Lot 70
“Deservedly ranks as a Spanish prose classic"—Hill
70. SOLÍS Y RIVADENEYRA, Antonio de. The History of the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards...Done in English...by Thomas Townsend Esq. London: T. Woodward, J. Hooke, and J. Peele, 1724. [18] [1] 2-163 [1, blank] + 252 + 152 pp., 7 copper-engraved plates, 6 of which are folded (frontispiece portrait of Cortés, panoramic views of the Valley of Mexico, archaeology, scenes from the conquest), plus 2 copper-engraved maps: [1] Untitled map of Mexico and Central America, above neat line at right J. Clarke sc., folded; [2] The Lake of Mexico and Parts Adjacent; engraved head- and tail-pieces, initials. Folio, contemporary full calf over wooden boards.
First English edition. European Americana 1724/165. Field 1464. Hill I, p. 278: "The most popular history of Mexico that had then been written. The sources were the letters of Hernando Cortés, the works of Francisco Lopez de Gómara, Bernal Díaz del Castillo.... The Historia, covering the years between the appointment of Cortés to command the invading force and the fall of the city of Mexico, deservedly ranks as a Spanish prose classic." Hill II:1601. Medina, BHA 1773n. Palau 318693. Sabin 86487
Solís (1610-1868) gradually rose in Spanish Royal administration until he became Philip IV’s secretary. In 1660 he was named Chronicler of the Indies, and this book is one of the results of that office. Not only is the book widely valued for its historical worth, but also for the author’s gracious and pleasing style. ($1,000-2,000)
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