Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2003 Issue

April Catalogue Review Book Collecting: Seeking a Southern Exposure

none

none


Here then are a few of his items:

1611
EXTREMELY SCARCE

11) LEON, M. DE. Camino del Cielo en lengua Mexicana, con todos los requisitos necesarios para conseguir este fin. Mexico, Imprenta de Diego Lopez y Davalos, 1611.
8vo; contemporary full vellum; title and first folio restored.
First edition, very rare. Fr. Martin de Leon, natural of the New Spain, died in the early XVIIth century, his date of birth being unknown. According to Beristain, he was “extremely wise and eloquent in the Mexican language and was very devoted to the Indians’ spiritual health”. The work has a large Catechism in Mexican and a Mexican Calendar in Spanish; it also has a Confessional in the Mexican language.Illustrated with a wooden vignette of a Confessor, an angel and the devil. The vocabularies and American catechisms in Indian language are rare and sought after.
* Palau 135423, BM 4045 (missing the first 2 pages); Sabin 40080; Medina, Mexico, 260.
U$ 8500


1616
VERY RARE INDIAN CATECHISMS
PUBLISHED IN LIMA, 1616

12) TORRES RUBIO, DIEGO. Arte / de la Lengua / Aymará / Compuesto por el Padre / Diego de Torres Rubio de la / Compañía de Jesús...[with](JOSE DE ACOSTA, P.) Catecismo / en la Lengua Española y Aymará del Pirú…. Lima, Francisco del Canto, 1616.
2 vols with correlative signatures; 12vo; old vellum. First part: “Arte”: 97 folios + 1 unnumbered folio; Second part: "Catecismo” 49 folios.
Father P. Diego de Torres Rubio was born in 1547 in Alcázar de Consuegra, Toledo Archbishopric, in Castilla la Vieja. He studied in Valencia, where in 1566, at the age of 19, was welcomed to the Compañía de Jesús. He was brought to Peru in 1577 by a mission led by Father José Teruel. In Lima he was conferred the orders of the presbytery and immediately sent to the Colegio de Potosí, where he focussed on the study of the Aymara language. Later on he undertook for some time the charge of Rector of the Colegio de Potosí, until he died in 1638, at the age of 91 years and 72 years as a Jesuit. The work we are offering is of extraordinary rarity. Our copy is absolutely complete, following Jose Toribio Medina’s detailed description. There are two different issues of the “Arte de la Lengua Aymara”, both with a title page dated 1616. Whereas Medina and Sabin describe the issue we have: Leclerc, Palau and Viñaza describe another issue with a different pagination. The second work, “Catecismo en lengua Española y Aymará” is described only by Medina. The rest of the bibliographies do no mention it, so apparently this “Catecismo” supplemented this issue only. It is not mentioned in the two copies described at OCLC either. It should be highlighted that “Catecismo” has correlative signatures with “Arte”, and thus it is absolutely clear that they have been published together, both in Lima. “Catecismo” is a Lima reprint of that published by Father Jose de Acosta in Seville, 1604. It must have been added to Torres Rubio’s work as it also deals with the Aymara language. All the copies described in the above-mentioned bibliographies, either from one issue or the other, are incomplete: Medina’s copy lacked page 10 of “Catecismo”, Leclerc’s copy (another issue) lacks the title page and several other pages, whereas the copy described by Sommervogel (according to Palau) lacked the title page. A true bibliographic finding, both works in perfect preservation state, absolutely complete. ---* Sabin 96267 (same issue): “see Viñaza´s “Bibliografía española de lenguas indígenas de América”, 1892, Nº 144, for another issue of the same year without continuous pagination for the various parts. According to Medina´s “Imprenta en Lima”, vol 1, Nº 69 a copy of the issue we describe, in the Biblioteca Nacional in Lima, was issued with “ Catecismo en lengua Española, y Aymará del Pirú” , Seville, 1604. He thought that as the signatures were “correlatives” the Catecismo was probably a Lima reprint of a work originally printed in Seville "---Medina, Lima, No 69 (same issue, missing p. 10 from the “Catecismo”): “The issue described is exceptionally interesting. At the beginning we thought “Catecismo” must have been “added” to our copy from the Lima edition of “Arte”, but in view of the correlative signatures, we have convinced ourselves that it was actually a Lima reprint of the book from Seville. So, “Arte” would be the first edition and “Catecism”, the third.” (B01A000318)

* Leclerc, Nr 2120 (other issue, same date) Viñaza, Lenguas indígenas de America, Nr 144 (other issue, same date) Palau 337263 (describing both issues) and 337257 for the “Catecismo”.OCLC: 2 copies (Princeton & Wisconsin) (the other issue).
Price on request

Rare Book Monthly

  • Heritage Auctions
    Rare Books Signature Auction
    December 15, 2025
    Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.
    Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
    Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews