113. [MAP: TREATY MAP].  ROSA.  Mapa de los Estados Unidos Mejicanos arreglado a la distribución que en diversos decretos ha hecho del territorio el Congreso General Mejicano. Paris, 1837.  Publicado por Rosa. [inset map at lower left] Mapa de los caminos &c. de Vera Cruz y Alvarado a Méjico [above inset map] Tablas de las distancias. Lithograph map with original outline coloring.  Neat line to neat line:  58 x 71.8 cm. Sectioned and mounted on contemporary cartographical linen (18 sections), with contemporary printed maize label of bookseller Librería Poblana in Puebla.  Light uniform age toning, mounting linen slightly deteriorated at folds with a few splits, but no losses to map. As the presence of the label would seem to indicate, this copy was never inserted in a cloth or board folder.  Provenance:  The library of General Juan N. Méndez (1820-1894), who fought in most of Mexico’s late nineteenth-century wars, including both the U.S. and French invasions.  He twice served as governor of Puebla. Exceedingly rare.

     First edition of the Rosa version of the Treaty map (another edition came out in 1851).  Martin, “Disturnell’s Map” in Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America Edited by Hunter Miller (Vol. 5, pp. 343-344): “An independent plagiarism of Tanner’s map of Mexico... This map was brought into the argument concerning the boundary marking in 1853.  It is a literal copy of Tanner’s map, taken from the 1834 edition on the original scale and translated into the Spanish language.  The essential respects in which Rosa’s plagiarism differs from Tanner’s map of Mexico are three in number:  (a) the statistical table in the Gulf of Mexico is omitted; (b) in the table of distances, the village of Cordova is replaced by the village of Ayotla, but the distance from Mexico City is not modified; (c) the hand-colored northeast-southwest boundary between Upper and Lower California on Tanner’s 1834 map is replaced by an engraved boundary in the same position on Rosa’s 1837 plagiarism.” Cf. Martin & Martin, Plates 37 & 38.  Rittenhouse, Disturnell's Treaty Map, p. 14:  "When the boundary disputes arose after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo..., three publishers' maps were brought into the argument--the Tanner map, the Disturnell map, and the Rosa map." Streeter Sale 233.  Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West #429:  “A palpable plagiarism of Tanner’s Mexico.”

     This rare European map is the most elusive segment in the evolution of the resounding Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo map, by which the final border between Mexico and the United States was set.  Recently Special Collections the University of Texas at Arlington acquired a copy of this map; see Compass Rose, Vol. XV II, No. 1 (Spring  2003) where Katherine R. Goodwin comments:  “The Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library in Special Collections holds materials relating to the cartographic history of Texas and, along with the Jenkins Garrett Library, is one of the most important repositories for documents and maps pertaining to the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 in the United States. The library, prior to this acquisition, held editions of all the pertinent maps relating to the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo except the Rosa map. These holdings comprise a number of editions and states of the Disturnell map, the White, Gallaher and White map, and Henry S. Tanner’s maps, including that map’s cartographic sources. The addition of the Rosa map completes the sequence. The evolution of the treaty map is most important to the history of Texas and the United States, and especially to the history of the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, the subsequent boundary disputes between the United States and Mexico, and the evolution of the boundaries of the state of Texas. Special Collections is proud to add the Rosa map to its collections for research and study.” Additionally, the Bancroft Library, the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, and the DRT Library at the Alamo each hold a copy of the 1837 edition; Tulane recently acquired a copy of the 1851 edition.

     Although little is known about Parisian publisher Rosa except his last name, he frequently published books and maps about Mexico around this time period, a somewhat unusual specialty for a Parisian publisher at that time.  Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers (2004 edition) locates Rosa (last name only) at Gran Patio del Palacio Real, Rue Calle de Montpensier No. 5 in Paris and notes three editions of a map of this title, 1822, 1837, and 1851 with the statement: “Translated by Rosa from Humboldt’s map of 1810.”  However, that statement can apply only to the 1822 map, because Tanner’s map had not been published in 1822.  Tooley notes a later publishing partnership of Rosa y Bouret and two unrelated maps done in 1858.  Other titles we have seen published by Rosa or Rosa y Bouret include:  Alexander von Humboldt, Viage á las regiones equinocciales del nuevo continente, hecho en 1799, hasta 1804, por Al. de Humboldt y A. Bonpland (5 vols., Paris: En Casa de Rosa, 1826); Nuevo curso completo de geografía universal física, histórica, comercial, industrial y militar.... (Paris: Librería de Rosa, 1844); Marcos Arróniz, Manual del viajero en Méjico ó compendio de la historia de la ciudad de Méjico....ColecciónEnciclopedia Hispano-Americana (Paris: Librería de Rosa y Bouret, 1858); Jesús Hermosa, Manual de geografía y estadística de la República Mexicana (Paris: Librería de Rosa y Bouret, 1859).  ($40,000-80,000)

Auction 19 Short Title List | Auction 19 Prices Realized