Mar 26, 2009 - Sale 2174

Sale 2174 - Lot 377

Price Realized: $ 72,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
THE FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED IN SOUTH AMERICA (PERU.) [Doctrina Christiana, y Catecismo para Instruccion de los Indios.] 4 woodcuts in text, plus decorative initials and borders. Small 4to, disbound; trimmed slightly unevenly to 7 3/4 inches, dampstaining throughout, long closed tears on leaves 24 and 84, other scattered minor edge wear and tears; manuscript inscription on final page. lacks title page, preliminaries, and leaves 1 through 23. [Ciudad de los Reyes (Lima), 1584]
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

"Of extraordinary importance for our knowledge of language contacts in the Andean region"--Lerner in The Language Encounter in the Americas, 286. The Third Council of Lima ordered the compilation of sermons and catechism for use in converting the indigenous peoples of Peru to Catholicism. A printer, Antonio Ricardi, had recently relocated from Mexico to Peru to capitalize on the growing demand for religious material, and the Doctrina Christiana thus became the first book printed on the first printing press in South America. This fragmentary copy begins with a page of sample alphabets and syllables on leaf 24, and consists mainly the catechism in Spanish, Quichua and Aymara on leaves 25 through 73. It concludes with notes on the Quichua and Aymara languages, leaves [74] through 84. JCB I:300; Leclerc 2397; Medina Lima 1; Palau 74724; Sabin 20417. No copies found at auction since another defective copy sold in 1965.