Ordenanzas de el Nobilissimo Arte de la Plateria...
Mexico City: 1746. [2],22pp. Folio. Contemporary plain paper wrappers. An occasional fox mark. Near fine. Item #3591
Scarce revision of the laws and orders governing silversmithing in colonial Mexico. The guild of silversmiths was one of the oldest and most powerful in New Spain, and ordinances governing the fashioning and decoration of silver go back to soon after the conquest and the discovery of large quantities of precious metals in the mountains of central Mexico. The present work contains thirty-seven ordinances that regulated the organization and governance of the confraternity of silversmiths, and governed the location, operation, and organization of silver shops in Mexico, as most recently revised and promulgated by the ruling Viceroy of New Spain. The traditions of several of these laws, such as the one requiring unique maker's marks for each silver shop, have continued to the present day. OCLC locates only three copies of this edition, at the University of New Mexico, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, and the Biblioteca Nacional de Mexico -- and just two other 18th-century editions of these ordinances, equally scarce. The present edition was produced by prominent Mexican woman printer Maria de Ribera, and this copy is in particularly good condition.
Medina, Mexico 3774.
Price: $3,000.00