(MEXICO) [León Alonso de] [Relacion y discursos del descubri

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(MEXICO.) [León, Alonso de.] [Relacion y discursos del descubrimiento, poblacion y pacificacion de este Nuevo Reyno de Leon.] [212] manuscript pages on 53 folding sheets (1-52 with 48 repeated). 4to, unbound; moderate worming in margin of first few leaves touching a few words, otherwise minimal wear. Np, [1649], transcribed circa 18th century

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Alonso de León (1608-1661) was a prominent general who helped subdue New Spain's northern frontier. He wrote the first history of the northern border state of Nuevo León in 1649, but it was little known until published in 1909, in an edition edited by Genaro García (see Palau 135080); it has since been republished several times. Garcia worked from a manuscript in the possession of Vicente P. Andrade; at least one other manuscript copy survives in the Yale University library. The present copy appears to have been done in the 18th century, judging by the paper, watermarks, and handwriting. The contents are very similar to the version published in 1909, but without the title or preliminaries. The language in this manuscript, however, is substantially different, using numerous 17th-century spellings which García presumably modernized for publication. The anonymous transcriber of this manuscript stopped in mid-sentence toward the end of Part III, Chapter V (page 141 of 188 pages in the 1909 edition), making the work only 75% complete. In this work, de Leon offers a detailed description of Nuevo Leon's indigenous Chichimecs, denouncing certain practices such as sodomy and cannibalism but comparing them to similar practices in ancient Europe. The present manuscript of this important early work was created many decades before its publication.