. Europe Informed, pp. 76-77).

A worthy gathering with a good deal of interesting marginalia.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 574/1; Adams M755; Sabin 1558; Medina, Biblioteca hispano-americana, 235; JCB, I, 253; Arents, Additions, 3; Palau 12595; Maggs, Spanish Americana, 471; Rodrigues 186 and 809; Borba de Moraes (2nd ed.), Bibliographia brasiliana, 532. Half vellum over late-17th-century, early-18th-century "Dutch" gold-stamped "wallpaper"; gilt-stamped leather label on spine, with small circular paper label pasted below; paper with abrasions and vellum soiled. A sound volume. All edges speckled. Light agetoning; one pin-type wormhole at base of outside margin through first quarter of the book, and a bit of other minor marginal worm-work in the first 10 pages neatly repaired.

Deputies for the Cortes

•  Our anonymous author writes concerning the enthusiasm in Mexico City for the readoption of the Spanish Constitution, but mostly addresses the number of deputies to be sent and their selection/election.

Scarce: Searches of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only a Bancroft Library copy in the U.S.

•  Sutro 166; Steele 67; Medina, Mexico, 11662; Garritz 4020. Folded as issued. Some pencilling. Clean copy.

Election Advice

•  Serious advice on selecting deputies for the Cortes, not endorsing anyone by name.

Uncommon: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC we trace only the copies at the Sutro and Bancroft libraries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 11719; Sutro 148; Steele 81, 82; Garritz 4240. Folded as issued; a little dog-earing and some short tears in fore-margin. A very decent copy of a very uncommon pamphlet.

Watch Your Language!

•  Mr./Ms. Anonymous here takes “El Amante de la Constitucion,” a.k.a. Mr./Ms. Pseudonymous, to task for the language used in his/her political diatribe concerning the soon to be readopted constitution—and, for doubting the king will live up to his promise to abide by the new scheme of government!

Hard to find outside of California!  All copies traced in the U.S. are in that state (Bancroft, Huntington, Sutro libraries).

•  Not in Medina, Mexico. Garritz 3445; Steele 66; Sutro 125. Folded as issued; old stitching holes. A clean, crisp copy.

Troublesome Deserters

(Army Discipline).

•  Expediente concerning military discipline. Included are certified copies of original decrees by Secretary of the Army Galvez and portions of royal decrees, as well as a printed document. Specifically detailed are the punishments for first-time deserters, second timers, and third-time or more runways.

•  Very good condition. Sewn.

The New Constitution Will
Ruin Us!

•  Second edition, published same year as first. This political tract is in the form of a dialogue between a barber and a merchant in which the former successfully argues against the constitution imposed by a Spanish military junta in 1820.
Single-click the image for an enlargement.

•  Medina, Mexico, 11586; Steele 12; Sutro 120; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3227. Removed from a nonce volume; stapled. Some foxing, a little soiling, a few short tears, and a small wormhole in the lower inner corner. A few pencilled notations.

Very Neat Printing — The Bishop Reports (& Reminds)

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús.

•  The bishop of Monterrey had been to Mexico City to lobby for support for the Catholic Church, and here he lobbies his flock for the same.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean, nice.

La puntual observancia — Do It Right

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Quinta carta pastoral que sobre la puntual observancia de los sagrados ritos y ceremonias, en la celebracion de la santa misa y administracion de los santos sacramentos, dirige a su clero.... Mexico: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1836. 8vo. 34 pp.
$100.00

•  A call for attention to detail in the celebration of mass and other clerical duties and obligations.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and nice.

TheThreat of Protestantism

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Segunda carta pastoral que dirige a su clero y diocesanos..., el...obispo de Monterey [sic]. México: Impr. de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1835. 8vo. 16 pp.
$100.00

•  Concerns the influx of Protestant theological and doctrinal publications.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light stain in upper outer corners, and on title-page (only) in an additional few places. Still, a crisp, good copy.

BeStrong in Your Faith

Belaunzarán y Ureña, José María de Jesús. Septima carta pastoral que el...obispo de Monterey, dirige a su venerable clero secular y regular y diocesanos. Mexico: Impreso por Jose Uribe y Alcalde, 1838. 8vo. 14 pp.
$100.00

•  Talks of how hard it is to be a Mexican because of the endless round of war, hunger, and turmoil, and of the need to be strong in one’s religion.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Light foxing in some upper margins. Crisp.

Sur le Mexique

•  First edition, variant printing with additional Mexican imprint information, this being one of two 1868 Paris editions of vol. IV in the Collection de documents dans les langues indigènes pour servir a l'étude de l'histoire et de la philologie d l'Amérique ancienne series on the origins and development of indigenous American languages. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg travelled throughout Mexico and Central America as part of his ecclesiastical duties, and channeled his interest in archeology and antiquities into a number of publications on the original Mesoamerican sources he collected or copied. The present work includes commentary by him on the Chichicastenango manuscript, and much speculation regarding the prehistoric connections between the Old World and the New.

•  Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1082; Sabin 7437.   Contemporary half morocco and paper-covered sides, spine gilt extra; edges/corners rubbed, small repairs to spine and joints. Front free endpaper with institutional rubber-stamp; back pastedown with rubber-stamp partially touching the small affixed ticket of a New York bookseller. Outer margin of half-title and one other leaf chipped. A few leaves towards back of volume unopened. (20651)

Censoring the Clergy

•  This ministerial order is a copy of the message from the Secretario de Estado y del Despacho of 10 June 1813 from Cadiz, forwarded to the viceroy of New Spain by Juan O'Donoju four days later. It reminds the clergy of Spain and Spanish America that Law 7, Title 8, Book 1 of the Novísima recopilación de leyes de Indias calls for obedience to the king, and that any clergyman who "dares utter insulting or ugly words against the King or royal persons or against the state or government, shall be arrested and bound over to royal authority." Churchmen had been outspokenly critical of the Royalist government at Cadiz, and even the example of the executed Hidalgo did not deter the clerics in their quest for change. This decree was printed in Mexico City and is dated in text 12 January 1814.

This copy printed on blue paper.  Uncommon: NUC locates only two copies (at the Bancroft and the John Carter Brown libraries).

•  Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 1917; not in Harper, Americana Iberica.

Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, 1810

•  The great 19th-century historian Bustamante provides a chronicle of the events surrounding the removal of the statue of Our Lady of Remedies (Nuestra Señora de los Remedios) from her sanctuary in Totoltepec, her trip to Mexico City, and the veneration offered her there — all occurring in the tension-filled Spring and Summer prior to the Grito de Dolores (16 September 1810). He begins his text by providing the statue's history, delving into allegations that it arrived with Cortés and was carried by his soldiers throughout the Conquest. Click the images for enlargements.

Also incorporated here are some of the poetic effusions that the statue inspired: sonnets by Manuel Antonio Valdés, Dr. Alcocer, José Manuel Sartorio, Mariano Barazabal, and José Aries de Villafañe, plus at least two whose authors are not specifically identified.

A historically important work forMexico during the period of May through early September, 1810, and apparently rare: Two major bibliographies fail to list it, and NUC Pre-1956, OCLC, and RLIN combined locate only four copies, although there is a fifth at the Sutro.

The drop-title of this item is “Memoria principal de la piedad y lealtad del pueblo de México, en los solemnes cultos de nuestra Señora de los Remedios, desde su llegada hasta su regreso al santuario de Totoltepec.”

•  Medina, Mexico, 10436; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 624; Sutro 71; not in Steele; not in Palau.   As issued, without a title-page but with a dated dedication leaf that serves as the front wrapper and is integral with the blank back wrapper. Worming in upper and foremargins. Staining in lower outer corner of pp. 25 to end, heaviest at end. Small loss of lower outer corner of the rear wrapper. Overall, a good+ copy of this important work on “the other” Virgin that is important in Mexico.  (24592)

Why We Arethe Way We Are

•  Bustamante, the great post-Independence political thinker, here analyses the political and economic situation of Mexico and attempts to seek the roots of the problems in those areas in the nature of colonial Mexico's economic and political structures. A classic work. Click either image for an enlargement.

•  Library tan buckram with gilt lettering on spine. Ex–American Antiquarian Society copy with small “Sold by AAS” stamp on front pastedown and blind-embossed stamp on title. A very nice copy. (21509)

He Served UnderMORELOS

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Bustamante (1774–1848), the great post-Independence political thinker and historian, first published this work as Cuadro histórico de la revolución de la América Mexicana (México: M. Ontiveros, 1821–23), a work issued in parts, written in the form of letters, each letter separately paged with separate imprint. Bustamante had served under Morelos during the War for Independence and knew all of the major and many of the minor figures, making his work most valuable.

In this edition Lic. Pablo de Mendibil has edited the letters into four large chapters and added lithographic portraits of Hidalgo, Morelos, Bravo, Guerrero, and Guadalupe Victoria. They are variously from originals by Gauci or unidentified artists, and are lithographed by either R.Cooper or Englemann & Co.

•  Sabin 47810; Palau 163362 (under Mendibil).   Mid–19th century half red leather, flat spine, machine-made marbled paper on covers and as endpapers, marbled edges. Leather abraded and refurbished; interior clean and nice.  (21727)

TO Part II . . .

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