HISTORIA DE LA CONQUISTA DE MEXICO, POBLACION, Y PROGRESSOS DE LA AMERICA SEPTENTRIONAL, CONOCIDA POR EL NOMBRE DE NUEVA ESPAÑA
Solís y Ribadeneyra, Antonio de
Published by Bernardo de Villa-Diego, Madrid, 1684
Used
From
William Reese Company - Americana, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 13 July 2006
About this Item
Description:
[32],548,[15]pp. including additional engraved titlepage. Small folio. Contemporary calf, spine gilt with raised bands, later burgundy morocco gilt label. Some wear and scuffing to boards, corners bumped, a few small worm holes to spine ends, hinges reinforced. Three leaves with internal tears at the inner margin of the text block (likely caused by a combination of thin paper and an overly enthusiastic pressman), small wormhole at gutter near the bottom of the text block affecting the first twenty leaves (no text affected). Later inscription on front free endpaper, small blindstamped monogram on lower part of printed titlepage. Very good overall. First edition of one of the classic works of Mexican history, by one of the great Spanish writers of the time. Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra (1610-1686) was a prominent Spanish playwright and historian. His HISTORIA., covering the three years between Cortés' appointment as commander of the expedition to secure central Mexico and the ultimate fall of the city, is regarded as a great work of Spanish Baroque prose; Solís was later dubbed the "Cronista de Indias" (Chronicler of the Indies). Prescott called it "the most remarkable history in the Castilian language," and other authorities have followed suit in praising it as a basic work on the conquest of Mexico. French and Italian translations followed in the 1690s, and an English translation by Thomas Townsend appeared in 1724. The book was extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic for decades, and remained the most important European source on Latin American history until the 19th century. SABIN 86446. MEDINA, BHA 1773. JCB (2)II:1300. PALAU 318602. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 684/167. Seller Inventory # WRCAM57602
Bibliographic Details
Title: HISTORIA DE LA CONQUISTA DE MEXICO, ...
Publisher: Bernardo de Villa-Diego, Madrid
Publication Date: 1684
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HISTORIA DE LA CONQUISTA DE MEXICO, POBLACION, Y PROGRESSOS DE LA AMERICA SEPTENTRIONAL, CONOCIDA POR EL NOMBRE DE NUEVA ESPAÑA.
Published by
Madrid: Bernardo de Villa-Diego, 1684., 1684
Used
Seller: William Reese Company - Americana, New Haven, CT, U.S.A.
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
First edition of one of the classic works of Mexican history, by one of the great Spanish writers of the time. Antonio de Solís y Ribadeneyra (1610-1686) was a prominent Spanish playwright and historian. His HISTORIA., covering the three years between Cortés' appointment as commander of the expedition to secure central Mexico and the ultimate fall of the city, is regarded as a great work of Spanish Baroque prose; Solís was later dubbed the "Cronista de Indias" (Chronicler of the Indies). Prescott called it "the most remarkable history in the Castilian language," and other authorities have followed suit in praising it as a basic work on the conquest of Mexico. French and Italian translations followed in the 1690s, and an English translation by Thomas Townsend appeared in 1724. The book was extremely popular on both sides of the Atlantic for decades, and remained the most important European source on Latin American history until the 19th century. SABIN 86446. MEDINA, BHA 1773. JCB (2)II:1300. PALAU 318602. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 684/167. [32],548,[15]pp. including additional engraved titlepage. Small folio. Contemporary calf, spine gilt with raised bands, later burgundy morocco gilt label. Some wear and scuffing to boards, corners bumped, a few small worm holes to spine ends, hinges reinforced. Three leaves with internal tears at the inner margin of the text block (likely caused by a combination of thin paper and an overly enthusiastic pressman), small wormhole at gutter near the bottom of the text block affecting the first twenty leaves (no text affected). Later inscription on front free endpaper, small blindstamped monogram on lower part of printed titlepage. Very good overall. Seller Inventory # 57602
Quantity: 1 available
Historia de la conquista de Mexico, poblacion, y progressos de la America septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España
Published by
Bernardo de Villa-Diego, Madrid, 1684
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Arader Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Very good. First. First edition. Madrid: Bernardo de Villa-Diego, 1684. Pot folio in 8s (11 1/16" x 8", 281mm x 204mm). [Full collation available.] 298 leaves, pp. [32] (title, blank, 4pp. dedication to King Carlos II, 2pp. dedication to the Count of Oropesa, 3pp. approbation of Gaspar de Mendoza, 2pp. approbation of Diego Jacinto de Tebar, license, approbation of Luis de Cerdeño, witness of Cerdeño's approbation, 3pp. approbation of Nicolas Antonio, royal privilege, errata, 8pp. contents, 3pp. to the reader), 1-22, 25-28, 227-383, 3382-398, 401-548, [16] (15pp. index, blank). [=xxxii, 548, xvi] With an engraved title-page by I.F. Leonardo after Theodore Ardeman. Bound in XVIIIc paper-covered boards (re-)backed in calf. On the spine, six raised bands. Author and title gilt to red calf in the second panel. Re-backed. Boards rubbed and worn at the extremities. Quite a fresh copy, despite a few spots of foxing or tanning scattered throughout. Closed tears to F5 and S5. Ownership signature of "C. Twopeny Potton/ Sep.r 1826-" to the recto of the front free end-paper. Antonio de Solís y Ribandeneyra (1610-1686) was a lawyer who first made his name as a dramatist in Spain. In 1660, he was appointed by Philip IV -- to whom he was private secretary -- as "Cronista Mayor de Indias," a court post established in 1571 with responsibility for reporting on Spanish overseas territories. The Historia covers Hernán Cortés's campaign to conquer Mexico (City), i.e., Tenochtitlan, 1518-1521. Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire, and its fall marked the conquest of the Mexico -- Nueva España or New Spain -- by the Spanish. The Historia is not only a valuable account of this crucial moment in world history, but a celebrated work of Spanish literature. As a member of the School of Calderón, Solis's prose style is considered to sit at the very pinnacle of the Spanish baroque. He brings his dramaturgical acumen to historiography, enlivening the account as well as yielding a more profound psychological insight. Charlotte Twopeny (1790-1878) was a wealthy Rutlander, whose father was rector at the church in Little Casterton. Potton is a village in neighboring Bedfordshire (about forty miles south of Little Casterton); perhaps Twopeny was there when she bought or received the book in September of 1826. Purchased from the Sotheby's sale of Jay I. Kislak, 26 April 2022, lot 79. Gisbert-Ortells II:6439; JCB2 2:1300; Palau 6:529; Sabin 86446. Seller Inventory # JLR0364
Quantity: 1 available
[BOUND BY SANTIAGO MARTIN SANZ, MADRID]. Historia de la conquista de Mexico, poblacion y progressos de la America septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España
Published by
Antonio de Sancha, Madrid, 1784
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Michael Laird Rare Books LLC, Lockhart, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Near Fine. 2 vols., quarto (255 x 200 mm). L (i.e. 50) pp. + [8] pp. (Subscribers), 489 pp.; [4], viii, 460 pp. Illustrated with 2 engraved portraits (one of Cortes, the other of the author) + 24 full-page engraved plates after designs by Titian (sic), Josef Ximeno, Ildefonso Vergaz, and Juan Moreno Tejada y Arnal, many of which were engraved by Ferdin Selma. With 2 folding maps (one in each volume): "Mapa geográfico de una parte de Nueva España" and "Mapa de las lagunas, ríos y lugares que circundan a México." Fine engraved head- and tailpiece vignettes. Both half-titles present. Our copy is lacking the 3-page list of Subscribers in vol. II that was bound at the end of some, but certainly not all, copies. Near contemporary Madrid binding by Santiago Martin Sanz: smooth calf treated to resemble blue marbling, Neo-Classical palmette boarder gilt around sides, smooth spine decorated with multiple impressions of a single gilt roll, two red morocco labels on each volume, the author and title in the first, and in the second the volume number within a gilt shield, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, sprinkled red edges. Near fine condition: faint foxing to the outer margins of plates (not objectionable), the paper stock white and crisp, small paper flaw in the blank margin of vol. II, p. 3; the bindings with trifle abraisons in some places, epidermal scraping on front cover of vol. II (the marbling unaffected). A superb copy, completely unsophisticated, preserved in black cloth protective cases. THE MOST DESIRABLE OBTAINABLE COPY EXTANT OF THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THE "HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO." Our copy was bound by Santiago Martin Sanz (1780-1828), bookbinder to TWO Kings of Spain, namely Carlo V (r. 1788-1808) and his son Fernando VII (r. 1808 and 1813-1833). He also received commissions from three of Fernando's four wives (Maria Antonia de Bourbon, Maria Isabel de Braganza, and Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony) and many important collectors. Originally from Toledo, he moved to Madrid and in 1815 he was appointed bookbinder to the Palace, and in 1817 was assigned the task of cleaning and repairing the King's books. He had a workshop at Calle del Espejo No. 11 in Madrid; even though he lost everything during the 1823 invasion of the French, Santiago Martin rebuilt his shop and his clientelle. Thankfully a good portion of his account books survived and await further study. Some of Santiago Martin's finest bindings demonstrate an undoubted English predilection for the neo-classical, as here. It has been conjectured that Santiago Martin trained in the workshop of the famous Valencian bookbinder D. Pascual Carsi y Vidal, whose works also show a decided English influence. Santiago Martin taught bookbinding at the Real Biblioteca, where he found great favor with Librarian D. Jose Angel Alvarez. The distinctive palmette rolls on our volumes are found on signed bindings by Santiago Martin Sanz, i.e. Estado General de la Real Armada bound for María Josefa Amalia (PR Real Biblioteca XIV/2722 | Olim: VIII-Vit. Comp. 7; Sala XVIII-Est. Central). The distinctive spine treatment was achieved by multiple gilt impressions of a single roll, identical to that which appears on a signed Santiago Martin Sanz binding: Constituciones y extrauagantes de la Orden del Glorioso Doctor nuestro Padre S. Geronymo (PR. Real Biblioteca IX/8822). Not surprisingly, many of Santiago Martin's bindings are preserved in the Real Biblioteca, and a great many of them are published on the Encuadernacion section of the Real Biblioteca website: his bindings are immediately recognizable on account of their unmistakable and inimitable treatment of the leather, which is positively luminous. There can be no doubt that this is the masterpiece of the press of Antonio de Sancha (1720-1790). Produced under royal patronage, it would seem as if no expense was spared. Sancha's creation is enthusiastically, and justly praised by renowned printing historian D.B. Updike, who positively gushes: "Sancha's beautiful quarto edition [.] is still considered the great edition of Solis' work. The types used are frankly old style, and of these the larger sizes are the best Introductory matter fills fifty pages, and this prefatory material is divided into eleven sections. To arrange it successfully, as Sancha has done, would tax the ingenuity of any printer. On arriving at last at the History, how fine it is! The first page is faced by a portrait of Cortes after Titian; the opening page is really ornamented by its engraved head-piece and initial; the type of the text is a large, beautiful old style, printed on laid paper in a sharp, brilliant impression. A series of twenty-four delightful and rather ingenuous full-page engravings designed by Josef Ximeno are scattered through the work, each Book of which begins with an engraved head-piece and ends with a tail-piece. The engraved lettering beneath the full-page plates shows how magnificent was the style of calligraphy which still survived in Spain." (SOURCE: D.B. Updike, Printing Types, Their History, Forms, and Use, pp. 76-77, noting that Sir William Stirling Maxwell described this edition as "the triumph of the press of Sancha"). The author, Antonio de Solis y Rivadeneyra (1610-1686), was the foremost chronicler of Mexico, and had access to archival sources that were previously unknown or unavailable. The work was first published in 1684, and in spite of various historical faults, it has remained indespensible to historians of Mexico ever since. "[I]ts epic style thrilled readers long after the age of exploration had ended. Solis is factually less dependable but easily more colorful than Cortes or Diaz" (SOURCE: Elder et al., The Literature of Beguilement, p. 19). Sabin 86465; Palau VI, 530 ("Bella edición y una las mas nitidas de esta obra"). Medina, BHA 5064 ("La mejor de todas las ediciones de la obra de Solis"). For a detailed bio-bibliography of Santiago Martin Sanz, see: Matilde Lopez Serrano, "Li. Seller Inventory # 2638
Quantity: 1 available