Apr 16, 2019 - Sale 2505

Sale 2505 - Lot 308

Price Realized: $ 6,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 6,000 - $ 9,000
(MEXICAN IMPRINT--1787.) A short abridgement fo [sic] Christian doctrine 41 pages. Small 8vo, contemporary plain wrappers; minor dampstaining, unevenly trimmed; edges tinted red. [Mexico, 1787]
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Very likely the first work printed in English west of the Mississippi River, and the only Mexican book printed in English under Spanish rule. The date appears in the note from the Inquisition on the first page, under the header "Nos los Inquisidores Apostolicos . . . para que conforme a ella sean instruidos en la Doctrina Cristiana los Ingleses Neofitos que ignoran el Idioma Castellano." Settlers in Spanish America were required to practice Catholicism. This catechism was intended to help the growing numbers of English-speaking settlers in West Florida, New Orleans and Texas to keep their promise. Medina, Mexico 7705 (revised entry in Volume VIII, page 368).