PBA Galleries

[ii], 37, [1] pp. Woodcut printers device on title page. (Small folio) 27.3x18.3 cm (10¾x7¼") modern full marbled sheep, lettered in gilt on front. First Edition.

Signed in type at the close: 'Real Presidio de S. Carlos de Monterrey 1. de Junio de 1779 - Felipe de Neve." Exceedingly rare first edition of the first printed laws governing Upper California. Henry Wagner notes that "Alta California continued to be governed under this Reglamento until the American occupation, and in fact it was in use until 1850." (Zamorano 80). Cowan describes the work as "the earliest collection of decrees and ordinances prepared for the government of Upper California" and notes that "Copies of the original are of excessive rarity” (Cowan I, pp. 186-87). Felipe de Neve, was appointed provincial governor of the Californias in 1775, and maintained his seat of government at the capital of Loreto. In 1776, Neve was ordered to transfer his governorship to Monterey, in what was the first political division of California. With Alta California an expanding province, already home to eight missions and three military presidios, Neve sought to tighten his control and lessen ongoing conflict with ecclesiastical authorities by the issuing of this series of regulations for the province. The 'Reglamentos' dealt with reform within the presidios, and issues of defense as well as local governments, agricultural regulation, land titles, anti-corruption measures, the reduction of missionaries, etc. Copies of this first edition are exceedingly rare, later editions included a limited Spanish edition published in Santa Clara in 1874, and a bilingual edition printed in San Francisco in 1929. The present is only the second to appear at auction since the Streeter copy in 1968 though the Streeter copy has crossed the block twice more since then, once in 1994 as the John Howell-Thomas W. Streeter-Warren R. Howell-Henry H. Clifford copy and again in 2003 with the provenance of Daniel G. Volkmann added. A second copy sold at a February 2015 auction. This copy with 'No. 25' in a contemporary hand in ink at the head of the title page and the leaves are numbered by hand in the upper corner. From a private collection.