Nov 18, 2008 - Sale 2163

Sale 2163 - Lot 287

Price Realized: $ 15,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
(MEXICAN JUDAICA.) [Processo contra] Pelayo Alvarez. 78, [5] leaves, paginated on recto only. Folio (12.5 x 8.5 inches), signatures stitched and bound with ribbon, housed in contemporary vellum folder with decorative leather work including 2 Stars of David on flap, early inked spine title "Libro de los salarios e pa-gas del con bento," minor ink and dampstaining; heavy water damage to interior, front free endpaper and title page detached, title page quite defective with ink burn holes and lacking large portion of upper right corner, uneven loss to right edge affecting some text of first 10 leaves, leaf 6 badly torn, several other leaves detached. Mexico, 1597
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Additional Details

The manuscript Inquisition proceedings against Pelayo Alvarez. At the time of his arrest in 1597, Alvarez was approximately 70 years old and was an itinerant merchant in the mining region of Taxco. He was born in Portugal, had arrived in the New World around 1557 when he was about 30 years old, and lived for about seven years on Hispaniola before moving to Mexico. He was accused of practicing Judaism. Testimony against him was given by several prisoners held in the secret cells of the Holy Office, including Francisco de Carvajal the Younger. In his turn, Alvarez gave testimony against four people he said were practicing Jews. Included here are the order to arrest Pelayo, his statement of his worldly goods, his testimony, that of others, and his autograph and signed confession.
Alvarez fell ill and died of an infection and a high fever before the Inquisitors reached a verdict. There is no indication in the dossier that he was tortured. An investigation was launched into his death, and many individuals, including the Inquisition doctor, were deposed on the matter. Posthumously the very bizarre workings of the Inquisition continued. The Inquisitors ruled that Alvarez was a heretic, a practicing Jew, and excommunicated him. Then they ruled that his confession was a true one and that he had repented and should be "reconciled" in effigy at the next auto da fe. Further, they absolved him of sin, lifted his excommunication, and ordered his body buried in the convent church of the Dominican Order in Mexico City.
The vellum folder's spine title can be translated as "Book of the wages and payments of the convent," and the original date "1614" has been erased. However, the leatherwork and Stars of David appear to be of early vintage, so this folder was likely reapplied to its present purpose at a very early date.
Seymour Liebman, The Jews in New Spain (Coral Gables, FL, 1970), 311.