Page 37 - Catálogo #78 2020 Bostn Virtual Book Fair

Librería José Porrúa Turanzas 2020 Boston Virtual Book Fair

THE FIRST HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
19. VENEGAS, Miguel. A natural and civil history of California. London, James
Rivington and James Fletcher, 1739. 2 volumes. 8vo. -I: (20), 455 pp. -II: (4) h.,
387 pp. 1 folding map y 4 engraved plates. Nineteenth century half calf._ 3800
€ / US$ $4,430

First English edition of the first history of California, originally published in Spanish in 1757. The
work “contains more on Lower California than almost any other book that had been published
in one hundred and fifty years... the foundation of a library of California” (Wagner). Although
concerned primarily with Lower California, it also contains extracts from Lopez de Gomara and
Torquemada relating to early North-west Coast explorations, including an account of the 1602-
03 Vizcaino expedition, taken by Torquemada from the diary of Father Antonio de la Ascension.
The folding map shows the Baja California peninsula and the Gulf of California from the Colorado
River to Cabo San Lucas, with part of Sonora and Sonora. The plates show Indians and the mar-
tyrdom of various Jesuit missionaries.
References: Palau 358390; Wagner, The Spanish Southwest, 132a; Cowan pp. 237-8; Sabin
98845; Zamorano 80, 78; Howes V69; Harper 164:454; Barrett 2536

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