In that yearAntonio Ricardo printed the first book in South America, the Doctrina christiana y catecismo para instruccion de los Indios. Antonio Ricardo was an Italian who began working as a printer in Mexico in 1570 in the shops of other printers, almost certainly principally in that of Pedro Ocharte. In 1577 he became the fifth independent printer in the New World but operated under his own name only until 1579, during which time he worked closely with the Jesuits and printed books for students at the Society of Jesus' Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo; at the urging of the Society he left Mexico in 1580 to establish his press in Peru. There, however, because of a dispute between the Jesuits and the viceroy, he did not receive license to print until 1584, when the first thing he printed, at the insistence of the viceroy, was a four-page explanation of the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This was quickly followed bythree tri-lingual books in Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara, all works by members of the Society of Jesus. The Tercero cathecismo is only the third book printed in South America and it shows Ricardo as aware and proud of his position as the first printer in South America. He pointedly identified himself as such on the book's title-page: “Antonio Ricardo, primer impressor en estos Reynos del Piru.”

The Tercero cathecismo's importance is multifaceted and goes far beyond its place as an icon in American printing history, for it provided doctrinally approved sermons both for those priests serving the Spanish population who were less than proficient sermonizers and also, specifically, for thosepriests and missionaries working among the indigenous population whose command of Quechua and/or Aymara was not sufficient for them to be safe and fluent deliverers of the word of God and instruction in Christian ethics and practices. Modern study of these sermons additionally considers which indigenous terms were used to convey European concepts (precursor to the Chinese rites controversy of the late 17th century Jesuit missionaries in China), which Spanish words became loan words in Quechua and Aymara, what indigenous practices were of concern to the religious authorities, and of course which dialect of each language was chosen to be the norm of proselytization.

Ricardo was fond of printing his texts witha mix of type faces and a wide variety of large woodcut initials. The inventory of the type, ornamental letters, woodcut illustrations, etc., that he owned when he sold the press shows that he had amassed huge quantities of all of those elements of the black art. (The inventory is in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, the gift of Edward Harkness.) The Tercero cathecismo prints the Spanish text in italic and the indigenous-language texts in roman, with the Spanish printed margin to margin at the top of the pages and the Quechua and Aymara below it in parallel columns to the left and right respectively. And yes, there is goodly use of several woodcut headpieces, many large woodcut initials (some historiated); curiously, no tailpieces.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership inscription in an upper margin of the library of Colegio de Santa Rosa; which one, not clear.

As one would expect of any book that was among the first productions of a press in a remote region, the Tercero cathecismo is a rare book. Searches of NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, and KVK locate only eight U.S., four European, and two South American libraries reporting ownership. However, we know of one other U.S. and one other European library owning copies.

•  Backer-Sommervogel, I, 34; Sabin 94838; Medina, Lima, 3; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 3; Johnson, The Book in the Americas, 34; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 4; Viñaza 81.   Recased in possibly original limp vellum; new free endpapers and fly-leaves; evidence of long-gone ties. Title-page in facsimile. Thirteen leaves supplied from a shorter copy (ff. 57, 138, 143, 146, 151, 135, 160, 161, 168, 186, 191, 194, 199); heavy staining to ca. fol. 25 and again at the end, other staining scattered. Worming, mostly pinhole but some meander, with loss of letters, parts of words, and occasionally whole words, seldom with injury to reading; a few leaves with repaired margins and repairs to wormed areas.Obviously a sophisticated copy and one that has seen hardships, nonetheless, a copy ready to repay ownership and study.  (36505)

Wimpheling introduces his commentary to the Hymns with prefatory comments in which he supports the contribution that training in the arts of literary expression can make to a proper understanding of religious texts. He promotes the pedagogic virtues of the hymns themselves; in particular, he notes that the diversity of meter they employ makes them apt vehicles for teaching Latin prosody while the grammatical and rhetorical skills acquired from studying them will in turn lead to a sharper, more sophisticated and more accurate reading of hymns as texts of Christian spirituality, and therefore to a deeper piety.

Hans Baldung Grien provided the title-page woodcut boarders [Oldenbourg 236] and two large historiated initials, one at the beginning of each part, respectively: the Death of the Virgins [Oldenbourg 232] and the Adoration [Oldenbourg 221].

On this important edition, see Ann Moss, “Latin Liturgical Hymns and their Early Printing History” (Humanistica Louvaniensia, XXXVI [1987], 125-28).

Provenance:  Impressed into the front board are the initals L C V of the Franciscan convent of Villigen; upon suppression of the convent, to the Donaueschigen Library, its oval stamp on the verso of the title-page; that library sold in 1994; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Proctor 10081; Adams L1126; VD16 S5978 & H6503; Index Aurel. 100.597; Schmidt, Knobloch, VII, 82; Ritter 5; Oldenbourg, Hans Baldung Grien, L28.   Original wooden boards, rebacked in 19th-century pigskin with old paper label and evidence of single missing clasp; provenance marks as above. Variable old water- and dampstaining, no tattering or tears, title-pages lovely.  (40642)

Evidence of Readership: An early reader has underlined and added some marks of emphasis and words in an early hand to seven leaves of text, all excerpts taken from the Gospel of John.

Provenance:  Two ownership and one duplicate release rubber-stamps appear on the title-page verso, the first from the Universitätsbibliothek München dated between 1800 and 1826; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  VD16 E 4570. Not in Adams; not in Index Aurel.   Bound as above, rubbed and cracked with losses of leather and board extremities; bands and sewing tabs visible. No pastedowns; front free endpaper creased, front fly-leaf with pencilled note. Light age-toning with marginal and gutter waterstaining of varying darkness throughout; a few chipped edges, creased corners, or uneven edges; one short marginal tear. Provenance and readership indicia as above, else clean. Well used and in fact the more interesting for that.  (38914)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of Fratelli Salimbeni (with shelving number) and of “G.P.C.” (with woodcut image of Pegasus and motto “Nec adversa retorquent”); front fly-leaf with early inked annotation “H.III.161" and lined-through (still partially legible) inscription “Bibliotheque Vallicellane”; title-page with early inked inscription “Petri Salvati - V.” surrounding printer’s vignette, and obscured inscription in lower portion. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A409; Brunet, I, 125; Renouard, Estienne, 68:22; Schreiber, Estiennes, 88.   Later vellum, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-stamped blue leather publication label; vellum with minimal dust-soiling and traces of wear to extremities, two bottom-most spine compartments with later replacement (blank) vellum “labels,” one now starting to peel slightly. All edges stained blue. Bookplates and inscriptions as above; front free endpaper with later pencilled annotations (one giving incorrect Adams reference). One early inked marginal annotation. Pages gently age-toned, with intermittent minor foxing to margins; final leaf with small paper flaws in lower margin. An attractive copy of an interesting and significant volume.  (37916)

•  Adams A475; Index Aurel. 102.349.   Contemporary vellum, worn and darkened, lacking ties. Hinges (inside) with insect damage causing partial opening, text block starting to pull away from spine. Front free endpaper with two inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1620 and one 1898. Small area of worming to upper inner margins of about 40 leaves, minor and not approaching text. Scattered instances of early inked underlining and a very few marginalia, pages otherwise pleasingly clean. Ready for many more years of use!  (26501)

Evidence of Readership: A reader has added marginal notes, brackets, or underlinings in an early hand on almost every page of text.

Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A633; Brunet, I, 153; EDIT16 CNCE 859; Graesse, I, 64; Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books, 194; Renouard, Alde, p. 95, no. 6; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 215. On Alcionio, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, I; Treccani (online).   Modern half vellum and brown paper over boards, all edges speckled red; vellum foxed, paper dust-soiled with spots and stains. Very light waterstaining throughout, light to moderate marginal foxing somewhat less generally. Evidence of readership and booklabel as above; ink quite faded, some marginalia trimmed at edges, with two corners also slightly shaved. A well-read and much-marked copy of a book with a fascinating history of reception.  (39423)

This neatly printed text has single columns with unaccomplished guide letters and shouldernotes using roman font; the iconic Aldine device appears on the title-page and an errata list appears in double-column format at the end.

Provenance:  The printer's mark of Jan Baptiste Verdussen II depicting a stork feeding a snake to another stork with the Latin motto “Virtus pietas homini tutissima,” which can be dated between 1659 and 1759, has been excised from another source and affixed to the front pastedown (possibly as a bookplate, as speculated by the Provenance Online Project); this title is later listed in the auction catalogue of Jean-Baptiste Verdussen III's book collection, suggesting this copy may have belonged to the Verdussen family. Two early inked signatures of G.J. Enoch and I.F. Vanderelie also appear on the front endpapers. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

Searches of WorldCat and NUC located only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (CLU, LNT, MnCS, UPB).

•  Adams A950; EDIT16 CNCE 16242; Index Aurel. 104.682; Renouard, Alde, p. 186, no. 7; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 678. Not in Kallendorf & Wells, Aldine Press Books. On the Aldine press at Rome, see: Curt Buhler, “Manutius and His First Roman Printings,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 46, pp. 209–14.   19th-century polished calf, spine stamped in gilt with two gilt-stamped leather title-labels, covers framed with a dog-tooth roll, two gilt fillets, and small fleurons at corners; gilt floral rolls to board edges and turn-ins, all edges stained red, with marbled endpapers. Binding rubbed and refurbished, one leather spine label chipped and the other removed; spotting on endpapers, evidence of a removed bookplate at back. Mostly light offsetting of text throughout, intermittent mild to moderate unobtrusive waterstaining (including to title-page) and other spotting; title-page and eight more leaves of text with marginal repairs, one gutter showing narrow band of discoloration (possibly glue action). Provenance indicia as above, two pencilled endpaper notes. An important collection from an interesting era of the Aldine Press; and a strong, in fact quite handsome copy.  (37366)

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Moreau, Éditions parisiennes du XVI siècle, II, 1972; Brunet, I, 271–2; Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, I, 121; not in Adams. On Andrelini, see: Contemporaries of Erasmus, I; Pettegree & Walsby, French Vernacular Books: Books Published in France before 1601, 53120.   Modern red foliate patterned paper–covered boards with gilt orange leather spine label, final blank lacking. Short interior tear without loss to title-page (perhaps a paper flaw?); light waterstaining and/or offsetting from old binding to upper outer corners and a little dust-soiling or creasing (the latter perhaps in the press). Light pencilling on one endpaper and one pencilled word on final page. In fact withal a very pleasing little book.  (38015)

Searches of WorldCat, NUC, and COPAC revealno copies of this edition in a U.S. institution, and only one internationally in Rome.

Evidence of Readership: An early reader has added eight notes, one of which has been slightly trimmed through rebinding, that reference the Bible or other rule-sources.

Provenance:  Early inked note on title-page reads “Ex. Bibl. S. Bern, Fulient. Paris”; institutional rubber-stamps (including a release stamp) of the Bibliothèque Impériale of Paris on title-page and three leaves of text. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  On Wechelus, see: Renouard, Imprimeurs parisiens, p. 435.   Modern paste paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-lettered brown leather spine label. Moderate age-toning with spotting on first and last few leaves; faint waterstaining darkening to more noticeable towards the end, covering perhaps a third of the page; provenance and readership markings as above, with one rubber-stamp lightly offsetting onto facing leaf.  (37909)

The text is divided into sections by author, each of whom the editor introduces with a brief biography. A short abstract printed in roman precedes each poem, printed in italic. Fine woodcut head- and tailpieces, and a variety of initials in historiated, patterned, and factotum designs, decorate the text; and the title-page features the woodcut printers' device of Truth personified, flanked by an eagle, a lion, a bull, and an angel, representing the Four Evangelists.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription on front fly-leaf of Luigi Pagani Cesa, possibly the Italian jurist born at Belluno in 1855, who served as a member of Parliament for 1904–13; and the words “penso che” (“I think that . . .”) written above, in an earlier hand?

•  Adams A1691; CNCE 2806.   Later glazed cream-colored boards, title and date inked on upper spine, small paper label on lower spine, marbled red edges; boards soiled and front joint opening. One spot of worming on front pastedown and on colophon leaf; traces of former mounting on colophon leaf verso. Title-page with one letter added in manuscript (o, in Bentivoglio). Trimmed close at margins almost grazing headline on a few leaves. Very minor stains on a few leaves, generally bright and crisp.  (30836)

Printed at the Plantin Press entirely in Greek (except for the imprint information), using Greek type commissioned from Robert Granjon, this bears one of the variant Plantin printer's devices on the title-page. It was printed with guide letters, although none have been supplied in manuscript by a scribe.

Evidence of readership: Scattered marginalia in Greek and Latin, sometimes correcting a word in text or expanding on same; other times citing a page in a different book.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Voet 593; Graesse, Trésor de Livres Rares, I, 204; Brunet, I, 448; Schweiger, I, 44; Index Aurel. 107.600; Adams A1692. Surprisingly not in Legrand, Bibliographie Hellenique.   Disbound; now in modern wrappers. A very nice, clean copy with occasional light age-toning.  (37768)

The classic Aldine printer's device appears on the final page of this text.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams A2152; Goldsmid, Aldine Press at Venice, 73; Renouard, Alde, 49.2; Index Aurel. *110.036; EDIT16 CNCE 3381; UCLA, Aldine Press: Catalogue of the Ahmanson-Murphy Collection (2001), 89.   Period style medium brown calf, spine lettered in gilt, raised bands accented with blind fillets extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils; covers framed in blind with trefoils at forecorners, green silk ribbon bookmark present and all edges gilt. Light pencilling on endpapers; offsetting from previous binding to first and last few leaves. A clean, lovely copy.  (37603)