The Mercurio Volante of Don Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora: The Mercurio Volante of Don Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora: An Account of the First Expedition of Don Diego De Vargas Into New Mexico in 1692

136 pages with 12 plates including frontispiece, folding map and index. Royal octavo (10" x 6 3/4") in vellum Over brown boards with gilt titles. Deckle edges. This is the Account of the First Expedition of Don Diego De Vargas Into New Mexico in 1692. This is the first modern printing and contains a facsimile of the "Noticia de la Recuperacion." Translated by Irving A Leonard. Publications of the Quivira Society volume III. Number 628 of the limited edition of six hundred sixty-five copies.

Sigüenza was born in Mexico City in 1645 the youngest of eight siblings. He was related to the famous baroque poet Luis de Góngora. He studied mathematics and astronomy under the direction of his father, a Peninsular who had been a tutor for the royal family in Spain. Sigüenza entered the Society of Jesus as a novice August 17, 1660, took simple vows August 15, 1662 at Tepotzotlán, and left the society (or was expelled) in 1667 or 1669. On July 20, 1672, he was named to the chair of mathematics and exact sciences at the University of Mexico and was ordained a priest the following year. He was chaplain of the Hospital del Amor de Dios (now Academia de San Carlos) from 1682 until his death. He was well-known in the colony as a man of science. He was also a poet, non-fiction writer, historian, philosopher, cartographer, and cosmographer. Such was his prestige that the French King Louis XIV tried to induce him to come to Paris. He published his first poem in 1662. In 1671 he published an almanac. In 1693, he published El Mercurio Volante, the first newspaper in New Spain. At the hospital he became a close friend of Juan de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, who put at his disposal a rich collection of documents of his ancestors, who included the historian Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl and the kings of Texcoco. In 1668, Sigüenza began the study of Aztec history and Toltec writing. On the death of Ixtlilxochitl he inherited the collection of documents, and devoted the later years of his life to the continuous study of Mexican history.

Condition:

Some darkening to and slight staining to spine else a very good copy.