[Panama]. Aymerich, Melchor

Addicion. Al Manifiesto de la Intendencia del Istmo Sobre la Conducta de España y Colombia Consecuente a las Capitulaciones de Pasto y Quito [caption title]

Panama: Jose Maria Goytia, 1823. Broadsheet handbill, 8.5 x 6 inches. Minor creasing. Faint dampstaining at right edge. Very good plus. Item #5754

An extremely rare statement by Spanish general Melchor Aymerich following his final defeat in Ecuador by Antonio José Sucre and subsequent flight to Panama in 1822. Aymerich, the "Mariscal de Campo de los Ejercitos Españoles" and "Jeneral en Jefe de las Armas Españolas," states that he and his family traveled, lodged, and ate at their own expense following his defeat at Pichincha by Sucre and subsequent capitulation. No money or provision of any kind was provided to them by the Republic of Gran Colombia. He continues to declare that they traveled from Quito to Guayaquil, and thence to Panama, and would soon be departing for Havana. While in Panama, he was the guest of the Commandant of the Isthmus, Colonel José Maria Carreno, and he thanks the Colonel and his family for their generosity and assistance. Although the caption title of this broadsheet states that it is an "Addicion" to a lengthier "Manifiesto," this prior work does not seem to have survived.

The present handbill is a very early Panamanian imprint. There is no evidence of there having been printing in Panama during its colonial period, and exactly when the first press was introduced there is unclear. OCLC locates a single copy of a call for independence in New Spain published by the present printer, José Maria Goytia in 1821, and vanishingly few issues of two newspapers established in 1822. Medina traces an 1822 sermon as printed in Panama, and we locate a smattering of other imprints from this period, including the present handbill, of which OCLC notes a single copy, at the John Carter Brown Library; we know of one other at the New York Public Library.

Price: $3,750.00