Doctor Franklin & Spain: The Unknown History

Santa Fé: The Press at the Palace of the Governors, 2016. Limited edition. Hardcover. Fine. 4to. 59pp. plus colophon. One of 80 numbered copies. Printed letterpress at the Palace Press by Tom Leech and James Bourland on handmade wove Spanish paper from the Garza Paper Mill. The typeface is digital Bodoni Old Face; Franklin himself praised Bodoni's' Essay on Type as "one of the most beautiful..." Frontispiece portrait of Franklin based on a painting of Franklin by his French neighbor, Anne-Rosalie Bocquet Filleul. Finely bound by Priscilla Spitler in half brown morocco, deep blue leather lettering label, gilt, and with sides of paper marbled by Tom Leech. Map endpaper of the hemispheres taken from Seale's 1744 atlas and show the extent of Spanish interest in the western hemisphere. Illustrated with a drawing of Franklin's armonica (glass harmonica), which is a major player in this story. Also illustrated with photographic reproductions of letters relating to the story.

Dr. Franklin, an inventor of many things, counted the glass harmonica among his achievements. When he found out through the Spanish Ambassador to France that the King of Spain wanted one for the youngest prince, Franklin supplied it. And thus began the story of Franklin, the Spanish Crown, and the surreptitious financing of parts of the American Revolution, a story which is just now coming to light, after all these years, to be told by Dr. Chavez more fully in the near future.

A magnificent addition to the fine work of the Palace Press. It is in fine, as new condition, in the publisher's custom box.

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