PBA Galleries

[xxviii], 344 pp. Copperplate engraved portrait; folding map at rear. (4to) 7¾x5¾", original full vellum, inked spine title, leather ties. House in a custom chemise and slipcase. First edition, second issue (with "pro" catchword at end of index).

Biography of Father Serra, founder of the California missions, by his companion, devoted friend and fellow Mallorcan Paloú. Noted by Howes as the "most extensive early work on Upper California." Hill remarks that "the letters from Father Serra to Father Paloú, which chiefly make up this volume, give not only an account of the founding of the California missions, but interesting details of the various Indian tribes and their manners and customs, together with descriptions of the country." This copy with the second issue of the map, containing the words "Mar Pacifico" (with a short stub tear and a few short tears to margins). The title page bears the imprint "a expensas de Don Miguel Gonzalez Calderon Sindico de Dicho Apostolico Colegio." Cowan, p.472; Graff 3179; Hill, Pacific Voyages, pp.220-21; Howes P56; Zamorano 80, 59. Provenance: The Irving W. Robbins, Jr. copy, previously sold by PBA Galleries in March, 1996 (Mr. Robbins has added a pencil note to the front free endpaper "Copy like this, the best I've seen.")