Historia de la conquista de Mexico, poblacion, y progressos de la America septentrional, conocida por el nombre de Nueva España
Madrid: Bernardo de Villa-Diego, 1684. First edition.
Pot folio in 8s (11 1/16” x 8”, 281mm x 204mm): ¶8 ¶¶8 A-Ll8 Mm6 Nn4 [$4 signed]. 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.
Item #JLR0364
Price: $7,500