Torquemada, Juan de (Johannes de Turrecremata)

Volumes I and III only, from two different sets. 
Vol. I: 11 1/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 283 x 185 mm. Lacking 8 of the 15 preliminary unsigned leaves (including engraved title), and 11 unumbered last leaves (Ggg5-8, Hhh-KKK2, Lll1). The text is complete. Numerous annotations from several hands, uniformly browned, some leaves trimmed short, foxing and dampstaining, Q7 with antic restoration and tear, large tear on kk2, qq4-5 partially detached, and trimmed very short, affecting text, wormholes. 
Vol. III: 10 7/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 278 x 197 mm. Lacking first unsigned leaf (engraved title). Marginal contemporary annotations. Dampstain on the first and last quires, wormholes, last leaves with lacks affecting text. 
Both volumes have the complete text and are bound in contemporary vellum. 

Francisco Plancarte, Obispo de Campeche (ink seal on first blank)

JCB (3) 2: 109 - Sabin, 96213 - Medina (BHA), 634

First edition of the utmost rarity.

La Monarquia Indiana is considered as one of the great colonial monuments in the ethnohistory of Middle America. 

The first volume comprises five books which principally treat of the creation of the world and the origin of the peoples who occupied New Spain (I, II), as well as the diverse nations constituting the Aztec Empire (III), followed by its conquest by the Spanish (IV) and its subsequent re-organisation (V). To the second volume were assigned nine books which deal with the religion (VI-X), government (XI), laws (XII), institutions (XIII) and social and military life of the indigenous peoples together with remarks on various geographical features and their cultural relevance (XIV). The subject of the seven books which constitute the third volume is the evangelisation of the Indians, with particular focus (especially in the last three books) upon the life, work and fate of Franciscan missionaries.

The main focus is on the history and culture of the peoples of what is now central Mexico, with particular attention given to Texcoco, Azcapotzalco, Tlaxcala, Tlatelolco, and Tenochtitlan as well as the Totonacs living further east, towards the Gulf of Mexico. Nevertheless, the work also includes among its subjects other people living in Central America (Honduras and Guatemala), in the Caribbean, and in North and South America (specifically: Florida, New Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, the Andean civilizations, and even parts of Brasil).

Torquemada describes the 1576 epidemic in New Spain in the following terms:
"In the year 1576 a great mortality and pestilence that lasted for more than a year overcame the Indians. It was so big that it ruined and destroyed almost the entire land. The place we know as New Spain was left almost empty." He reported that two million, mostly indigenous, people died, according to a survey conducted by Viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.

According to Nicolás Rodríguez Franco, publisher of the second edition in 1723, almost all copies of the first edition disappeared in a shipwreck.
Of the utmost rarity, we have been able to locate only one copy (complete or incomplete) sold at auction (Streeter copy - lacking the 3 engraved title-pages, replaced by drawing facsimiles - October 25, 1966, lot 132, sold for $13,000 - 6th highest price of the sale) and only 8 copies in public institutions, among which only 5 are complete.