Paleografìa Española.
Madrid, J. Ibarra 1758.
4to (192 x 135 mm.). [iv], 160p. and EIGHTEEN ENGRAVED PLATES WITH SEVENTY-TWO SPECIMENS OF LATE ANTIQUE AND MEDIEVAL SCRIPTS (Gonzalez and Peña after Palomarius; one folding), two typographic diagrams in text.
Contemporary vellum, manuscript spine title.
First Separate Edition, treating Latin, Arabic, Hebrew and Runic alphabets and their evolution in Spain from antiquity to the fifteenth century. This work’s classification system and terminology profoundly influenced the discipline.
The book begins with a history of the Spanish language, the result of a “blend of peoples” (p. 19, tr.) and multicultural influences: Gothic, Arabic, Jewish, Occitan…. Six chapters in reverse chronological order introduce the scripts illustrated in the plates, which faithfully reproduce text samples from epigraphs, archival documents and manuscript codices — including music, diagrams and marginal drawings. The final chapter, accompanied by a plate with eight samples, treats Arabic and Hebrew scripts.
On the title, Spanish Paleography is attributed to another Jesuit, Esteban de Terreros y Pando (1707-82). In 1758, the text appeared in his Spanish translation of a multi-volume French encyclopedia, replacing the section on French paleography. Burriel — the former director of the Royal Academy of History’s Comisión de Archivos — declared his authorship in an autograph note in his copy (now Toledo Cathedral library). This evidentiary note was unknown to Palau but recognized by Sommervogel and Bonacini. In good condition (minor foxing, one split plate fold); bookplates of James Stevens Cox (1910-97) and of Kenneth Rapoport.
¶Sommervogel-De Backer, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus II: 406,10 (Burriel) & VII: 1935,3 (Terreros); Bonacini, Bibliografia delle arti scrittorie e della calligrafia 302 & 1862; Palau 330662 (Terreros); see Millares Carlo’s Tratado de paleografía española I: xiv.
Price: $1,200.00