1737. · Mexico
by Espinosa, Isidro Felix de
Mexico: Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, 1737.. [38],456,[4]pp. plus engraved plate. Small quarto. Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title. Mild soiling, with remnants of ties. Text block holding by cords. Period signature on titlepage, faint ink stamp on C3, some worming to text of first section and a few internal leaves, and minor marginal worming to a handful of other leaves within. Otherwise a mostly clean and bright text. Very good. First edition, first issue (i.e. with the titlepage in black and red) of an important Texas rarity. At the age of fifty-nine, after having been a missionary in Guatemala and various regions of Mexico, including from 1713 until 1716 in Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, Father Margil led an expedition into Texas. Before he returned south of the Rio Grande in 1719, fleeing before the invading French, he founded two missions in northeast Texas and one in what is now Louisiana. The author of this fine biography was an intimate of Father Margil and accompanied him on the Texas expedition. The expedition is described on pages 278-90, as are events involving the French.
Hogal was one of the finest printers active in Mexico in the first half of the 18th century, and this book's elaborate and attractive typography is no exception. The full-page illustration of Father Margil preaching to a group of Native Americans is signed in the engraving by Joaquin Sotomayor. WAGNER SPANISH SOUTHWEST 102. SABIN 22898. MEDINA, MEXICO 3461. PALAU 82703. HOWES E184. GRAFF, FIFTY TEXAS RARITIES 5. LeCLERC (1878) 1129. HARPER, AMERICANA IBERICA 338. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 5 (note). (Inventory #: WRCAM51215)
Hogal was one of the finest printers active in Mexico in the first half of the 18th century, and this book's elaborate and attractive typography is no exception. The full-page illustration of Father Margil preaching to a group of Native Americans is signed in the engraving by Joaquin Sotomayor. WAGNER SPANISH SOUTHWEST 102. SABIN 22898. MEDINA, MEXICO 3461. PALAU 82703. HOWES E184. GRAFF, FIFTY TEXAS RARITIES 5. LeCLERC (1878) 1129. HARPER, AMERICANA IBERICA 338. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 5 (note). (Inventory #: WRCAM51215)