[Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguía in favor of Juan Francisco Rodriguez]

Valladolid, 1586.

Folio (12 1/8” x 8 13/16”, 308mm x 223mm): 48 leaves, pp. [96] (blank, illumination, 89pp. carta executoria, 3pp. notaries’ marks, 2pp. blank). With one full-page body color and liquid gold illumination and 12 body color and liquid gold headlines.

Bound in contemporary brown morocco with blind rolled borders and a gilt superlibros of an eagle to the boards. Leaves stitched with a braided crimson and cream silk cord, which is visible along the spine.

Boards rubbed, with loss to the fore-corners of the front board and to the lower fore-corner of the rear board. Binding loose throughout. Lacking front endpaper. Wormholes to the pastedowns and margins, odd spots of soiling and thumbing along the fore-margins. Upper fore-corner of the last leaf excised. Printed paper label “639” to the front pastedown. Two signatures of Felipe Ortega and a manuscript note regarding the illumination to the recto of the first leaf. Lacking the lead seal issued with Cartas, as expected.


The widespread ennoblement of the Spanish bourgeoisie in the Early Modern period has been traditionally considered one of the main causes of the “crisis of the XVIIc.” The Carta Ejecutoria de Hidalguía is the legal document which conferred the judgment of an individual’s lower nobility (the Spanish word hidalgo being a modern contraction of the word hijodalgo — literally “son of something”). Hidalguía could be proven by providing witnesses to state under oath that the plaintiffs’ father and grandfather had been Hidalgos, that they came from a lineage of Christians that were loyal to the crown and that their status was common knowledge in their land — a relatively easy bar to pass that would make estates eligible for generous tax advantages and exemptions.

The Rodriguez family lived in Pobladura del Valle, a small municipality near the border with León. The only procedure for obtaining recognition of the Rodriguez’s minor noble status was filing a lawsuit before the Royal Chancery, of which there were two: one in Valladolid and the other in Granada, established in 1371 and 1505, respectively. When the lawsuit did not result in a favorable outcome for the applicant, the hopeful noble would return home with a meager document prepared on paper in cursive script. If the judgment was affirmative, the beneficiary formally requested its issuance as recognition and proof of their rights. The certificate of nobility was then taken to workshops outside the Royal Chancery to be copied in calligraphy and illuminated in accordance with the workshop's resources and the patron’s means. Wealthier Hidalgos contracted independent artists in the larger cities to decorate their documents, but this type of illumination was expensive: around 200 reales, when the wages for an urban laborer are estimated at 10 reales per week. More humble Hidalgos took their cartas back home and had them decorated by local artists, perhaps working at lower rates, in less polished vernacular styles. The present example was likely completed by the standard workshop in Valladolid, as examples of other cartas from the same Chancery and time period bear identical motifs. Once the certificate of nobility was prepared and embellished, it was taken back to the Royal Chancery, its contents were compared with the copy issued by the notary and the document was signed off on (as seen on leaves 46 and 47). All Cartas ejecutorias would have been accompanied by a lead seal hanging from silken cords, a sign of the document's authenticity. Due to the weight of the lead and metals commonly being smelted for reuse, few seals survive with their original documents.

The solemn version of the certificate managed to survive the impact of the printing press, reaching a peak during the XVIc. The full-page illumination to the verso of the first leaf follows a standard composition for Cartas frontispieces. The upper portion depicts Juan Francisco Rodriguez and five family members kneeling to a Virgin Mary and Christ Child, while a purple and blue headline for Philip II of Spain (1527–1598) bisects the page and below it, a party per pale achievement depicting Azure a turret Or and Argent a dragon rampant Sable, all within a bordure Gules charged with eight saltires Or and topped with a helmet.

The present example was lot 502 of Christie’s New York Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts sale on the 16^th of December, 2004. Christie’s hints to its provenance only as the “property of a lady.”

Cataloged by G.R. Murdock

Item #GRM0048

Price: $12,000