Espejode Exemplares Obispos Trasumpto Moderno de los Antiguos Prelados de la Primitiva Yglesia Historiado, y Discurrido..

Mexico: Por los Herederos de la Viuda de Bernardo Calderon, 1698. Good.. [12] 297 pages. Quarto. Contemporary vellum, moderate wear; lacking endpapers, scattered worming and wear, slightly affecting text; minor dampstaining. Scattered contemporary manuscript annotations; early owner's signature on title page and notes on rear flyleaf. The first and only edition of this life of Garabito, a Mexican cleric who was one of very few colonial administrators to physically spend time in the "barbarous" provinces of Coahuila (at the time encompassing modern-day Texas) and Nuevo León. Garabito officially served as Bishop of Guadalajara (Jalisco), but his initial remit extended all the way to California and Coahuila until he was able to appoint administrators in those regions in the 1680s. Among his surviving manuscript edicts are several forcing clerics to the learn indigenous languages (in order to proselytize more effectively) and others stressing "el buen tratamiento de los indios."

In 1676, the Andalusian-born Garabito was appointed to the bishopric of Puerto Rico, and subsequently the next year accepted the far more prestigious office of Bishop of Guadalajara in Nueva Galicia, today known as Jalisco; the territory also included the provinces of Nayarit, the Californias, the Nuevo Reyno de León and Coahuila. The present work includes information on his election as bishop of Puerto Rico and then Guadalajara; a description of his voyage to and arrival in Mexico; and about twelve pages concerning his time in the "tierra de Infieles," or "Barbaras Provincias del Naiarit, y Coahuila." This propensity for travel and a hands-on approach earned Garabito the nickname (used in this book) of the "Missionero-Obispo." He lived up to the nickname, as in 1682, for example, when he travelled to visit missionary stations in Monterrey. Later in his career, Garabito retired to the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, just outside of Guadalajara, and in his will he stipulated that an image of the miraculous Virgin of Zapopan be sent back to Coahuila. The present work also includes a selection of poems composed in Garabito's honor by his fellow clerics, namely José de Arguin (pp.4-5); Miguel de Ortega (p.5, p.272), Bernardo de Riofrio (p.269), José de Mora y Cuellar (p.270), Felipe de Figueroa (pp.270-1), and Christoval de Palma y Messa (p.271).

OCLC shows just a handful of copies worldwide, with one in the United States at the Bancroft; Iberian Books adds copies at the Lilly (heavily wormed) and the University of Texas. We could locate no copies having sold at auction.
Medina Mexico 1690. Iberian Books 71987 (erroneously calling for only 10 pp of prelims). Sabin 11418. Ildefonso, Los Tlaxcaltecas en Coahuila (1999), pp.115-122 (reproducing his manuscript edicts on languages and the treatment of the Indians). Robles, “El Obispo de Leon Garabito” pp. 277-288 in Coahuila Y Texas en la Época Colonial (1938). Valdés, Carlos Manuel, “Dos visitas pastorales al Nuevo Reinode León y Nueva Extremadura de Coahuila”, in Derecho, política y sociedad en Nueva España (2013), pp.305-333.