Apr 12, 2018 - Sale 2473

Sale 2473 - Lot 259

Price Realized: $ 6,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
THE FOUNDING DOCUMENT OF THE MEXICAN INQUISITION (MEXICAN IMPRINT--1569.) Pius V, Pope. Papal bull establishing the Spanish Inquisition in the Americas. Letterpress broadside, 19 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches; heavy folds, worming in text area with some text loss, minor dampstaining, wear along right edge. Mexico: Pedro Ocharte, circa 1569-71
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This proclamation established the Inquisition in the Americas. The Mexican Inquisition went on to hunt suspected Jews, pagans, homosexuals, and a wide variety of other heretics for more than two centuries. Often referred to as 'Si de Protegendis,' the text begins "Nos don [blank] hazemos saber a todos los vezinos" and features the headline "Pio obispo siervo de los siervos de Dios: ad perpetvam rei memoriam" followed by a line of bold text reading "Si tenemos quotidiano cuydado, de defender todos los otros ministros de." In this printing, the Pope's original decree is followed by a transmittal note and an imprint line explaining that it was printed by order of the Mexican priest Bartholome de Ledesma. The original proclamation was issued in Latin in April 1569, but the Mexican Inquisition was not formally established until November 1571. One of its earliest victims was Pedro Ocharte, the printer who produced this broadside; he was imprisoned from 1572 until 1578 (see Woodbridge, Printing in Colonial Spanish America). Palau 226977. 2 copies of the Mexican printing in OCLC; we trace one at auction, in 1986.