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202. MAYER, Brantz. Mexico; Aztec, Spanish and
Republican: A Historical Sketch of the Late War; and
Notices of New Mexico and California. Hartford: S.
Drake and Company, 1851. [4] 433; 398 pp., numerous
engraved plates and text illustrations (after Nebel,
Waldeck, Weber-Frémont, Catherwood, et al.).
Thick 8vo, 2 vols. in one, full original extra
gilt-pictorial red morocco, a.e.g. Binding with a bit of
minor shelf wear. Turn-of-the-century lending library label
on upper pastedown, library slip at back. Despite being an
ex-library copy, this is still a near fine copy, with no
external markings to mar the elaborate nineteenth-century
binding.
First printing of the greatly enlarged edition of
the author’s Mexico as It Was and as It Is (New
York, 1844, 390 pp.). Pingenot: This is the true first
edition of a book that is bibliographically confusing
because the date on the title-pages is MDCCCLI (1851),
whereas 1850 is the date shown on the verso of the t.p.,
suggesting an 1850 printing. The author (1809-1879), a
Baltimore lawyer and founder of the Maryland Historical
Society (1844), was the author of other volumes on Mexican
and Maryland
history.
Connor & Faulk, North America Divided 366:
"Mayer reiterates...that Paredes’ belligerent posture
really brought on the war, although it was the annexation
of Texas that underlay it." Cowan, p. 421. Gunn, Mexico
in American and British Letters 923. Hill, p. 494: "The
first printing of this work with its enlarged title was
issued in 1851"; p. 195: "Mayer tried to present Mexico in
a light apart from the misconceptions and prejudices that
arose out of the Texas Revolution. He wrote of antiquities,
agriculture, manufactures, commerce, coinage, natural
resources, religion, and government. In his official
government capacity, he met General Santa Ana." Palau
158998. Raines, p. 148: "Historical sketch of Mexico. The
viceroys’ rule in chronological order, with notice of
the Texan struggle and the war with the United States."
Tutorow 3103.
($250-500)