59. PALÓU, Francisco (1723-1789). Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junípero Serra, y de las misiones que fundó en la California septentrional, y nuevos establecimientos de Monterey.... Mexico: Felipe de Zúñiga y Ontiveros, 1787. [28] 344 pp., copper-engraved allegorical portrait of Serra performing apostolic labors, folding copper-engraved map: Californias: Antigua y Nueva Notas. En èsta Carta no se escrib^n. los nombr^s. de tod^s. las Yslas, P^tos. Rios, y demàs, p^r. ser hecha p^a. solo demostrar lo q^e. andubo, y Mision^s. q^e. fundó en la Nvã. Calif^a. el V. P. Fr. Junipero Sèrra, Presidt^e. de èllas. La long^d. es arreglada al meridiano de S. Blas. Diego Tronosco Sc. Mex^co. a^o. 1787... (25.7 x 35 cm; 10-1/8 x 13-7/8 inches). 8vo, original vellum, spine with original manuscript lettering in sepia ink. Early inoffensive red and black library markings on spine. Vellum split in several places along edges, rawhide ties no longer present, a few clean tears to endpapers at hinges, but overall a fine, desirable copy, crisp text and strong impressions of portrait and map. Marca de fuego on upper edges of text block (probably from the Convento de San Cosme de México). Engraved armorial bookplate of Manuel Romero de Terreros (“Ex Libris Manuel Romero de Terreros/March: de Sancto Francisco”). Manuel Romero de Terreros y Vinent (1880-1968), well-known and widely published specialist in Mexican colonial history and art, was a professor at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, one of the founders of Academia Mexicana de la Historia, and the possessor of a superb library. He was a descendant of Pedro Romero de Terreros, Conde de Regla (1710-1781), benefactor of the Franciscan colleges of Santa Cruz de Querétaro and Guadalupe de Zacatecas (Texas missions), founder of Monte de Piedad, etc. See Diccionario Porrúa.
          First edition, second issue, with title above imprint reading: “A expensas de don Miguel González Calderón”; the catchword on the final page of the index being “PRO”; and the toponym “MAR PACIFICO” appearing on the map (in the first issue the line “A expensas de varios bienhechores” appears on the title page and the catchword “CAR” appears on the final page of the index). Barrett, Baja California 1947. Cowan I, pp. 171-72: “The most famous and the most extensive of the early works that relate to Upper California.” Cowan II, p. 472. Graff 3179. Hill, pp. 220-21: “This work has been called the most noted of all books relating to California.” Holliday 846. Howell 50, California 180: “This life of Fr. Junípero Serra, the founder of the California Missions, consists chiefly of letters from Serra to his friend and companion Fr. Palóu.” Howes P56. Huntington Library, Zamorano 80...Exhibition of Famous and Notorious California Classics 59. LC, California Centennial 34. Jones 607. Libros Californianos (Wagner & Hanna lists), pp. 24, 67; also, pp. 32-33, 45-47 (Powell commentary). Mathes, California Colonial Bibliography 64. Medina, México 7731. Norris 3007. Streeter Sale 2450. Wagner, Spanish Southwest 168. Weber, The California Missions, p. 77. Wheat, Mapping the Transmississippi West 208 & I, p. 128: “[The map] is of interest here because it seems to be the first on which a boundary line was drawn between Lower and Upper California.” Zamorano 80 #59 (Henry R. Wagner): “This book is perhaps the commonest relating to the history of California printed in Spanish, as W. W. Blake, a bookseller in Mexico City, unearthed a cache about forty years ago of some fifty new copies in a monastery of Santa Cruz in Querétaro. This accounts for the number of mint copies still in circulation.”
          A choice Mexican colonial imprint with superb content, printed by the noted firm of Zúñiga y Ontiveros, with an engraved map of California and portrait by Diego Troncoso, and excellent provenance. Mathes says that the portrait of Serra is the first published portrait of a European living in Alta California (Cortés lived in Baja California for a year and his portrait was published on several occasions in the sixteenth century; there are painted portraits of Cortés, Porter y Casanate, Salvatierra, and Ugarte, but they were published only in modern editions and not contemporarily). “Troncoso’s map depicts the extent of European settlement in Nueva, the present-day California, at this time, eighteen years after the Spanish occupation of California in 1769. Troncoso’s map shows the location of nine missions, of the ultimate number of twenty-one, founded by Father Junípero Serra during his lifetime. The missions are connected by El Camino Real—The King’s Highway—a route still largely followed by U.S. Highway 101. The four Presidios at San Diego, Santa Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco are located.... Although this map is simply drawn and has some geographical distortions, it shows the ‘islands, ports, and rivers’ of the coast region of California, the region of Spanish occupation. The representation of San Francisco Bay is based on the Spanish survey made at the time of their first entry into the bay.... The map is one of the earliest known maps to show a boundary between the two Californias. This line, just below San Diego, demarks the religious jurisdictions of the Dominicans (Antigua) and Franciscan (Nueva) religious orders” (Alfred W. Newman in California 49: Forty-Nine Maps of California from the Sixteenth Century to the Present 17, illustrated p. 35). Mathes, La Ilustración en México Colonial, p. 133 & Plate 12 (noting that the talented engraver Diego Troncoso also engraved the unsigned portrait of Father Serra gracing the present book). See also Manuel Romero de Terreros, Grabados y Grabadores en la Nueva España (Mexico, 1948) and Manuel Toussaint, Arte Colonial en México (Mexico, 1962).           ($4,000-8,000)

59C. [PALÓU, Francisco]. [MAGEE, David]. An Original Leaf from Francisco Palóu’s “Life of the Venerable Father Junípero Serra” 1787: A Keepsake Presented by the Roxburghe Club of San Francisco on the Occasion of Their Visit to The Zamorano Club of Los Angeles September 20-21, 1958. [San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1958]. [8] leaves, original leaf from the first edition of Palóu’s Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del Venerable Padre Fray Junípero Serra (see Item 59 above) tipped onto leaf [3] (pp. 159/160, with text referring to the Anza expedition and Monterey), gilt and red initial letter on leaf [4]. Folio, original stiff cream paper wrappers, upper cover with red label printed in gilt. Very fine.
          Limited edition (177 copies, signed by David Magee). Grabhorn (1957-1973) #598. Hill, p. 527: “David Magee, 1905-1977, believed that Palóu’s life of Father Serra was the first literary work to be undertaken in San Francisco and as a consequence Palóu was the city’s first author.... Magee had a keen interest in the cultural life of San Francisco and for half a century worked hard as a book dealer and publisher. His influence was especially felt through his patronage of fine printers in the Bay Area.” Magee wrote the text for this refined leaf book printed on handmade English paper by the Grabhorns.           ($150-250)