Manual compendio de el regio Patronato Indiano: Para su mas facil uso en las materias conduncentes à la practica

[24]+531 pages with engraved allegorical frontispiece and index. Small folio (11 1/2" x 8 1/2") bound in original full leather with raised spine bands and decorative gilt lettering. (Palau 266572. Sabin 70785) First edition.

Full of original documents respecting the establishment of the Church in the Indies, and the protection of the Indians, together with all the bulls referred to, from that of Alexander VI to the time of publication. With the additional 24 preliminary leaves, not in all printings.

The ancestors of Rivadeneira on both sides had served the Crown for centuries in the Reconquista, in high positions of Church and State, and in the conquests of Mexico and the Darién. Among his relatives is the Marquis de Moncada, lieutenant colonel of the Puebla Regiment. Rivadeneira received a bachelor's degree in Philosophy and Law from the University of Mexico. He obtained a scholarship at the Colegio Mayor de Todos Santos on November 11, 1731, served in various positions, competed for the Chair of Institutes, and remained in residence until 1746. The Audiencia de México approved him to practice as a lawyer in 1733. While still in Todos Santos, Rivadeneira began serving in various positions. He was an advisor to the mayors of the city and town of Carrión in Valle Atrisco. The interim viceroy-archbishop Juan de Bizarrón appointed him a lawyer for the poor of the Courtroom of the Audiencia in 1739, with similar capacity in the Tribunal del Santo Oficio, the city of Puebla and the Agustino Convent of Mexico. In 1744 Rivadeneira became fiscal agent of the room of the Crime. He served as an advisor to the viceroy Duke of the Conquest and was commissioned to settle a dispute over land by his successor the Count of Fuenclara. In 1746 Rivadeneira decided to go to Spain for family businesses and to secure a position. For a payment of 13,000 pesos he obtained the appointment as supernumerary judge of the Audiencia de Guadalajara by decree of January 30 and title of February 20, 1748. Without occupying this position, he obtained the criminal prosecution of the Audiencia de Mexico on December 22 of 1753. He obtained a license to sail to New Spain with the servants José Ostos, of Écija; Diego Ibiricu, from Cádiz; Antonio de la Cruz, from Zacatecas, and Manuel Tagle, a "free black". Rivadeneira returned to New Spain in 1755 in the same vessel in which the new viceroy Marquis de las Amarillas went and assumed his post on October 30, 1755. As a prosecutor, he opposed the activities of the Tribunal de Acordada. Assigned to the civil prosecutor's office to replace Luis de Mosquera and Aranda by consultation of April 28 and title of June 21, 1760, the following year by consultation of May 14 and title of August 15, was appointed to replace the deceased Francisco López Adán as judge of the Audiencia. He served until his death. While he was an oidor, he was denounced for possessing forbidden books. While in Spain in 1752, Rivadeneira published El Pasatiempo, for the use of Ex.mo Señor Carvajal and Lancaster, a history of the world from creation to Fernando VI in three volumes. This long didactic and religious poem was an effort to obtain a position, and Beristain, perhaps not knowing of the payment of 13,000 pesos by Rivadeneira, considered his first appointment of audience due to the sponsorship of José de Carvajal. As a prosecutor in 1755, Rivadeneira wrote the Handbook compendium of the Indian Board of Trustees which traced the royal patronage to the Book of Genesis , an achievement for which the Crown gave him 4000 pesos. He also wrote the Defense of Royal Jurisdiction in 1763, the remarkable newspaper of His Excellency Marquise de las Amarillas and the draft of the protest sent to Spain by the City Council of Mexico City in 1771 on a claim of appointments for Americans.

Condition:

Missing some of spine label, small crack along the heal font hinge, spine ends chipped light rubbing to extremities with the corners rubbed through, internally very nice over all a very good copy.