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LAS CASAS, Bartolomé de, Bishop of Chiapa (1484-15

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8 parts in 2 volumes, comprising; VOLUME I with 5 Tracts, 8vo (193 x 136 mm). 17th-century speckled calf, gilt title to spine, red and green speckled edges; morocco folding case. Provenance: "Fletcher"Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653-1716), his signature ("Fletcher") on lower pastedown; This volume, sale Sothebys London, June 23 1988, lot 195, £9,500 ($16,800). Acquisition: purchased from Librairie Thomas-Scheler. [No. 4]. Tratado co[m]probatorio del Imperio soberano. que los Reyes de Castilla y Leon tienen sobre las indias. Seville: Sebastian Trugillo, 1553. [80] ff. including final blank. Gothic type. Title in red and black below woodcut arms of Spain, within four-part woodcut border, woodcut initials. "The purpose of this tract is `to prove the sovereign empire and universal dominion by which the kings of Castile and Leon hold the West Indies'" (Church). European Americana 553/19; Sabin 11231; Church 96; Field, Essay towards an Indian Bibliography 869; Medina, Biblioteca Hispano-Americana 156. [No. 7]. Aqui se contiene una disputa. entre el Obispo. Bartholome de las Casas . y el doctor Gines de Sepulveda. Seville: Trugillo, 1552. [62] ff. including final blank. Title in red and black within four-part woodcut border incorporating the arms of Spain, from Cromberger's stock (the same blocks used in tract 2). first issue, with last line of title reading "An[n]o 1552". Contains Domingo de Soto's account of the controversy between Las Casas and Gines Sepulveda, who argued against the personal rights of the heathen Indians. European Americana 552/13; Sabin 11234; Church 91; Field 865; Medina BHA 147. [No. 2]. Entre los remedies que don fray Bartolome delas Casas. refirio por mandado del Emperador . para reformacion de las Indias. Seville : Jacome Cromberger, 1552. [54] ff. including final blank. Title in red and black within four-part woodcut border incorporating the arms of Spain (same blocks as those used in tract 7). (Trace of dampstaining in quires c-3, short marginal tear in gutter of g1.) "Assigns twenty reasons to prove that the Indians should not be given to the Spaniards in any form of slavery" (Church). European Americana 552/9; Sabin 11229; Church 89; Field 862; Medina BHA 146. [No. 1]. Brevissima relacion de la destruyción de las Indias. Seville: Trugillo, 1552. [54] ff. Title in red and black below woodcut arms of Spain & within four-part woodcut border, woodcut initials. "The Brevissima relacion remains today almost unparalleled in the vigor of its composition and the nobility of its design. The work is divided into nineteen Articles, each portraying in detail the condition of the Indians, in one of the provinces of Spanish America. "(Field, p. 217). The four leaves at end (quire g), with drop-title Lo que se sigue es un pedaço de una carta y relacion, often catalogued separately, contain a fragment of an eye-witness account of terrible atrocities committed by the Spanish. European Americana 552/8; Sabin 11227-8; Church 87-88; Field 860-861; Medina BHA 151. [No.5]. Aqui se co[n]tiene[n] unos avisos y reglas para los confessores q[ue] oyeren confessines de los Espanoles qui son o han sido en cargo a los Indios de las Indias del mar Oceano. Seville: Trugillo, 1552. [16] ff. Title with small cut of a penitent with his confessor, within four-part woodcut border. Contains the 12 rules that Las Casas had written in 1546 or 1547 for confessors, in which all offices of the church were to be denied to all those who held Indians as slaves. European Americana 552/11; Sabin 11232; Church 90; Field 860-861; Medina BHA 148. VOLUME II with 3 tracts, 8vo (192 x 131 mm). 20th-century polished calf by Lobstein-Laurenchet, sides and spine gilt-ruled, gilt edges; morocco folding case. [No. 3]. Este es un tratado. sobre la material de los Yndios que se han hecho en ellas esclavos. Seville : Trugillo, 1552. [36] ff., final page blank. Title in red & black within four-part woodcut border, woodcut initials. Several early marginal ms. corrections, rules & pointing fingers in brown ink in first work (b7r, c1r, d8v, and d9v). Contains judicial precedents and logical reasons supporting the argument that the South American natives should be freed from slavery. European Americana 552/10; Sabin 11230; Church 93; Field 866; Medina BHA 149. [No. 6]. Acqui se co[n]tiene[n] treynta proposiciones muy juridicas, en las quales toca[n] muchas cosas pertenecie[n[tes al derecho. sobre los infieles de qual quier especie que sean. Seville : Trugillo, 1552. [10] ff. Title in red & black within four-part woodcut border, woodcut initials (upper border cut of title just shaved). These "thirty propositions" buttress the twelve rules that Las Casas had written for confessors in his diocese regarding the bestowing of absolution, which was refused, by a Bull of Pope Paul III, to all those who held Indians as slaves. This, and the rule that all property obtained by violence from the natives must be returned to them, had met with complaints, to which Las Casas responds here. European Americana 552/12; Sabin 11233; Church 94; Field 867; Medina, BHA 148. [No. 8]. Principia quaeda[m] ex quibus procedendum est in disputatione ad manifestandam et defendendam justiciam Yndorum. [drop-title]. Seville : Sebastian Trugillo, [1552?]. [10] ff. Caption title in red & black. Condition: repair to lower gutter of final leaf of last tract with five words wholly or partly in facsimile. Sets forth "certain principles to be established in disputations regarding the government and defense of the Indians," "in an attempt to familiarize the minds of the clergy with the principles upon which he based his whole theory of the right of the Indians to person and property" (Field, p. 218). European Americana 552/15; Sabin 11235; Church 95; Field 868; Medina, BHA 152. first editions. The Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas, "apostle of the Indians," campaigned throughout his life for better treatment by the Spanish conquerors of the indigenous American populations. In these tracts, written from the 1540s to 1553, and often referred to under the title of the first tract (Brevissima relacion de la destruyción de las Indias), he set forth his views on the essential humanity of indigenous South Americans, recapitulating and consolidating his past arguments for better treatment of the Indians. Las Casas' tracts contain vivid descriptions of the extent and nature of the abuses suffered by the native South Americans at the hands of the Europeans, and they are in many cases the only source of our knowledge of this period of Spanish rule. His accounts of the atrocities wrought by the Spanish on the native Americans have rarely been questioned, and were unchallenged by even his most virulent opponents. The above eight tracts are variously ordered and traditionally counted as nine, with the four-leaf appendix to the Brevissima relacion erroneously counted as a separate pamphlet. We follow Sabin's order above. full runs of las casas' indian tracts are of the greatest rarity and even individual tracts are scarcely encountered in such condition.

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