| 22. [COSTANSÓ,
Miguel] (1741-1814). Diario histórico de los viages de mar, y tierra
hechos al norte de la California de orden del Excelentissimo Señor
Marqués de Croix, Virrey, Governador, y Capitán General de la Nueva
España: Y por dirección del Illustrissimo Señor D. Joseph de Gálvez...executados
por la Tropa destinada á dicho objeto al mando de Don Gaspar de Portolá,
Capitán de Dragones en el Regimiento de España, y Governador en dicha
Peninsula.... Mexico: De Orden del Excmo. Sr. Virrey, Imprenta
del Superior Gobierno, [1770]. [2] 56 pp., edges tinted yellow. Small
folio, plain contemporary paper wrappers. Occasional very light staining
and minor spotting (mainly affecting title), otherwise very fine, preserved
in a green cloth chemise and slipcase. The Estelle Doheny–Henry H. Clifford
copy (with Doheny’s green gilt morocco book label affixed to chemise).
This book is found on three of the lists of “The Twenty
Rarest and Most Important Books Dealing with the History of California”
(Bliss, Cowan & Wagner). Cowan (I, p. 56) states that “It is believed
that the work was suppressed by the Spanish government immediately
upon its appearance, as it contained certain information that might
be of use to navigators of other nationalities, and Spain distrusted
England. Subsequently a manuscript copy was translated into English
by William Reveley, and published in London in 1790. A copy of each
of these works is known to be in this state [California], but they are
superlatively rare—probably the rarest of all Californiana.” First edition. Barrett, Baja California 591. Cowan I, pp. 56-57: “Of the utmost importance. The first book that relates exclusively to California.” Cowan II, p. 144. Doheny Sale 210 (this copy). Graff 884. Hill, p. 69. Howes C795: “Intrinsic importance and superlative rarity, combined with its status as the first book devoted entirely to California, place this item, either in Spanish or English, in the top rank of memorable and desirable California books.” Huntington Library, Zamorano 80...Exhibition of Famous and Notorious California Classics 22. LC, California Centennial 28. Libros Californianos (Bliss, Cowan & Wagner lists), pp. 15-16, 20, 24. Mathes, California Colonial Bibliography 55. Medina, México 5363. Sabin 17019. Streeter, Americana-Beginnings 74. Streeter Sale 2437 (title illustrated, p. 1731): “The Portolá expedition was sent to found Monterey and San Diego, the first settlements in what is now the state of California. Approaching settlement from the north by the Russians prompted the Spanish to occupy formally Alta California. It was also on this expedition that San Francisco bay was discovered by land approach.” Wagner, Cartography of the Northwest Coast, p. 164; Spanish Southwest 149. Zamorano 80 #22. ($40,000-80,000) |
| 22A. [COSTANSÓ, Miguel]. Diario
histórico de los viages de mar, y tierra hechos al norte de la California....
N.p., n.d. [2] 56 pp. (photostatic facsimile on thick paper). Small
folio, early-twentieth-century leather over plum cloth, gilt-lettered
tan leather spine label. Spine worn, chipped, and abrading. The Lyman-Howell-Clifford
copy. An exact photo facsimile of the original edition. ($50-100) |
| 22B. COSTANSÓ, Miguel. The
Portolá Expedition of 1769-1770. Diary of Miguel Costansó.... Edited
by Frederick J. Teggart. Berkeley: University of California (Pubs.
Acad. Pac. Coast Hist. 2:4), 1911. 167 pp., Spanish and English on
facing pages, folding map of California by Costansó (based on printed map
of 1771: Carta reducida del Oceano Asiatico ó Mar del Sur, que
comprehende la Costa Oriental y Occidental de la Península de la California,
con el Golfo...). 8vo, original tan printed wrappers. Light wear
to fragile wraps, otherwise very fine. First printing of a previously unpublished diary by Costansó in the Sutro Library in San Francisco. Cowan II, p. 145. The present diary varies somewhat from the 1770 printed Diario histórico (see Item 22 above). In addition, this edition includes a reproduction of the map that Costansó drew in Mexico in 1770 based on his observations as engineer of the expedition. Tomás López printed this exceedingly rare map in Madrid in 1771, and it is practically impossible to procure. For more on the map, see California 49: Forty-Nine Maps of California from the Sixteenth Century to the Present 14n (quoting Mathes): “This is the first map of the coast of California based on observation since the charting of the coast by Vizcaíno in 1603.... Modern San Francisco Bay appears on a printed map for the time as Estero de S. Francisco.... The chart was not widely circulated in keeping with the practice of Spanish secrecy, and knowledge of the great bay was not diffused for some time.” Torres Lanzas, Relación descriptiva de los mapas, planos & de México y Floridas, Seville, 1900 (vol. 1, pp. 181-82) 255. Wagner, Cartography of the Northwest Coast 625. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West I, p. 121 mentions this printed map in a footnote. ($50-100) |
| 22C. COSTANSÓ, Miguel, et al.
The Spanish Occupation of California: Plan for the Establishment
of a Government. Junta or Council Held at San Blas, May 16, 1768. Diario
of the Expeditions Made to California.... Translated from the Spanish
Documents by Douglas S. Watson and Thomas Workman Temple II and the “Diario”
of Miguel Costansó Follows.... San Francisco: The Grabhorn Press,
1934. xiv, 64 pp., title printed in red and black, woodcut portraits
of Jose de Gálvez and Fray Junípero Serra, facsimile signatures, folding
map (facsimile of manuscript map by Costansó from 1770: Carta reducida
del Oceano Asiatico nombrado por los navegantes Mar del Sur, que comprehende
la Costa Oriental y Occidental de la Peninsula de la California con el
Golfo...). 4to, original tan cloth over orange patterned boards,
printed paper spine label. Mild to moderate browning to endpapers, otherwise
very fine. Limited edition (550 copies). Grabhorn (1915-1940) #203. Two documents on California by Gálvez accompany Costansó’s Diario histórico. The account by Costansó is the same as that found in Teggart’s translation, but the map presented in this edition is a photoreproduction of Costansó’s 1770 manuscript map in the Archives of the Ministry of War at Madrid, Spain. The manuscript map was the basis for the map printed by Tomás López in 1771. See California 49: Forty-Nine Maps of California from the Sixteenth Century to the Present 14n. Wagner, Cartography of the Northwest Coast 625. Frederic W. Goudy designed the Franciscan type used in this fine press edition. ($100-200) |
|
22D. [COSTANSÓ, Miguel]. Diario histórico de los viages de mar,
y tierra hechos al norte de la California. Mexico: Edición Chimalistac,
1950. [3]-71 [2] pp. (complete), facsimile of title page of original
edition of 1770. 8vo, original full crimson morocco, spine gilt with
raised bands. Very fine in black cloth slipcase. From the library of
noted collector and legal historian Kenneth M. Johnson, with his bookplate
on front pastedown. Printed label of Librería de Porrúa Hermanos y
Cía. México, D.F. tipped in at back. The Henry H. Clifford copy. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
Following the successful establishment of a permanent settlement
at the mission and presidio of Nuestra Señora de Loreto by Jesuit Father
Juan María de Salvatierra in 1697, the Spanish advance toward the north
began. A shortage of personnel and supply and the rugged terrain of
the peninsula of California forestalled progress, but following the
expulsion of the Society of Jesus in 1767, the crown gave full support
to rapid expansion toward the bays of San Diego and Monterey in Alta
California, which had been named and charted by Sebastián Vizcaíno in
1602. ——W. Michael Mathes |
Item 22.
Item 22.
Map from Item 22B.
Page 24 of the Grabhorn Edition, Item 22C.