Libro intitulado Arte de Criar la Seda
Granada: Rene Rabut, 1581.
First Edition. Hardcover (Full Leather). Good Condition. Item #045439
Later acid calf, modest wear at corners and spine ends. Lacking the title, with a later printed half title bound in (likely contemporaneous with the binding), preliminaries wormed along the top margin touching some letters, tremoine on first page, final index leaf chipped and worn at the edges with loss of a few words, a few scattered light stains but mostly clean otherwise and very attractively printed in black letter (with Roman type for the preliminaries and index) with historiated initials throughout. Provenance: with the stamp of Ricardo Heredia on the half title. (7), 96, (4) leaves.
The first Spanish language book on silk production, printed in Granada, the center of the Spanish silk trade. De las Casas was born in Trujillo around 1520 but moved to Mexico with his father around 1536. Gonzalo's father, the conquistador Francisco de las Casas had moved to Mexico in 1523 and was given Yanhuitlan by Cortes in encomienda - Francisco died the same year that Gonzalo and his mother made the trip across. Cortes is supposed to have given Gonzalo's mother, Maria de Aguilar, the mulberry seeds necessary for beginning the silk industry in Yanhuitlan.
Silk worms had been introduced to New Spain in 1523, and by mid-century there was a thriving silk industry that supplied the local clergy and growing middle classes. The silk trade has operated continuously since then until today -- still centered now in the Mixtec parts of Oaxaca near Yanhuitlan. Palau II 84 ("Libro rarisimo") and Sabin 11290 ("excessively rare"). Catalogue de la bibliothèque de Ricardo Heredia 3405 (this copy), , Bibliotheca Americana 339. Just one other copy found in the auction record and 10 copies in OCLC. It was reprinted in Madrid in 1620. Size: Octavo (8vo). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Americana; Natural History & Resources. Inventory No: 045439.
Price: $3,000.00