Beschreibung:

mainly from illuminated Carta Executoria manuscripts, in Spanish, on paper and parchment [Mexico and Spain, sixteenth to eighteenth century] 13 large leaves (including 2 bifolia), including: (a) illuminated leaf with arms of the Alarcon family, with coronet, set within finely illuminated red border, text in liquid gold on blue, dated 1580 in Granada, 270 by 185mm.; (b) bifolium with 2 full-page miniatures of mounted knights on white steeds, in elaborate tackle, rearing up in mountainous landscapes, set within burgundy and purple borders with gold inscriptions, two coats of arms with 2nd miniature and that leaf protected with contemporary pink silk cover, gilt calligraphic inscription “Don Phelipe” on verso of last leaf, cockling across centre of leaves bringing slight smudging to 1st miniature, late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, 300 by 210mm.; (c) paper bifolium with text from a Carta Executoria, in fine calligraphic script with initials and bars opening text sections in elaborate Renaissance gilt on burgundy and purple grounds (2 very large initials), small damage to base of leaves with loss of a section of border, immediately after 1602, 345 by 240mm.; (d) 3 leaves, one with a compartmented miniature of the Virgin and Child surrounded by adoring noblemen and women, beneath a panel of realistic magpies and a dove, and above a portrait of the grantee of the arms between men with spears holding human heads and another dove and a raven, the other with the arms enclosed within a liquid gold inscription, and ornamental frame, flourishes of acanthus leaves and a helm, the third leaf with a large red panel enclosing a liquid gold inscription naming the original owner as “Miguel, Ivan, y Francsico de Noriega”, some scuffs to top and bottom of first miniature, erased face of kneeling knight within arms and small spots and smudges to both, late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, 303 by 209mm.; (e) 4 other pages of arms from paper and parchment Carta Executoria, two finely drawn and one quite crude, all seventeenth or eighteenth century, one with a page of calligraphic writing on reverse; plus a single leaf from an eighteenth-century line-drawn genealogical tree for the Sanchez family; all these probably cut from books and framed at one time From the library of a Michigan family, and in their possession for several decades. While some of these items may have been produced in Spain (see item a here), all share a provenance with the preceding and following lots, and it would seem likely that the majority of these leaves are from illuminated or illustrated manuscripts produced in Mexico itself. The inscriptions around the miniatures in item b address a “Capitan Pedro de Morla” and identify him as resident in “Ciu[da]d de Mex[i]co”, and the text of item c addresses a “Bernardo de Amaya” of the “Ciudad de Antequera del valle de Guaxaca (Oaxaca de Juárez, from the náhuatl name 'Huaxyacac')”, and note a public assembly held in Mexico City on 8 September 1602. The book production traditions of Europe, in particular the rich and opulent arts of illuminated manuscripts from the Iberian peninsula, were carried over to the New World after the conquest in the sixteenth century, and flourished there. Such manuscripts are of extreme rarity on the international market.