?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 700
Michaela Josefa de la Purificación (1681-1754) Agustín de Miqueorena. Vida de la Venerable Madre Michaela Josepha de la Purificacion. Religiosa de Velo, y Choro de el Observantissimo Convento de Señor San Joseph de Carmelitas Descalzas de la Ciudad de la Puebla.
Puebla, Mexico: Por [Manuela de la Ascensión Cerezo] la Viuda de Miguel de Ortega y Bonilla, 1755.
First edition, quarto, title page printed within a border of typographical ornaments, large woodcut arms of the dedicatee on second leaf; large woodcut device on verso of final leaf, text printed in two columns throughout; contemporary ownership inscription to ffep; label marking the book as "disinfected for sale" in Spanish pasted inside front board; blind stamp of owner to ffep; bound in contemporary limp parchment, lacking ties, some marginal browning to title and scattered slightly elsewhere; generally fresh, 7 1/2 x 5 3/4 in.
Michaela Josefa de la Purificación was a Discalced Carmelite nun originally from a religious family in Puebla. This biography, published only a year after her death, describes her early years and her aspirations to join the order. She entered the San José convent at the age of sixteen and remained for the next fifty-five years of her life, rising to the role of prioress. According to her biography, she felt transgressions against the church in her own body, and subjected herself to fasting, self-flagellation, and use of the cilice.
The printer, Manuela de la Ascensión Cerezo (d. 1758), a member of the Ortega y Bonilla printing dynasty, took over for her deceased husband sometime around 1714. In addition to running the printing business, she was also the administrator of the family assets and its working farm. She expanded the business, adding a better press and additional types and type ornaments, and renting a space at the Portal de las Flores (the address listed on the present imprint.) Between 1714 and 1723, hers was the only print shop in Puebla. When she died, she had printed 260 works during her forty-two year career, including religious titles, books in indigenous languages, and more.
Medina, Puebla 598; rare at auction; Worldcat lists eight copies in libraries worldwide.
