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VERACRUZ, Alonso de la (1507-1584). Speculum coniugiorum. Mexico City: Juan Pablos, 13 August 1556 (colophon dated 7 January 1555).
4o (217 x 153 mm). Collation: a-z aa-vv8. 344 leaves (the last blank). Italic type. Large woodcut arms of the dedicatee Viceroy Luis de Velasco on title; table of consanguinity on p. 307 (v2r). Woodcut initials, some white on black. (Tear on e3 crossing text, a few minor marginal repairs to first few leaves, some occasional pale spotting.) Contemporary Mexican flexible vellum with narrow fore-edge flaps, remains of two fore-edge ties; cloth folding case.
Provenance: Gabriel de Idiaca (early inscription on title); some manuscript underlinings and several manicules (marginal finger pointings) in an early hand; unidentified Franciscan monastery (18th-century branded initials on lower edges).
FIRST EDITION, THE FIRST BOOK ON MATRIMONY PRINTED IN THE NEW WORLD, PRINTED AT THE FIRST PRESS OF THE AMERICAS -- AND THE FIRST AMERICAN BOOK PRINTED IN ITALIC TYPE. Fray Alonso de la Veracruz was one of the most influential missionaries of the first century of Mexican colonization. An indefatigable proponent of education for the Indians, he "was largely responsible for many of the best efforts made in the field of education in sixteenth century Mexico" (Ennis, p. 48). He was instrumental in the establishment of the first university of the New World, the University of Mexico, formally founded in 1553, and modeled after the University of Salamanca, where Veracruz had studied and taught. In his actions and writings Veracruz demonstrated an unusually enlightened view of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. While defending "the rights and powers of both King and Pope in the New World, his sympathy lay very much with the Indians in the sufferings which many of them had to endure in the course of the conquest" (op. cit, p. 61).
The last of Veracruz's published treatises, preceded by three works of philosophy, the Speculum coniugiorum was completed in Mexico ten years before its publication. Veracruz's "best single contribution to the missions of Mexico," it is devoted to "the moral theology, and especially the canon law, of matrimony, with the particular and very valuable purpose of providing a guide for solving the complicated cases concerning the newly-converted Indians" (Ennis, p. 67). In particular Veracruz tackled the thorny problem of polygamy, which formed the basis of the socio-economic system of the native Mexicans. In part two, which treats the nature of marriage among the infidels of the New World, Veracruz explores the question of polygamy, providing valuable ethnological descriptions of Mexican marital structures and customs, and concluding that native marriages, if freely consented between both parties, are valid, and that polygamy is legitimate for the infidel Indians given their state of ignorance of the Gospel. The third and last part of the Speculum contains twenty articles on divorce. Three later 16th-century editions appeared in Salamanca, Alcalá and Milan, all containing revisions necessitated by the Council of Trent.
The Brescian printer Giovanni Paoli, Mexico's first, was sent to New Spain by Juan Cromberger in the 1530s at the urging of the Bishop of Mexico Juan de Zumárraga. Paoli/Pablos printed (from 1539) under Cromberger's imprint until his contract expired in 1548, when he began to publish under his own name. The italic types used here were cut in his shop by Antonio de Espinosa. Colonial Printing in Mexico, no. 6; Arthur Ennis, Fray Alonso de la Vera Cruz, O.S.A. (Louvain 1957), pp. 67-72; Garcia Icazbalceta, Bibliografia Mexicana 28; JCB 1 (I):195; Maggs Bibliotheca Americana 4941; Medina La Imprenta en Mexico 28; Palau 359149; Sabin 98919; Valton, Impresos Mexicanos, no.4; Wagner Nueva Bibliografia 27. RARE.
4o (217 x 153 mm). Collation: a-z aa-vv8. 344 leaves (the last blank). Italic type. Large woodcut arms of the dedicatee Viceroy Luis de Velasco on title; table of consanguinity on p. 307 (v2r). Woodcut initials, some white on black. (Tear on e3 crossing text, a few minor marginal repairs to first few leaves, some occasional pale spotting.) Contemporary Mexican flexible vellum with narrow fore-edge flaps, remains of two fore-edge ties; cloth folding case.
Provenance: Gabriel de Idiaca (early inscription on title); some manuscript underlinings and several manicules (marginal finger pointings) in an early hand; unidentified Franciscan monastery (18th-century branded initials on lower edges).
FIRST EDITION, THE FIRST BOOK ON MATRIMONY PRINTED IN THE NEW WORLD, PRINTED AT THE FIRST PRESS OF THE AMERICAS -- AND THE FIRST AMERICAN BOOK PRINTED IN ITALIC TYPE. Fray Alonso de la Veracruz was one of the most influential missionaries of the first century of Mexican colonization. An indefatigable proponent of education for the Indians, he "was largely responsible for many of the best efforts made in the field of education in sixteenth century Mexico" (Ennis, p. 48). He was instrumental in the establishment of the first university of the New World, the University of Mexico, formally founded in 1553, and modeled after the University of Salamanca, where Veracruz had studied and taught. In his actions and writings Veracruz demonstrated an unusually enlightened view of the indigenous peoples of Mexico. While defending "the rights and powers of both King and Pope in the New World, his sympathy lay very much with the Indians in the sufferings which many of them had to endure in the course of the conquest" (op. cit, p. 61).
The last of Veracruz's published treatises, preceded by three works of philosophy, the Speculum coniugiorum was completed in Mexico ten years before its publication. Veracruz's "best single contribution to the missions of Mexico," it is devoted to "the moral theology, and especially the canon law, of matrimony, with the particular and very valuable purpose of providing a guide for solving the complicated cases concerning the newly-converted Indians" (Ennis, p. 67). In particular Veracruz tackled the thorny problem of polygamy, which formed the basis of the socio-economic system of the native Mexicans. In part two, which treats the nature of marriage among the infidels of the New World, Veracruz explores the question of polygamy, providing valuable ethnological descriptions of Mexican marital structures and customs, and concluding that native marriages, if freely consented between both parties, are valid, and that polygamy is legitimate for the infidel Indians given their state of ignorance of the Gospel. The third and last part of the Speculum contains twenty articles on divorce. Three later 16th-century editions appeared in Salamanca, Alcalá and Milan, all containing revisions necessitated by the Council of Trent.
The Brescian printer Giovanni Paoli, Mexico's first, was sent to New Spain by Juan Cromberger in the 1530s at the urging of the Bishop of Mexico Juan de Zumárraga. Paoli/Pablos printed (from 1539) under Cromberger's imprint until his contract expired in 1548, when he began to publish under his own name. The italic types used here were cut in his shop by Antonio de Espinosa. Colonial Printing in Mexico, no. 6; Arthur Ennis, Fray Alonso de la Vera Cruz, O.S.A. (Louvain 1957), pp. 67-72; Garcia Icazbalceta, Bibliografia Mexicana 28; JCB 1 (I):195; Maggs Bibliotheca Americana 4941; Medina La Imprenta en Mexico 28; Palau 359149; Sabin 98919; Valton, Impresos Mexicanos, no.4; Wagner Nueva Bibliografia 27. RARE.