Relacion del Funeral Entierro, y Exequias de el Illmo. Sr. Dr. D. Manuel Rubio y Salinas Arzobispo Que Fue de Esta Santa Iglesia Metropolitana de Mexico...
Mexico City: En la Imprenta del Real y Mas Antiguo Colegio de S. Ildefonso, 1766. [10],155pp., plus large folding plate. Small quarto. Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title. Remnants of vellum ties at fore-edge; spine mostly perished. Minor dampstaining to vellum. Two short tears at gutter of folding plate, well away from image. Quite clean internally. Very good. Item #2491
From January 1748 until his death in July 1765, Manuel Rubio y Salinas was the Archbishop of Mexico City. This period coincided with the rebirth and expansion of the Mexican mining industry, which fostered great wealth, new secular and ecclesiastical institutions, and an architectural boom in the viceregal capital. Rubio and the Church benefitted from the new wealth in significant material ways, but he remained popular throughout his tenure for attention to prevalent social concerns and dedication to his religious duties. One of his most significant achievements was the procuration of the 1754 papal decree that made Our Lady of Guadalupe the patron saint of New Spain.
When Rubio died, all of Mexico City turned its energy towards his commemoration, much of which is summarized and transcribed in the present volume. The work includes a Spanish-language account of the last days of the Archbishop, his death, and his burial (pp.1-87); followed by the Latin funeral oration, "Maximum occidentis sidus...," spoken by Pedro José Rodriquez de Arizpe (pp.87-112); and concluded by a second funeral sermon given in Spanish by Cayetano Antonio de Torres. The account of the burial includes a detailed description of the cenotaph that the city erected for Rubio, including transcription of the inscriptions and epigrams by F.J. Alegre. Following the conclusion of the text, there is a large folding engraved plate by Manuek Villavicencio, one of the most prominent and skilled engravers of the period in colonial Mexico, that depicts the design of the funeral monument by Miguel Cabrera, "Pintor Americano," in exquisite detail and precisely to scale.
Extremely scarce on the market; no copies appear in available auction records since the Brinley Sale, almost 150 years ago, where Maximilian I's copy of this work brought $16 (!!). A good source for the study of Mexican colonial architecture, religious ceremonies, and death rituals; and very good, clean copy, with an outstanding example of the excellent and large architectural engraving.
Price: $8,250.00