?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 60,000
(MEXICAN IMPRINT--1554.) Veracruz, Alonso de la. Recognitio summularum * Dialectica resolutio cum textu Aristotelis. Woodcut tables in text. 88, [8]; 88, [10] pages. Two volumes in one. Folio (11 1/4 x 8 inches), early vellum repurposed from another volume; first title page in facsimile, lacking leaf I:57, second title page detached, worming, moderate foxing, minimal dampstaining on top edge; marca de fuego on top edge, early inscriptions on front free endpaper and verso of final page, leaf of manuscript text used as rear free endpaper. Mexico: Joannes Paulus Brissensis [Juan Pablos of Brescia], 1554
first editions. The philosopher Alonso de la Vera Cruz (circa 1507–1584) was born in Spain under the name Alonso Gutiérrez. He joined the Augustinian order and came to New Spain in 1536. The colony's first university, Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, was established in 1551, and Veracruz became its first professor. These two books were issued with his students in mind. The Recognitio is an introduction to philosophy and logic. The Dialectica was the first printing of Aristotle (or of any classical author) in the New World, with commentaries, edited by Veracruz. These books were printed by Juan Pablos, the first printer in the New World, who arrived in Mexico circa 1539. These are believed to be the first and second books printed in Roman type in the New World. Burdick, Mathematical Works Printed in the Americas 1; Icazbalceta 20, 21; Medina, Mexico 22, 23; Palau 359140, 359145; Sabin 98918, 98912; Wagner, Mexican Imprints in the Huntington Library 20, 21. No copy of either work has appeared at auction since the American Art Association offered another set in 1926, though John Howell did offer one in his 1961 catalogue for $3,500.
