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Early New World Treatise on the Zodiac
  from a Modern Fine Hand Press —
with VOLVELLE   

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•  Master printer Juan Pascoe of the Taller Martin Pescador explains (p. 1) that the text of this short treatise on astrology comes from pages 25 through 38 of the Repertorio de los tiempos, y historia natural desta Nueva España that the cosmographer and printer Enrico Martinez wrote and published in 1606 in Mexico City. To that text he has added wonderfully striking woodcuts by the T.M.P.'s long-time artist Artemio Rodríguez and a working replica volvelle.

In his introduction Pascoe tells us about the press that Enrico Martinez used, the later printings of the Repertorio, and the special characters that were recast for this edition “en homenaje a los 480 años de imprenta en México-Tenochtitlán.”

Limited to 150 copies: “Florencia Ramírez compuso las letras de caja Poliphilus Blado, Castellar, con la cruz fourchée tallada por Antionio de Espinosa en 1554 y el punto alargado de Enrico Martínez, 1600. Juan Pascoe y Martín Urbina imprimieron . . . [el libro] sobre papel de hilo De Ponte” (colophon).

•  Laced-in binding of wrappers with paper label on front wrapper. As issued, new, beautiful. (40676)

A Memorial Tribute to Michael Mathes — A 1629 Assessment of California & Its Natives

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•  As a tribute to, and remembrance of, Michael Mathes, Juan Pascoe printed on his handpress in Mexico this tract by the cosmographer of New Spain. The text of Martinez's assessment of the prospect of exploring, “conquering,” and settling the province of California is an original manuscript in the Archive of the Indies, later printed in several compilations, including Mathes' Spanish Approaches to the Island of California, 1628–1632 (San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1975).

The Taller Martin Pescador edition consists of100 copies, the main text composed by Florencio Ramirez in Enrico Martinez type, the three-page colophon composed by Juan Pascoe in Blado type, and the whole hand printed on DePonte paper.

•  Stitched in light wrappers with a paper label on the front wrapper.  (40718)

Seville Jesuits Pursue Legacies in Mexico — A Woman's Estate Included

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•  The Jesuit house in Seville wishes to take possession of the legacy situated in Mexico that the late Capt. Martin de la Mata bequeathed to it. Consequently the Jesuits give their full power of attorney to Francisco de Losada, the procurador general of the Society in Mexico.

The estate holdings in Mexico are in excess of 1,500 ducados de vellón (i.e., about 16,500 reales de plata), including the estate ofDoña Tomasina de Ochoa of which Mata was the executor. Some of the value is in the form of mortgages held in Mexico City.

•  Removed from a bound volume in very good condition. Written in a clear ecclesiastical notary's hand.  (41089)

A Good BAV Title — Macclesfield Provenance

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•  Mela's work De orbis situ libri tres (a.k.a., De chorographia) is, of course, a standard and famous work of ancient geography and, dating from the first century A.D., is the oldest surviving geographical text written in Latin. It enjoyed readership for centuries in manuscript and was first printed in 1471 with eight subsequent incunable editions, while in the 16th century to 1530 there was virtually a new edition every other year: Clearly, it wasa book of interest and importance for the Renaissance.

It is a short work; the Petit printing of it in 1513, for example, occupies only 60 pages. In this edition, however, Mela's text (printed in roman) is surrounded byextensive commentary in italic by Joachim Vadianus (1484–1551), thus extending the whole to 196 pages. The volume ends with an appendix, “Loca aliquot ex Vadiani commentarijs summatim repetita, & obiter explicata,” consisting of Vadian's study of Mela's work and attempting to address inconsistencies and problems in it.

Printer Wechel has arrayed the commentary around the text here withnotable attractiveness, he has supplied quite a number and variety of attractive initials, and both his main title-page and the sectional one for the “Loca aliquot” are dramatically presented with the sameelaborate multipart woodcut title border.

Although Mela's work is solely concerned with the world as known by Greeks and Romans, one should remember that their world did encompass portions of Africa and a knowledge of India. Additionally the appendix, originally written in 1521 and first appearing in the 1522 Basel printing of Mela, has a coda consisting of a 1515 letter of Vadian’s to Rudolph Agricola, the younger, that briefly discussesVespucci (X5v) and the New World (Y1r) when discussing the Spanish empire.

This is the third edition of Vadian's Mela, taken from the second edition (1522), but only the second with Vadian's appendix. Graesse comments, “Second éd. . . . fort changée et corrigée sur des mss.”

Whether all copies of the work were issued with a map has been long discussed and is without resolution: What we do know is that some have a map, most do not.

Provenance:  Macclesfield copy with the bookplate and handsome pressure-stamps.

Evidence of readership:  Scattered minor (usually one or two words) marginalia.

•  Harrisse, BAV, 157; Renouard, Paris, 2210; Alden & Landis 530/30; Sabin 63958 (not calling for a map); Graesse, V, 401 (not calling for a map).   18th-century quarter vellum with blue-green paper–covered sides, author's name in old ink to spine. Title-page lightly soiled, light discoloration or inkstains in some margins, light occasional foxing; pinhole-type worming in text of some pages with no loss of text, and a corner of last leaf torn away without loss of text; on pp. 170–96, a light waterstain across upper gutter not touching text and another across upper outer corners impinging on it. As usual, without the map found in only a few copies. Macclesfield pressure-stamps and marginalia as above. A good, sound, and soundly pleasing old folio.  (34114)

FIRSTLaws of the Nation

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•  “Segunda edicion corregida y aumentada por una comision de la Camara de Diputados” of the first laws of the republic following the collapse of the first empire: Vol. I, “Que comprende los de la mencionada junta [1821–22]”; vol. II, “Que comprende los del primero constituyente [1822–23]”; vol. III, “Que comprende los del segundo constituyente [1823–24]”; and vol. IV, “que comprende Iose del primero y segundo constitucionales [1825–28].”

Because the earlier edition of the session laws had been exhausted, Congress ordered this new one. The subsequent session laws through 1837 were published in later years in four additional volumes.

Provenance: Bookplate of Ventura Gómez Alatorre, late-19th-century citizen and official of Tepatitlán.

•  Contemporary acid-stained sheep with elegant gilt spines, with scuffs, stains, and a decorative design lightly etched into one cover, all this attractive; evidence of blue wrappers at inner margins of each volume, all edges yellow. Some mild old foxing and spotting; first volume's first leaves with crescent of dampstaining across top of gutter margin and second volume with deeper arc of same to first and last leaves; a very good set.  (31180)

The State of theMexican Navy

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•  Annual report on the state of the navy, with a table of expenses; in fact quite apretty piece of printing, with its charming engraved “naval” emblem on the front “cover.”

•  Not in Sutro.  Sewn. (3852)

“Occurrences in Guadalajara”

Mexico. 

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•  The secretaries address Congress concerning the insubordination of Anastasio Bustamante and the fiscal extravagances of Gov. Quintanar and the actions of the two of them in order to make Jalisco a sovereign state!

Searches of NUC and WorldCat find six copies in U.S. libraries.

•  Not in Sutro.   Removed from a nonce volume. Lacks the final six leaves, which is not immediately apparent; priced accordingly.  (32082)

City/StateMANEUVERINGS

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•  Internal governmental squabbling arising from the governor of Mexico's having imposed fines on several city council members.

•  Not in Sutro. Sewn as issued, evidence of wrappers that are no longer present; light dustsoiling.  (3853)

¿Como? — Congressional Intentions Confuse the Court

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•  The Court is confused by the wording and cannot fathom the intention of Congress regarding several recent laws.

•  Not in Sutro. Removed from a nonce volume; inner margins a little irregular.  (3854)

It's Mexico vs. XOCHIMILCO, 1827

(Mexico {State}).

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•  Author defends the rights of the state of Mexico in a jurisdictional matter involving the town of Xochimilco and Lic. Nicolás Ortíz. Which court has competence is the question.

•  Sutro 829. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3872)

Tax Matters 1756

•  Two related decrees concerning changes in the sales tax rates. One is dated 18 July and the other 11 November 1756, in text, at end.

•  Removed from a bound volume and with a few fold tears; irregular in inner margin. A few stray stains. now housed in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides.  (24122)

Not in BAV — An Americanum Nonetheless

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•  The alliance of Louis XII, Pope Julius II, Maximilian I, and Ferdinand the Catholic in war against the Venetians was formalized in 1508, and history has given it the name of The League of Cambrai; it came to an end in 1529 with the signing of the peace of Cambrai. The neo–Latin language work offered here is a history of the origins and progress of the war as seen by a Venetian whose observations and comparisons are remarkably wide-ranging — as evidenced by his including a passage on leaf Q8 verso concerningbattles that the Spaniards were waging on the Island of Hispaniola and elsewhere in the Indies of America.

This volume, curiously, does not sport any of the expectable types of title-page that were common by its time. Instead, it simply reads: Andreae / Mocenici / P.V.D. / Bellvm / Came / racense. This bare title-page is printed in roman type, while all else is printed in a very bright, crisp italic. Several woodcut criblé initials are used in text.

Provenance:  Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 8534 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882); later part of the Theological Institute of Connecticut Library.

Evidence of Readership: Several notes and marked passages, in ink.

•  Not in Harrisse, Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 525/11; Adams M1518.   18th-century mottled English calf, raised bands and modest gilt tooling, all edges speckled red; hinges (inside) partially open with spine pulled at top and some leather lost at cover corners; holding. Marked as above, some bug-spotting on title-page; two pinhole wormholes in binding extending into lower margins of early signatures; limited waterstaining, typically marginal, and a few other pages with stains or soilings. Ex-library as above: paper shelving label on spine, inking and pencilling on endpapers, embossed institutional stamps on six leaves. A good and serviceable copy with a happy provenance.  (36660)

Mexico in 1826: A Response to a Response

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•  Prose and poetry combined in this three-way politico-religious “conversation” about the state of politics and religion in Mexico at the end of 1826. Written in response to El entierro del Hueso en el muladar de San Pablo, o sea contestacion entre un monigote y un sacristan and subscribed: “El Zopilote.” Which in turn was a response to Hay va ese hueso que roer y que le metan el diente!

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, CCILA, and the Mexican National Library OPAC locateonly the copy at the British Library.

•  Uncut, as issued, with pp. 3–4 being a half-sheet insert. Dust-soiling, creasing at corners; in the past folded in half horizontally and soiled along the fold. Old erased pencil note indicating this was a duplicate (whether of a library's holdings or a bookseller's stock is unclear).  (36751)

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

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•  Montenegro Colón had been vilified for his adherence to the Spanish cause and here, after receiving news while in exile on Curaçao that the Venezuelan congress was allowing his repatriation, provides an “apologia pro vita sua.”

Front wrapper reads: “Mexico y Cuba; apuntes históricos.” Apparently scarce: OCLC has a record for this but with no library holdings given. Searches of the University of Texas and University of California OPACs failed to find this publication. •  20th-century Mexican red calf binding. Title in gilt on front cover. Original wrappers bound in. Front free endpaper torn out exposing inner hinge; waterstaining particularly visible to first leaves, faint to later ones. (21513)

Estate Law

•  Montiel seeks to have set aside the civil decision of 26 November 1856 against Silvestre López Tello and his sister Guadalupe, in the matter of the estate of Teodoro López Tello.

•  Sutro 908. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3827)

(Munguía Melees).  Martínez de la Torre, Rafael.  Alegato de bien probado del Lic. D. Rafael Martinez de la Torre en favor del Sr. D. Juan Bautista Francoz. Mexico: Imprenta de J.M. Lara, 1851. Small 4to. 23 pp.
$250.00

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•  Sr. Francoz claims to have an exclusive privilege to usea new weaving technique and Sr. Munguía contests that claim.

•  Not in Sutro. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3824)

(Munguía Melees).  Villaseñor, Ricardo.  Alegato jurídico que el Lic. Ricardo Villaseñor como representante de los Sres. D.V. Munguía y D.S. Fortoul presentó.... Mexico: Impr. de J.M. Lara, 1851. Small 4to. 32 pp.
$275.00

•  More legal wrangling in the case of Munguía & Fortoul v. Francoz.

•  Sutro 875. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3704)

(Munguía Melees)!  Franco, Agustín A.  Alegacion en derecho que ante la exma. primera sala del Tribunal Superior del Estado de México hizo por parte de la Sra. Doña Magdalena Becerril.... Mexico: Tipo. de R. Rafael, 1852. Small 8vo. 65 pp.
$225.00

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•  Legal wrangling over theestate of Rafael Murguía, auctioning of possessions, and costs.

•  Sutro 880. Removed from a nonce volume.  (4153)

(Munguía Melees)!  Ruano, Julio.  Informe en derecho que en la demanda ejecutiva, sobre pago de 37000 pesos, puesta por Doña Magdalena Becerril, contra D. José Austacio Murguía, albacea que fué del finado Sr. su padre D. Rafael, formó, como patrono del demandado.... Toluca: Tip. del Instituto Literario, á cargo del C. Manuel Jimenez Salgado, 1852. Small 8vo. 45 pp.
$225.00

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•  More on the estate of Rafael Murguía andDoña Magdalena.

•  Sutro 884. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3563)

Departures Were atFour A.M.

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•  At the top of this advertising broadside isa wood engraving of four horses in gallop pulling a stage coach. Included is information about departures from both terminuses, stops along the way, the tariff, and cost of excess baggage.

Not located via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, or the OPAC of the Mexican National Library. Durango imprints are rare. •  Printed on rose-colored paper, faded and tattered at edges; small fold tears, dog-earing, and an old tape stain in one margin. Faults noted, stilldisplayable/frameable!  (31472)

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