Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 304

Price Realized: $ 562
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(MEXICAN IMPRINT--1594.) A 16th-century carta de poder from the Valtón collection. Partially-printed document signed, 4 pages, 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, on one folded sheet, with printing on first page only in 35 lines of Roman type, the remainder completed in manuscript; disbound with marginal loss, leaves nearly detached, worming near bottom affecting 2 words of printed text, skillfully conserved. [México: Pedro Balli, completed in manuscript 25 February 1594]
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Additional Details

A power of attorney document with the printed text beginning "SEpan quantos esta carta vieren como yo . . . Generalmente, para en todos mis pleytos" as usual.

The manuscript completions were sworn in Mexico City on 25 February 1594 before the notary Diego Martínez. Juan de Torres Loranza of Mexico City gives his power of attorney to Rafael Cabeza de Vaca of Puebla, who then obligates Torres Loranza to pay Juan Gómez Casco of Puebla, 3250 gold pesos for 50 arrobas (more than half a ton) of the insect-derived dye cochineal, registered and in boxes ("grana cuchonilla encajada y registrada").

This variant of the carta de poder form does not appear in Szewczyk & Buffington's "39 Books and Broadsides Printed in America before the Bay Psalm Book," but they have attributed it to the workshop of printer Pedro Balli based on the woodcut initial, typeface, and composition (see Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts dealer description laid in).

Laid into a copy of the limited-edition reference work, as issued: Edwin H. Carpenter. A Sixteenth Century Mexican Broadside from the Collection of Emilio Valtón. Folio, publisher's cloth-backed boards; one of 140; small inked "MM" stamps from the library of Michael Mathes. Los Angeles, 1965.