
MANUSCRITOS

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Certifying the Use of a Coat of Arms & the
Concomitant Privileges & Exemptions
Alonso Usatigui Barcena y Rodriguez de los Rios, Francisco. Polychromatic genealogical/heraldic manuscript, on paper, in Spanish. Madrid: 1722 (5 December). 4to (31 cm, 12"). [24] ff.
$1200.00
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Francisco Alonso Usatigui Barcena y Rodriguez de los Rios was descended from the noble families of Alonso, Usatigui, Barcena, and Rodriguez and held office as a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Spanish Royal Infantry Guard in the early 18th century, during and after the War of Spanish Succession.
Here Don Juan Antonio de Hoces Sarmiento, the Royal Chronicler, certifies that he has examined the many volumes in the royal archives relating to the noble families of Spain and their achievements, royal favors, and coats of arms, and he has found that Col. Alonso Usatigui is entitled to use the coat of arms that serves as the frontispiece of this manuscript.
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)

“Scroungers” &
Their Rights in 13th-Century ARAGON
(Still Scrounging/Foraging in 1542)
Almudevar (Spain). Manuscript document, on paper. In Latin. Aragon: 5 May 1542. Small 4to (21.9 cm; 8.675"). [5] pp.
$775.00
Click the image for an enlargement.

Elaborate Gilt Binding, Illuminated Manuscript, Miniatures of
the King & the Alvarado Family
(Alvarado family). Illuminated manuscript, on vellum, in Spanish. Granada: 1598. Folio (32 cm, 12.5" ). [62] ff.
[SOLD]
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Juan Alvarado, citizen of La Fuente, Spain, initiated a suit in December, 1583, to be recognized as an hidalgo. The process was lengthy but economically rewarding despite the litigation and other costs; he died before being granted the status but the case was continue by his son Rodrigo, who was granted the status in 1598. This is a contemporary and certified copy of the final carta ejecutoria de hidalguia, signed by the king of arms and two other royal officials. At the end the city officials of La Fuente also acknowledge the new Alvarado status.
The volume begins with a full-page miniature of the Alvarado family kneeling in a field praying, with rosaries, to the Virgin and Child above them in a gilt mandorla. The miniature is surrounded on three sides by a wide composite border, the two sides featuring feature flowers, fruits and berries, an urn, a bare-chested woman, and doves; the third element at the base of the page bears the name of the king gilt on deep blue within a baroque frame. The colors used for this page are black, gold, blue, red, green, white, rose, and brown. Opposite the miniature is another illuminated leaf with the family coat of arms below a large miniature of a battle scene in which an ancestor on horseback is slaying Saracens. The miniature and coat of arms are presented with borders on the left and right accomplished in gilt, rose, purple, white, brown, and green of flowers, birds, snails, butterflies, and ladybugs; their own colors are similarly bright and many.
This double-page painted “spread,” on vellum, is frankly spectacular.
The text is accomplished in a good semi-gothic hand, in black ink, with twelve large, 12-line illuminated initials on fields of red within a green frame; one four-line illuminated initial on a field of blue; and one
15-line tall miniature of King Felipe II accomplished in silver, black, white, and gold on a red field with a green frame. The three leaves with miniatures retain their red silk guards.Binding: Contemporary calf elaborately tooled in gilt using four distinct rolls, a double fillet, and
at least ten stamps. Red silk pastedowns.
Additional internal documentations: On the recto of the leaf with the miniature of the family praying is a note showing that
the notary who prepared the manuscript and was responsible for the miniatures and illumination was Francisco Perez Grandiola and that the fee was 1800 maravides. There was an additional charge of 12 pesos for silk and 80 pesos for the lead seal no longer present. (There is no information given as to who did the binding or its cost.)
Binding as above, worn over all, especially at board edges and spine at the raised bands; still, lovely, with evidence of silk ties at top, bottom, and fore-edges. Paint of initials and the miniature of the king in spots a little rubbed/faded; that of the full-page presentations bright and in notably excellent condition. The lead seal is not present but its silk cord remains; the vellum of the text leaves is clean.
A visually appealing document and production evocative of its era, and one incorporating more evidence than is common as to its making. (40409)

Signatures of the
Famous & Obscure
(Autographs in Abundance). Collection of signatures of notable and lesser Mexicans of the colonial era and first three quarters of the 19th century. Mexico: 1646 to ca. 1880. Various small sizes.
$2250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The collection contains approximately 400 clipped signatures of historical, political, and literary figures, including: José María Fagoaga (signer of the Act of Independence), Manuel Sotarriva (signer of the Act of Independence), Miguel Cervantes (i.e., Marques de Salvatierra. signer of the Act of Independence), Juan de Solorzano Pereira (jurist and major writer on the law of the Indies), Juan Cervantes y Padilla (signer of the Act of Independence), Jose Maria Heredia (poet), Jose Fernandez de Jauregui (printer), Jose Maria Guridi y Alcocer (signer of the Act of Independence), Valentín Canalizo (general, supporter and confidante of Santa Anna), Marques de San Juan de Rayas (signer of the Act of Independence), Santiago de Irissarri ((Independence-era military figure), Jose Bustamante (signer of the Act of Independence), Enrique White (governor of East Florida), Ignacio Barbachano (leader of the 1841 Yucatecan-break-away protonation), Vicente de la Concha (Queretaro politician), Juan Hierro Maldonado (Minister of Fomento, Colonización é Industria, and great politician), El Marques de Selva Nevada, Jacobo Ugarte y Loyola (governor of province of Coahuila y Tejas in the 1790s), El Conde de Alcazar, Ignacio de Bustamante (many times governor of Sonora), José Ignacio de Berasueta (intendent of Puebla in 1811), José Mariano de Arce (chief of revenue for pulque and alcabala), Francisco Javier Miranda (one of the delegation that offered Mexico to Maximilian!), Urbano Tovar (conservative politician, governor of Jalisco), Ramon Gutierrez del Mayo, Francisco Robledo, Francisco Jose de Urrutia, Victoriano Lopez Gonzalo (bishop of Puebla), Esteban Lorenzo de Tristán y Esmenota (bishop of Durango), Manuel José Rubio y Salinas (archbishop of Mexico), Mariano Riva Palacio (politician), Rafael Mangino (politician who crowned Emperor Agustin I), José Agustín Domínguez y Díaz (bishop of Oaxaca), Ignacio Alas (railroad entrepreneur), Juan Faustino Mazihcatzin (Indian leader of Tlaxcala), Pedro Saenz de la Guardia (naval commander of the San Blas region), Vicente Filisola (general, second in command to Santa Anna in the Texas Campaign), Esteban Moctezuma (general defeated by Bustamante at Gallinero), Jose Mariano Beristain (the great bibliographer), Manuel Payno (novelist and playwright), and many more.
Beyond its simple charm as
a signature gallery both representing and evoking a long era of Mexican history, this is a most useful archive of “sample” signatures.
All items glued to
both sides of sheets of paper (approximately 25 x 21.5 cm; .75 x 8.5" h x w) with multiple clipped signatures per sheet, 21 sheets total. Glue stains, and some early colonial ones with sealing-wax stains. (34167)

Their Judgment: FARCICAL Process, BUT
Enforceable Policy . . .
Bolivia. Treaties. 1842. Manuscript Document Signed. Sucre, 10 December 1842. On paper, in Spanish. Folio, 3 ½ pp.
$500.00
The official, signed report of the Presidential Committee appointed to investigate the just-concluded "treaty of peace, commerce and navigation" with Great Britain. The report observes: "The present treaty is, letter for letter, the same as that concluded in 1837 in Lima by the Proctor of the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation, and the same, also, bearing the date of 30 May 1838 that the Extraordinary Bolivian Congress (meeting in Cochabamba) approved" (our translation). With five members dissenting, the committee decides that the method of congressional approval, though "farcical," was legal and binding.
Bearing signatures, among others, of Pedro Buitrago, Narciso Dulón, Eusebio Gutiérrez, M. de la Cruz Méndez, José M. Dalence, and Manuel Sagarnaga.
Very good condition. Two small tears at folds, not affecting text. (3107)
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The Development of a
Hacienda in the YUCATAN — 1626–1866
(Chalmuch Hacienda, Yucatan, Mexico). Manuscript cahiers on paper of land transfers and inventories, in
MAYA and Spanish. Chalmuch, Merida, elsewhere in Yucatan: 1626–1866. Folio (31 cm, 12.5"). 132 ff. (14 blank).
$5500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Law suits between Yucatan hacienda owners (one a woman), and hacienda owners and Indians; estate inventories and land transfers (three in Maya); materials showing usefully characteristic environmental effects — from the early 17th century and continuing through the middle of the 19th, these documents chronicle the development of the Chalmuch hacienda, situated approximately 12 kilometers west of the center of Merida.
In the Yucatan — for geographic, geologic. ecologic, and economic reasons, particularly the quality of the soil and the lack of water for irrigation — haciendas had a later appearance than in other parts of Mexico, especially in the center and north, where their development began in the decade after the fall of the Aztec Empire. It was not until the 17th century that haciendas began to be established in the Yucatan Peninsula.
The earliest document in these five sewn-files is dated 18 May 1626 and concerns the settlement of a law suit between Bernardo de Sosa Velazquez and the Indians of the towns of Santiago, Cauqall, and Vac regarding unused lands and hills. The suit was settled in favor of Sosa with the provisos that he occupy the lands, build on and populate them, and bring in cattle within one year. The addition of new land to this original sitio is the substance of the remaining documents. Among them are two estate inventories and three documents of the first third of the 18th century in Maya (land transfers).
In the 1850s and ‘60s there was a land dispute between Doña Pastora Castillo, owner of the Oxcun hacienda, and Bernardo Cano, owner of the Chalmuch hacienda (represented by Sr. José Vicente Solís, his agent), concerning the need for a survey of boundaries. The dispute dragged on and in 1866, during the attempted reforms of Maximilian's Empire, these documents were presented before the state's Land Inspection Section and were certified by the Chief of Inspection with his stamp. The Land Inspection Section was responsible for the preparation and revision of plans, the comparison of land documents, and the measurement of land held by each hacienda, as well as certification of location, boundaries, and owners.
Provenance: From the private archive of the Chalmuch hacienda.
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.
Manuscripts from the Yucatan are notorious for having suffered environmental and ecological damage: damp and insect problems. These are no exception, but as such they are excellent for teaching purposes as well as traditional research. One cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink from exposure to long-term humidity, and others are just fine. Here is the opportunity to show (and for students to practice) how to use light sources of various wave-lengths for making faded writing jump off the page and how to carefully interleave a document with thin Mylar sheets to save leaves from further damage during reading and page-turning.
(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)

A New Bishop for Buenos Aires Manuscript Decree
Charles IV, King of Spain. Document signed with a wooden stamp ("Yo El Rey") and with evidence of a royal paper and wax seal. Aranjuez, 23 February 1798. Folio (288 x 210 mm.). [3] ff.
$675.00
Decree confirming Pedro Inocencio Bejarano as bishop of Buenos Aires, succeeding the late Manuel de Azamor y Ramírez. Written in a cursive hand. With, in addition to the stamped royal signature, those of various witnesses.
Stitched. (2674)
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Fernando VII, King of Spain. Document Signed (“Yo El Rey”), on paper, in Spanish. “En Palacio” [i.e., Madrid], 1 March 1815. Folio (29.8 cm, 12.75"), 4 pp.
$700.00
On 11 February 1815 the king conceded Doña María Josefa d’Alouise, widow of Don Juan Carlos Benavides, the power to attempt recovery of 8356 reales and 6 maravides de velón of annual income from her late husband’s entailed estate (i.e., mayorazgo). He here expands his earlier decree and orders the current holder of the entail to give the said sum annually to her, provided she does not remarry or take religious vows.
Written in a very clear hand, with the paper and wax seal below the king’s signature (wax desicated and paper loose, but present). Two blank leaves at end. Very good condition. (5578)
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What Would Now Be Called a
“Feeler” or “Heads-Up”?
Herrera y Cisneros, Gaspar de. Autograph Letter Signed to an unnamed correspondent On paper, in Spanish. Spain: 26 November 1612. Folio (30.8 cm; 12. 125"). [1] p., lacking the integral address leaf.
$100.00
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Herrera seeks help with financial matters relating to an inheritance; he does not, in this probably “introductory” missive, specify their nature.
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)
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The Mining Revival & The Father of
Mexican Independence
Hidalgo, Miguel de, Father of Mexican Independence. Document Signed (Br. Hidalgo), on paper, in Spanish. No place [mining region of Real de Bolaños or Aguas Calientes], no date [1780]. Folio, 1 p., bound in a dossier of documents relating to the execution of the provisions of the will of Augustina Velázquez. [with] A number of other collateral documents relating to the Condes de Vivanco. On paper, in Spanish. Mexico City, Real de Bolaños, Aguas Clientes, Valladolid (now Morelia), and elsewhere in Mexico. Folio (31 cm, 12.25") and smaller.
Approximately
350 ff.
$7500.00
In 1780 Augustina Velázquez died and her will provided, among other things, for a huge number of masses to be said for her. Subsidy for the masses was spread among the priests in the mining region where she had lived Real de Bolaños and Aguas Calientes. Those receiving sums of money signed receipts, and among the dozens was a newly ordained minister who signed his receipt "Br. Hidalgo." The young bachiller became famous in 1810 for initiating the uprising that began the eleven-year struggle for Mexican Independence.
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 marvelous
calligraphic 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)
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A MANUSCRIPT Epitome of the
Laws Relating to Indians in Spanish America
(Indians, South America). Manuscript on paper. In Spanish. “Resumen de d[e]r[ech]os tocantes a los Yndios, sobre su reduccion. [Spanish America, most likely the Viceroyalty of Peru]: ca. 1725. Small 4to (21.5 cm; 8.5"). [14] ff. (3 ff. blank).
[SOLD]
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Because Spanish colonial-era laws concerning Indians were numerous and published in the unwieldy Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de Indias (5 vols., 1681 with subsequent revisions and editions) and authoritatively interpreted in Solorzano Pereira's also hefty Politica indiana (2 vols., 1648 and later editions), lawyers and judges often resorted to reducing the laws most relevant to their own work to a manuscript epitome, i.e., a booklet offering an abstract of each chosen law with its proper citation to either the Recopilacion or to Politica indiana when the full law or interpretation might be wanted.
THIS IS JUST SUCH A WORKING EPITOME, and that it speaks both to laws relating to Indians generally and, as per its title, to
laws 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)
Royal Household Affairs
Partial Payment for Her Majesty's
Tapestry
Isabel I, Queen of Spain. Document on paper, in Spanish, signed "Yo la Reyna." Granada, 8 May 1501. Folio (31.2 cm, 12.25"). [1] p.
$4000.00
On the top half of this page the Queen orders Sancho de Parades, her chamberlain, to pay Germán de Paris and his partner Jacques 22,600 maravides remaining on the 78,600 maravides that she owes them for a tapestry. The woven piece is a gift for a church, and includes 12 depictions of the royal coat of arms.
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)

A Woman Brings a Case
& WINS
Martinez Insausti, Pedro. Manuscript document. Zaragoza: 13 July 1615. Folio (30.8 cm; 12.125"). [1] p.
$100.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Antonio Miravete, a notary public of Zaragoza, certifies that Pedro and his wife Juana Beatriz appeared before him and swore they had received 62,000 sueldos from Pedro Jimenez de Murillo, secretary to His Majesty, which money the courts ordered him to pay as a result of a legal case brought by Juana Beatriz.
Disoloration alone the horizontal middle of the leaf; small holes at same area. Overall good++. Clear, easy notarial hand. (31215)

Supreme Court Documents
Olañeta, Casimiro. Five MS. Letters Signed, to the Secretary of State at the Office of Justice. Sucre, 11 March – 12 May 1858. On paper, in Spanish. Folio, 8 pp.
$725.00
The president of the Bolivian Supreme Court writes concerning the receipt of official decrees (11 March), the salaries of court employees (6 April), the court's opinion in the matter of substitute judges in the civil section of the judicial system (9 April), the court's decision to press criminal charges against a lawyer who had impugned the dignity of the court (10 May), and the court's opinion regarding the official title of judges in certain criminal cases (12 May).
The Court had just come through a period during which a military ruler had systematically dismantled the courts and undercut their authority and dignity. Olañeta had assumed his presidency only days before the first document in the collection was penned.
Very good condition. A few small tears at folds. (3116)
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Bishop Palafox — Letters To & From, a Narrative,
& the Question of Beatification
Palafox y Mendoza, Juan de. Manuscript on paper, in Spanish. “Carta primera qué èl V.e S.or D.n Juan dè Palafox escriviò âl Summo Pontifize Innocencio X sobre lòs dòs Pleytos que litigava con los Padres Jesuìtas, sobre diezmos y jurisdizion.” [Mexico?: ca. 1760]. Folio (30 cm, 11.75"). [28] ff.
[SOLD]
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This cahier of documents begins with a Spanish-language translation of the letter mentioned in the “title” of the manuscript: It was originally written in Italian from Puebla, Mexico, in 1647, while Palafox was bishop of that see and attempting to reestablish episcopal control over the various regular orders. Other documents are narratives of events in Rome concerning ecclesiastical court decisions; a copy of Palafox's letter of 5 December 1657 from Osma about the imbroglio with the Jesuits in Mexico, with a copy of Dr. Juan Mangano's response to it; and a copy of Carlos III's letter of 12 August 1760 to Pope Clement XIII
seeking the beatification of Bishop Palafox.

How to Conduct a (Particular) Residencia Hearing
Philip IV, King of Spain. Manuscript document. On paper, in Spanish. Madrid: 31 October 1625. Folio (31 cm; 12.125"). [4] pp. (and 2 blank leaves).
$875.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Diego de Faxardo had been the corregidor of Merida del Campo and he is scheduled to undergo the residencia hearing that will assess his term of office. Here the king gives specific instructions to the residencia judge as to who should be called to testify and who should not.
This is a certified contemporary copy of the original with the official paper and wax seal (now desiccated and detached but present).
Very good condition with minimal bleed through. Written in a very clear notarial hand. (31210)

Doing
BUSINESS in Mexico in 1834
Quesedo, Tomas. Autograph Letter Signed, in Spanish, on paper, to Abraham Miller. Mexico City [“S.C.”]: 13 October 1834. Small 4to, [2] pp.
$125.00
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Ramírez Carrillo, Alonso. Manuscript document, unsigned. On paper, in Spanish. Peñafiel, Spain, 1621. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). 15 ff.
$500.00
Detailed here is the last will and testament of the choir master of Popayán, Colombia. Ramírez was an absentee office holder, for he lived in Peñafiel, Spain, indulged in this failure to take up his duties in the New World by the bishop of Popayán—who happened to be his uncle. The choir master’s wealth was considerable and while not itemized as in an estate inventory, it is more than hinted at via the bequests here of real estate (with provenance), of silver and gold chalices and crosses, and of cash in the form of coin. The bequests also give an interesting picture of the size of his family and the ranking of nieces, nephews, etc.
Certified, contemporary copy of the original.
Sewn. In good condition. Very legible notarial hand. (7710)
Ramírez Carrillo, Alonso. Document (“escritura pública de donación”). In Spanish, on paper. Peñafiel, Spain, 24 April 1615. Folio. [10] pp.
$450.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Don Alonso Ramírez was the past choir master of Popayán, Colombia, and by this document gives various properties to María de la Puente, widow of Diego Ramírez Carrillo (Don Alonso’s nephew) and Doña Isabel Ramírez Carrillo, Maria’s daughter. The properties include a vineyard (“nueve viñas” that Don Alonso bought from Diego on 9 March 1591; another (“viña a Manzanillo”) that he bought from Juan Arranz, the elder, citizen of Manzanillo, on 7 December 1612; a third vineyard (“viña a Majuelo”) that he purchased from Francisco Santos and his wife (María Muñoz), citizens of Manzanillo, on 20 April 1614; a piece of land in Manzanillo, in the region called “tierras de las Tapias,” sown with two cargas of seed, purchased from Gaspar Decian on 6 January 1586; and a house in the parish of Nuestra Señora de Mediavilla that he purchased on 16 July 1605 from the administrators of the trust that Joratalina Sarmiento established.
A contemporaneous certified copy of the original document.
Written in a clear notarial hand. Very good condition. (14466)

Securing Status & Privileges for a
Minor of a Minor Noble Family
(Sola Piloa family). Illuminated manuscript, on paper and vellum, in Spanish and Latin. Zaragoza: 1670 (27 September). Small 4to (26.5 cm, 10.5"). 9 ff. (one on paper).
[SOLD]
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Diego Jeronimo Gomez, legal guardian of 14-year-old Antonio Sola Piloa of Burgos, petitions to have Antonio's status as an infanzon — i.e., a minor noble with a proven lineage free of bastardy, Jewish blood, etc., who enjoys certain privileges and exemptions — recognized by the crown.
A large portion of the petition consists of a history of the Sola Piloa family and of its accomplishments for the crown.The manuscript is accomplished
on vellum in a good calligraphic script in sepia ink, single-column format, 27 lines per page.
Painting and embellishments: Opposite the first page of the manuscript, beneath a bejeweled crown, is a large colored and illuminated representation (on paper) of the Sola family coat of arms: a castle with lions rampant left and right and charges of a crescent moon and a grenade, above a ribbon blazoned, “Sola Infanzon de Aragon.” The colors used are silver, red, gold, and blue.
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)

A Bespoke Cedulario for
Use in New Spain & Guatemala
(Spanish Royal Decrees). An assemblage of 43 manuscript and printed royal and viceroyal decrees and some 25 related documents. Barcelona, Madrid, Valldolid (Spain), Aranjuez, Mexico City, & elsewhere: 1701–79. Small 4to, folio, & larger. Approximately 135 ff.
$8275.00
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Explaining why manuscript cedularios were made in the era of the printing press is called for here, and the answer is simple: The number of copies that were printed of any given royal cédula tended to be smaller than the number of lawyers, clerks, judges, and other legal sorts who needed a copy. And within months of the issuance of the decree, no printed copies were available for love or money. Owning the various editions of the Recopilación de leyes de Indias was insufficient, for most cédulas related to
specific issues peculiar to one person, place, institution, or event, and such specificity is not included in the recopilaciones, though the royal decrees provided good, useful precedents to cite.
QED: Every colonial-era lawyer had to resort to maintaining his own cedulario.
This cedulario was assembled in Mexico during the 18th century, probably around 1778 or 1780, for the use of a lawyer before the audiencia, or perhaps for an audiencia judge or a judge's staff member. The decrees relate to a wide variety of topics: criminal cases, the army and navy, confiscation of property, the use of stamped paper, the royal treasury, royal officials in Nicaragua, cabildos, proselytization of Indians, commodities, dress codes, bigamy, and other social matters in the regions of Mexico, New Galicia, and Guatemala. Of the 43 items, 22 are printed decrees (all but one printed in Spain) and the remaining 21 are manuscript. Fifteen bear
true (rather than stamped) royal signatures: six are signed by Felipe V, and nine are by Ferdinand VI. Of the 28 documents not signed by a king, 17 are printed and 11 are manuscript.
The documents are sewn and were once bound; binding removed some time ago. 18th-century numbering of documents shows that 10 documents were removed som time before the collection came into our hands. There are some stains, a few holes at folds, a few edges a little tattered — nothing worse.
A sound and interesting collection. (34851)

An Art Collector's Estate
Suárez de Toledo, Juan. Collection of documents in Spanish on paper relating to his death and estate. Talavera: 1669–79. Folio, 100 ff.
$950.00
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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)

Colonial Support for the
Royal Retreat MS. Accounting, 178185
(Subsidies for the Escorial). Contemporary copy of a manuscript, on paper, in Spanish. Lima, 1787. Folio, 23 pp.
$1000.00
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. (2218)
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The Estate of a Widow, Mexico 1606
Vanegas, Ana. Manuscript compilation of documents relating to her estate. Mexico City: 1606–07. Folio (31.5 cm, 12.5"). 77 ff.
[SOLD]
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Ana Vanegas was the daughter of Baltasar Vanegas and Catalina Hernandez, who at the time of this compilation were both deceased, and the widow of Jusepe de Peñafiel. In 1606 she was
a novice in the monastery of Santa Clara in Mexico City and ill; she soon died of that illness. Her estate included real estate (houses) that she had inherited from her parents and others acquired during her marriage. Her heirs were her four children, sons Alonso, Jusepe, and Simon de Peñafiel, and daughter Catalina de San Jusepe, a nun in the same monastery as Ana.
The
approximately 125 documents in this file are notarial copies done in 1607 and incorporate texts of documents from as early as the 1570s relating to the real estate that was being auctioned by executors of Ana's estate. The landholdings are listed on folio 8r-v and include a large house on Tacuba Street (in which Dr. Villanueva, a canon, lives), a house with a plot in the Theatines street, some “casas de indios” in the Tomatlan neighborhood, and a tall house (whose neighbors are given but not the street).
The information on the houses gives details of acquisition, loans or other pledges imposed on them, and ultimately the prices realized at auction.
The documents are written in a standard early 17th-century public notary's hand and as such are a great tool for teaching paleography as well as other principles of research, as they are full of abbreviations, lack of punctuation, non-separation of words, etc.
In modern gray wrappers. Written in a sepia ink with some minor bleed-through from one side of a leaf to the other; dark stain in upper area of a dozen leaves. Some age-toning of paper. A few areas with tears, none serious. On the whole, very good. (40376)

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