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)

•  Very good condition and easy to read.  (31203)

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)

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.

(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)

•  Stitched.  (2674)

Three officials from the affected towns brought this lawsuit against Padilla in 1624. The testimony gathered by the plaintiffs, in both Spanish and Nahuatl, is presented in 18 documents (most in Spanish translation via a bilingual court official), and they convinced the contador of Tehuacán, who served as judge, torule in favor of the Indians.

Enforcing the decision was not easy, however. According to the final pages here Padilla initially ignored the outcome of the suit, and even sent his servant to assault and “rip the hairs from the beard” of the official sent to inform him of the decision!

•  In very good condition, in multiple hands, withone hand definitely that of a literate native.  (41022)

The letters have all the characteristics to be expected of copies retained in a bound volume maintained by Benjamin Hall Wright.

•  Zanetti & Garcia, Sugar & Railroads: A Cuban History, pp. 18–33.   All documents overall in excellent condition with only some age-toning; all leaves loose. Letters with evidence, as above, of having been in a sewn volume.  (40980)

•  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)

•  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)

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 marvelouscalligraphic 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)

Balli (fl. 1574–1600), originally from Salamanca, Spain, and of French and Spanish decent, arrived in Mexico as a bookseller butby 1574 was operating a printing shop.

Provenance:   Discreet ownership stamp in an inner margin of Michael Mathes.

Related to Edwin A. Carpenter, A Sixteenth-Century Mexican Broadside (i.e., The Valtón Collection), types 31– 35??

•  Edwin A. Carpenter, A Sixteenth-Century Mexican Broadside, Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1965; Not in Szewczyk & Buffington, 39 Books and Broadsides Printed in America before the Bay Psalm Book; María Isabel GraZén Porrúa, Los Grabados en la obra de Juan Pablos, Mexico: Apoyo al desarrollo de Archivos y Bibliotecas de Mexico & Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2010.   Removed from a bound volume, very irregular in inner margins, worming in lower margin and into last line of text, costing portions of two printed words and six manuscript words, but not impairing ability to understand the text; otherwise, ordinary age-toning only. Laid in, as issued, to a copy of the Carpenter leaf book (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1965; limited to 140 copies, printed by Saul & Lilian Marks at the Plantin Press). A good and visually striking example of a Mexican incunable broadside and of Mexican, specifically Balli job printing — and, one with evocative manuscript completions. (41754)

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)

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)

•  Very good condition. Easy to read.  (27626)

Certified, contemporary copy of the original.

•  Sewn. In good condition. Very legible notarial hand.  (7710)

A contemporaneous certified copy of the original document.

•  Written in a clear notarial hand. Very good condition.  (14466)

One is a letter of Junipero Serra dated Monterey, 7 October 1779, reporting that he has made a copy of Fr. Crespi's diary and is sending it via the ship that has just arrived; a second Serra letter dated Monterey, 9 September 1779, reports on the various missions and states that he hopes to establish one in San Francisco. The third letter is by Sebastian Vizcaino, dated Monterey, 8 December 1602, reporting on his voyage of discovery along the California coast.

The facsimiles are on laid paper and in sepia ink and are great replicas of the originals with a great backstory as to their creation.

Provenance:  Adolph Sutro; later for sale by E. B. Sterling, Historical Print Seller, Trenton, NJ (1851–1925).

•  Overall very good: Some age stains, one corner repaired, some dust-soiling. In a light paper folder with E.B. Sterling's faint rubber-stamp.  (41011)

•  Sewn, in good condition.  (2218)