El Duelo de la Inquisicion: o Pesame Que un Filosofo Rancio Da a Sus Amados Compatriotas los Verdaderos Españoles...
[Mexico]: Impresa en la Oficina de Doña Maria Fernandez de Jauregui, 1814. [27],245,[1],45,[2]pp. Small quarto. Contemporary marbled calf, gilt tooled, leather spine label, edges painted red. Light scuffing to boards, more moderate wear to spine and edges; spine label chipped. Small patches of dampstaining to initial leaves, otherwise light and scattered foxing. About very good. Item #3124
"The last gasp of the Spanish Inquisition in America. This plea for re-establishing the Inquisition, which had been gratefully abolished in 1812 by the liberal constitution, was written by the prior of the convent of the Barefoot Carmelites in Mexico. The work contains many contemporary political allusions as well as the religio-legal justification for the Inquisition" -- Nebenzahl. The author, Fray José de San Bertolomé, entered the order of the Discalced Carmelites at the convent in Puebla, and became a lecturer in religious philosophy in their colleges across New Spain until he took up his role as prior in Mexico during the early 1810s. The second part of the work, separately paginated and with its title page, prints the classic defense of the Inquisition from the 1560s by Archbishop Bartolomé Carranza. Although Spanish loyalists managed to get the Inquisition briefly reinstated in order to regain control of New Spain in the late 1810s, it was for all intents and purposes finished in the New World. This is the first edition, with the errata leaf at the rear; a second edition followed in Madrid the same year.
Beristain I, p.141. Medina, Mexico 10964. Nebenzahl 15:22. Palau 290069. Sabin 75998n.
Price: $650.00