Ligerísimo Bosquejo de la Vida de Francisco [caption title]

Mexico City, 1807. Very good.. Letterpress broadside illustrated with large engraving, 12 x 8.25 inches. Minor wear and foxing, engraving printed slightly off register. An evocative and rare Mexican broadside relating the story of Italian Jesuit Francesco de Geronimo (1642-1716). The portrait was executed by Francisco Gordillo, also the chief assayer of the Mexico City mint. This broadside was produced the year following Francesco's beatification in 1806; he was later canonized as a saint in 1839. This "Very Light Sketch of the Life of Francisco" includes a biographical history of Geronimo, as well as a physical description and information on his beatification and burial.

"St. Francis wanted to be sent to preach in the Far East but the Jesuit authorities wanted him to stay in Naples, which was the centre of his apostolic labours. He worked through the 'Oratorio delle Missioni,' an organization of working men which functioned as a sickness benefit and funeral society. His preaching was famous: sometimes he would bring a skull to the pulpit, at others scourge his bare shoulders with an iron chain until they bled. He established hostels for reformed prostitutes and their children. His beatification, postponed by the suppression of the Jesuit order, finally took place in 1806, and his canonisation in 1839" - New Catholic Encyclopedia.

Rare at auction, and with only five copies in OCLC, at the California State Library, Boston College, University of Pennsylvania, the JCB (Mathes copy), and the Wellcome Library.