MEXICO - UNA PIÑATA BIBLIOGRÁFICA
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Noble Orders — American Ones Included Here

•  Offering in encyclopedic form the history of chivalric orders of Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Northern Africa, and the Americas, this volume describes, among others, American orders such as the Society of the Cincinnati (U.S.), Ordem de Cristo (Brazil), Ordem de Aviz (Brazil), Ordem do Cruzeiro (Brazil), Orden de la Cruz de Honor (Guatemala), Légion d'Honneur (Haiti), Ordre de Sainte-Anne (Haiti), Orden de los Libertadores (Venezuela), Orden Nacional (Nicaragua), and Orden de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Mexico).

•  Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXème, I, 772. Uncut, mostly unopened copy. Publisher's wrappers, printed in black and red; front one off, with expectable chipping and with soiling. Some pages lightly spotted; mostly, clean. Now housed in a simple acid-free phase-box. (14356)

Mexican Hidalgo — Meaty Matter — Vivid Full-Page Paintings
OriginalMEXICAN Binding Available for Analysis

Click the images for enlargements.

•  In July of 1706 Viceroy Albuquerque of Mexico confirmed Capt. Juan Silvestre Martínez de Montemayor to be an hidalgo. The good captain presented copies and original documents of ancestors who had previously successfully petitioned in Spain and Mexico for recognition of their status of minor nobility.

The earliest documents relate to Francisco Martínez Marín’s being granted a coat of arms, and through those documents we learn that the Martínez were among the first resisters of the Moorish invasion and that the Marín family were conquerors of Almeria who had participated in the war with Portugal in the 1530s, as well as other wars in Italy and the Mediterranean against the Turks and pirates. Don Francisco was entitled to use the symbol of the Inquisition and was a member of the Orders of Calatrava and Santiago.

The Mexican documents relate to the Almonazir, Silvestre, and Martínez de Montemayor families and the interconnections. These documents date from the 1620s, 1630s,and 1680s.

The documents are written in standard notarial hand with little attempt at fine calligraphy, but in the narrative portions the lettering is studied and colorful embellishments are not lacking. Many pages are red-ruled, significant words or phrases appear in red, and one whole page is written large in red with two red birds at its bottom, while green, blue, and a bisque that almost looks like gold are used for lettering and modest decoration in the same section. Two documents are signed by Viceroy Albuquerque in his own large, distinctive hand, and a third document confirming an appointment of the Alferez Silvestre Martínez de Montemayor is signed by the Marques de la Laguna (i.e., the viceroy in 1685).

The Six Illustrations: Four full-page, full-color, illuminated coats of arms on vellum of the Marín, Martínez, Almonazir, and Montemayor families; a full-page full-color miniature of a Martínez on horseback slaying a Moor (a strangely garbed Moor, but by his curved sword a Moor nonetheless), and a half-page portrait of Diego de Urbina, the king of arms under Felipe II, with his name and title illumined below. Salmon silk guards are present for several of these.

Binding:  Modern red velvet housed in a cloth clamshell box with leather spine label; box with a special compartment preserving elements of the original binding, this having been of silk brocade over paste boards with Dutch gilt paper endpapers. The wastepaper used to make the boards was from a Mexican book, confirming the original binding to have been Mexican — the endpapers confirming Mexican bookbinding to have been rather more “international” in its resources than many will have imagined!

•  New binding in traditional style as above, with green ribbon ties, in a clamshell box; elements of original binding preserved in box compartment. Some text leaves torn with loss of text at outer margin, leaves repaired; one vellum leaf with top half excised and a neighboring paper one with its bottom half taken. Otherwise, only some few tears, none serious. A production and survival both treasurable and studyable.   (25787)

Michoacán Measured

•  The first published statistical analysis of the Michoacán region of Mexico. After some historical background of an institutional nature, Martínez de Lejarza (1785–1824) launches into a hamlet by hamlet study of population (number of men and women with subsets for married or single or widowed/widowered), livestock, and importantly the climate and natural resources of each place, including crops and fruits raised, and wildlife. Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

Such statistical publications as this were essential for the government of the newly independent nation, especially for planning purposes and for use when negotiating with bankers for the loans so essential to the nascent nation.

Interestingly, the population statistics ignore distinctions such as “indio,” “mestizo,” etc. The brief paragraphs about the towns and hamlets are filled with facts such as that the nuns of one particular town still wear hats of the Quiroga style.

An observation having nothing to do with the text: The paper on which this work is printed is very thin laid paper with no apparent watermark. The quality is not “European” and this cataloguer (DMS), with nearly 40 years experience with Mexican books, wonders if the paper is from one of Mexico's first paper mills?

•  Palau 155712; not in Sutro. Later 19th-century quarter sheep with stone pattern marbled paper sides. Binding worn, text skewed in binding. Private ownership pressure stamp on title-page.

Lord Save Us — An AttractiveSMALL Broadside

(Medical Prayer).

•  This prayer, in poetic form, is against an unspecified epidemic and is printed on wove paper within an ornamental border, in double-column format with the columns separated by double lines of entwined opening and closing parentheses. An extremely rare ephemerum, it was probably sold outside churches, to theworried devout.

•  Slightly irregular margins, as issued. Handsome.

WONDERFUL Culs-de-Lampe by Villavicencio & Navarro
& a Headpiece by Nava

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Second edition, following the first of 1555 of the acts of the first Mexican concilium, and the first printing of the acts of the second Mexican concilium. This text is from the press of José Hogal, who is often called the Baskerville of Mexico.

This edition begins with a handsome title-page in black and red with an allegorical copper engraving by Mexican artist and engraver Manuel Villavicencio depicting the Church ministering to the native Americans. The typography is clean with generous white space that accents the crisp roman and italic of the text. One large engraved headpiece from another great Mexican artist and engraver — Alonso Nava — appears on p. 1, and on that same page there is a gorgeous engraved initial A that is signed in the plate by Villavicencio, this being one of the very few signed engraved initials we have seen in our more than 40 years working with colonial Mexican books. On pp. 367, 375, and 396 there are culs-de-lampe by (respectively) Manuel Villavicencio, José Navarro, and Manuel Villavicencio. They incorporate Mexican scenery (coast near Cozumel, a rural village) and motifs (alligators, eagle and serpent, “hieroglyphs,” and pyramids. On the verso of the last leaf is a final engraving by Villavicencio, dated 1768, of a sleepy cherub holding a skull. This same engraving was used as a cul-de-lampe below the last line of the prologue (p. 37).

The first and second Mexican Concilia were called by Archbishop Moya de Contreras to codify the principles of religious teaching, especially among the Indians, matters of canon law, resolving problems relating to confession, addressing issues relating to slaves and free blacks, and most curiously prohibiting Indians from owning collections of sermon and Bibles.

The force behind this edition was archbishop Francisco Antonio Lorenzana (1722–1804), a patron of Hogal's press and of the arts, who soon after assuming the archbishopric of Mexico in 1766 saw the need for a concilium. In preparation for it he paid Hogal to publish or republish, as was the case, the acts of the first three provincial councils of Mexico, held respectively in 1555, 1565, and 1585; these appeared in 1769 and 1770. In 1771 he himself held the fourth Mexican provincial synod; ironically, those acts were not published until 1898.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5299; Palau 142387; Sabin 42063.   Recent Spanish sheep mottled in the Valenciana style. Occasional light waterstain in some upper margins, never in text. Paper crisp and printing very sharp. A very good copy.  (26797)

Attempting aCOMPULSORY Social Code for New Spain
A Juan Ruíz Imprint

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•  The Third Mexican Concilium, which was celebrated in Mexico city in 1585, had been called by Archbishop Moya de Contreras with the object of producing a comprehensive and compulsory social code for New Spain. The code was shaped, but only those rules directly affecting the conduct of priests (regular and secular) and nuns (cloistered and not) were promulgated. This volume contains the first publication of that social code. Llaguno (p. 143) succinctly summarizes the contents of this fundamental volume in the history of colonial Mexican social and religious history when he discusses the “problemas fundamentales” that the council addressed: “1.o Instrucción religiosa de los indios convertidos y por convertir; 2.o Ministros idóneos para la obra misional y civilizadora; 3.o Adaptación a la capacidad y modo de ser de los indios; y 4.o Defensa de los derechos de los naturales.”

The printer of this work, Juan Ruíz, was an important figure in colonial Mexican book arts and his books are among the most elegant produced during the 17th century in the New World.  Here he provides handsome typography, accented with wonderful and large woodcut initials, some historiated, and a woodcut title-page border element originally cut for the incunable-era printer Antonio Espinosa, bearing his initials!

Evidence of readership: In addition to the expected marking in margins indicating important statement in the text (which is extensive in this copy), folios 17r, 17v, and 18r of the second foliation have interesting marginalia.

•  Medina, Mexico, 343.; Puttick & Simpson, Bibliotheca Mejicana (i.e., the Fischer sale), 422 (“EXTREMELY RARE”); Palau 58835; Andrade 105. On the concilium, see: José A. Llaguno, La personalidad jurídica del indio y el III Concilio Provincial Mexicano (Mexico: Edit. Porrúa, 1963).   Recent Spanish sheep mottled in the Valenciana style; main, engraved title-leaf supplied in facsimile. Last five leaves with good repairs to holes in foremargin; no text effected. Light waterstain in some margins and the expectable old, stray stain here and there, never offensive. Paper crisp and printing very sharp. A good++ copy.  (26677)

& ANOTHER fromthe Hogal Press

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•  Second Mexico edition, following the first of 1622. (There was a printing in Paris in 1725!) This text has the unique distinction in Mexican printing of having been printed in both of its editions by the the best printer operating at the time of each edition: That of 1622 came from the press of Juan Ruíz and this came from that of José Hogal, who is often called the Baskerville of Mexico.

This edition begins with a handsome title-page in black and red with an allegorical copper engraving by Mexican artist and engraver Manuel Villavicencio depicting the Church ministering to the native Americans. The typography is clean with generous white space that accents the crisp roman and italic of the text. One large engraved headpiece of the bishops in conclave and a large engraved initial begin the main text.

The Third Mexican Concilium, which was celebrated in Mexico city in 1585, had been called by Archbishop Moya de Contreras with the object of producing a comprehensive and compulsory social code for New Spain. The code was shaped, but only those rules directly affecting the conduct of priests (regular and secular) and nuns (cloistered and not) were promulgated.

The force behind this edition was archbishop Francisco Antonio Lorenzana (1722–1804), a patron of Hogal's press and of the arts, who soon after assuming the archbishopric of Mexico in 1766 saw the need for a concilium. In preparation for it, he paid Hogal to publish or republish, as was the case, the acts of the first three provincial councils of Mexico, held respectively in 1555, 1565, and 1585; these appeared in 1769 and 1770. In 1771 he himself held the fourth Mexican provincial synod; ironically, those acts were not published until 1898.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5361; Palau 142389; Sabin 42064 .   Recent Spanish sheep mottled in the Valenciana style. Minor worming at some inner margins, never in text. Paper crisp and printing very sharp. A very good copy.  (26794)

Treasury Form specifying“Arbitrary” Penalties for Failure to Comply

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Unrecorded printed form with blank spaces for completion in manuscript. The form was used to certify that a miner or his agent had presented gold ingots and/or silver bars and had paid the diezmo tax; there is sufficient space to itemize the ingots and bars. The miner is further obligated to transport the metal to the mint in Mexico City to be turned into coin, with the requirement of presenting to the officials in Durango the receipt he receives from the Mexico City officials. The penalty for failure to comply is specified as “arbitaria”!

Printed in roman type with one decorative initial and a handsome woodcut of the royal coat of arms (as modified by Charles III) in the center at the top of the leaf.

No copy located via WorldCat, CCILA, or METABASE.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; nor González de Cossío, Cien; nor González de Cossío, 510.   Old folds, small rent in lower blank margin. Waterstain in upper right corner and a big of soil along one fold.  (25800)

The Inquisition & Father Hidalgo's“Manifiesto”

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•  Approximately two months prior to Father Hidalgo's capture by the Royal Forces, the Holy Office issued this decree condemning a publication of the Father of Mexican Independence as seditious, Lutheran, and anti-Catholic. Other writings circulating in manuscript are also condemned: One beginning, “Hemos llegado a la epoca” and ending, “De una Patriota de Lagos” and another beginning, “Es posible. Americanos!” and ending, “será gratificado con quinientos pesos.” Copies of each were burned by the public executioner and all citizens are warned of the penalties — excommunication and fines — for owning or reading these writings, or failing to denounce those who do.

Printed in double-column format and with the woodcut seal of the Inquisition in the lower right corner of the lower edge.

Uncommon: Garritz located only the copy in the Biblioteca Nacional and OCLC locates only five U.S. institutions holding copies.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico. Garritz 1137.   Old folds; five small meandering wormholes touching or costing a very few letters, but not impeding reading sense.  (24917)

Ending an Amnesty for Rebels

•  In this VERY LARGE broadside, printed in double-column format, the Mexican Inquisitors reprint a decree of the Inquisitor General announcing an end to the previously granted period for obtaining amnesty for the crime of rebelling against the crown and its church. Click the image for an enlargement.

Signed by each Mexican Inquisitor with his paraph and with the woodcut seal of the Inquisition in the lower left corner

Very uncommon: We trace only one copy in the U.S. — at the University of California at Berkeley.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico.   Several holes of various sizes, including one very large one in the middle of the first column, with loss of paper costing words and whole sentences. Otherwise, light staining and some instances of soiling most notably around the holes, only. Priced accordingly.  (17028)

Procesion del Palacio a la Iglesia — Ocupacion del Trono Chico

•  The Inauguration Commission's official report to Congress as given on 17 June 1822, for the coronation ceremony of Agustin de Iturbide as emperor of Mexico.

Rare: Via OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 we locate only three copies in the U.S.

•  Sutro 358.   Folded as issued, but lacking sewing. Small waterstain in upper inner corner of all leaves. Old note, “De Villanueva” on title-page.  (25446)

SILVER MINING in 18th-CenturyMexico & Peru

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Royal decrees relating to mining in New Spain: discovery of new mines, operation of old ones, training of workers and royal officials, duties of experts, introduction of new technology, role of the Tribunal de la Minería and the requirements (including purity of blood) for appointment to it, and many more aspects of this important economic activity. The work was carefully compiled and indexed by José de Galvez, was originally printed in Madrid in 1783, and is here in the first printing to take place in a viceroyalty.

Sabin calls this work a “rare and valuable compendium of the old mining laws and mineral customs.” Galvez was a special commissioner charged with making reforms in the governing of Mexico; his work greatly influenced the 1786 replacement of the Mexican provinces with 12 intendencias. The 18th century saw a rebirth of the Mexican and the Peruvian silver industry as new technologies and techniques were introduced. Concomitant with the increased production was increased wealth for the mine owners and the crown.

•  Palau 251938a; Medina, Lima, 1636; Sabin 56260.   Recent calf bordered in gilt tooling, spine with gilt bands and floral devices in compartments, gilt-stamped leather title label; a few very small scuffs to covers. All edges sprinkled blue and red. Title-page recto and verso with inked ownership inscriptions in an early hand. Final leaf with repairs to outer edge; penultimate two leaves with lower corners torn away, outer edge of one with small chewed portion. Occasional spots of foxing. Two worm pinholes to title-page; more extensive worming to inner margins of central 20 leaves, on some pages touching text without affecting comprehensibility. Handsome.  (3039)

RULES for Administrators OverseeingSales Taxes & Pulque

•  Dated in manuscript at end as 4 July 1781, this 15-point document presents rules for the proper collection of the media anata tax in the Sales Tax and Pulque Tax divisions of the viceregal government. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in González de Cossío, Cien or 510; not in Harper, Americana Iberica.   Removed from a bound volume and left margin slightly irregular. Now in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides.  (4773)

Opening the Port ofMatamoros

•  Decree of the Congreso General, approved by José Justo Corro, president ad interim, 16 July 1836, and promulgated the same day by Juan de la Fuente, opening the port of Matamoros to the importation of provisions during the war with Texas, assigning those provisions to the expeditionary force, and exempting from seizure mules and wagons carrying supplies to that army from within the country.

This is a states' edition, promulgated by José Gómez de la Cortina, Governor of the Federal District.

•  Streeter, Texas, 880.   Very good condition. Lacking the integral blank leaf.  (24618)

On LOCAL Reinvestment

•  The viceroy publishes a letter from the Secretary of State concerning local reinvestment of tax revenues. This publication is dated in text as Mexico, 15 September 1789.

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; nor González de Cossío, Cien or 510; nor Harper, Americana Iberica. A folded, very good copy. (10667)

New“Stamping” Style

•  Under the leadership of President Lerdo de Tejada a new law is enacted replacing stamped paper with the issuance of revenue stamps to be affixed to documents and books legally required to be taxed.

•  Not in Sutro. Sewn; original plain wrappers, lacking the front one. Library pencilling in preparation for cataloging, but no stamps.

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.

Constituciones with an Important & Useful OVERVIEW of 110
Years ofMexican Intellectual History

Mexico (Viceroyalty).

Click the images for enlargements.

•  By 1775 the first edition of the university constitution was a rare book but demand for it was significant, so a reprint was brought out. And an important change was made to this second edition of the rules, regulations, and constitution of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico: While the main text of the first edition is faithfully reprinted, the original preface is deleted and a new one substituted. It gives a marvelous overview of those who were perceived to have been the intellectual giants of Mexico during the period 1660–1770: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Doña Ana María del Costado de Cristo, Juan José de Eguiara y Eguren, Antonio Guillén de Castro, José Ignacio Bartolache, and so on. Additionally, the anonymous but very knowledgeable author of the preface gives a detailed essay on the architecture of the university and its art work in all of its manifestations: sculpture, paintings, retablos, tapestries, etc.

Although the university was founded in 1551 and began offering classes in 1553, its rules and practices were not published until 1668: Various manuscript compilations of the rules had been gathered during the first hundred years of the institution, but it fell to Bishop Palafox to undertake the definitive compilation and to initiate the publication of the results, which did not see light of day until after his death. It is his omnium gatherum that the body of this volume offers.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5836; Palau 6067; not in Harper, Americana Iberica; not in Maggs, Bibl. Amer. 20th-century quarter calf with marbled paper sides and endpapers. All edges carmine. Paper clean and crisp. A lovely copy.

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Daily Business Life — International! New Orleans 1831

•  Moctezuma writes to Pizarro Martínez, the Mexican consul in New Orleans, that after having seen Pizarro that morning, he received a letter from their mutual friend Mr. Parrot enclosing a letter for Sr. Risquero that was to be entrusted to Pizarro. Moctezuma is further instructed by Parrot to say that Mr. Plate has promised to pay the money owed to Risquero as soon as some bills are collected. Click the image for enlargement.

•  Very good condition. Written in a small but clear hand.  (24650)

Apologia Pro Vita Sua

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  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)

The FIRST ENTIRELY ENGRAVED Book
Printed inthe AMERICAS

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  With this work Montes de Oca secured for himself the position of the most important and talented engraver in the New World at the beginning of the 19th century. He conceived andself-published this, the first entirely engraved book printed in the Americas.  In a series of 30 plates with captions he told the biography of St. Philip of Jesus (1572–97), the protomartyr of Japan.

This is a rare book with only nine U.S. libraries reporting ownership: Several of those copies are lacking either one, two, or three of the plates, and it is certain that the book was issued unbound, as a gathering of 31 individual leaves, thus accounting for copies with less than the “requisite” engraved title and 30 plates. This copy in fact confirms that the plates spent part of their lives unbound, as two of them are touched by small instances of worming that have not touched their next neighbors!

Montes de Oca's plates are particularly detailed and moving when they show the saint in Japan being abused and tortured, but all are strong and striking.

Uncut.

•  Palau 363045.   Late 19th-century plain sheep binding. Uncut; lacking two plates and two with minor worming as noted above; all plates well impressed, as would be expected of a work that the artist himself saw through the press! A very good copy of a scarce and important work.  (25095)

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.

Interesting Mariology — A Fine Image of Her

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•  Mora (1667–1737), a native of Puebla, was a Jesuit and rector of the Society's colegio in Querétaro. This is the second of three editions (1721, 1722, 1724) of his treatise on contrition and repentance.

An excellent, unsigned, copper engraving of Our Lady of Sorrows opposite the first page of the dedication represents each of the Seven Sorrows as a long sword piercing Her heart; “Meditacion I” with an absolutely charming headpiece.

No U.S. library reports ownership of this edition.

•  Medina, Mexico, 2685; DeBacker-Somervogel, V, 1275.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, lacking the ties; vellum stained and worn through at board edges; text block loose in binding. Finger soiling in foremargins, old ink stains and some areas of light waterstaining here and there, some light foxing, instances of light dust-soiling. Ownership inscriptions in lower margins of two leaves inked over. Minor worming at inner margins at rear of book, touching some letters.  (26870)

BUILDER of the FIRSTNew World Utopian Community

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  In the 18th century Mexico saw a birth of great biographical writing focusing on important figures in its history, especially its ecclesiastical history. Vasco de Quiroga (1470–1565) was an imposing and perhaps quixotic figure during the early post-Conquest decades. A learned man, he arrived in Mexico in 1531 as one of the first four judges of the high court (i.e., oidores) and became the first bishop of the far western province of Michoacan. In that “out of the way” region of Mexico he devoted himself to establishing European culture, ensuring fair treatment of the indigenous population, creating towns and cities, and building the first utopian community in the New World.

Not the least of his accomplishments was the creation of two pueblo-hospitals for native Americans, and appended and integral to this biography are his “Reglas, y ordenanzas para el gobierno de los Hospitales de Santa Fé de México, y Michoacàn,” which occupy the final 29 pages.

Historians still consider this to be the definitive biography of Quiroga. The engraved portrait of him, handsome and from the burin of José Morales, adds a face to the words of the biographer and to the account of the deeds of the biographee.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5099; Wellcome, Medical Americana, M.134; Palau 181902; Beristain, III, 2059.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking ties. A very good copy.  (23061)

TO Part VII . . .

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