Sep 29, 2022 - Sale 2615

Sale 2615 - Lot 336

Price Realized: $ 20,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
(MEXICAN IMPRINT--1555.) Alonso de Molina. Aquí comiença un vocabulario en la lengua Castellana y Mexicana. [8], 259, [1] leaves including facsimiles. 4to, later gilt calf, lacking backstrip; lacking 13 leaves (title page, 3 leaves of front matter, and 9 near the end, all with tasteful facsimiles bound in), moderate dampstaining, inked text on top and bottom edges, a few manuscript notes and doodles in margins. Mexico: Juan Pablos, 1555

Additional Details

first edition of the first Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary. Alonso de Molina (1513-79) learned Nahuatl, the dominant indigenous language of central Mexico, as a child in New Spain. He taught the language to the first Franciscan missionaries there and subsequently entered the Franciscan order. His dictionary went through many editions (a Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary was added for the second edition in 1571), and is still influential today. García Icazbalceta 23; Medina, Mexico 24; Palau 174351 ("obra rara y extraordinaria"); Pilling 2600; Sabin 49866. An incomplete example of an extremely early and important book.