EARLY BUENOS AIRES PRINTING

San Alberto, José Antonio de (O.C.D.): Voces del Pastor en el retiro. Dispertador, y exercicios espirituales, para vivir y morir bien con la asistencia del glorioso patriarca San Joseph, que dirige a todos sus feligreses el ilustrisimo señor D. Fr. Joseph Antonio de San Alberto, Arzobispo de la Plata. Buenos-Ayres. Con el Superior permiso del Exemo. Señor Virrey Marquès de Loreto. En la Real Imprenta de los Niños Expositos 1789.

First edition, second issue (cf. Furlong) of this famed spiritual vade mecum, which was subsequently reprinted, in Spain, several times. It includes (186-190) a set of seven prayers to St. Joseph for a good death, with antiphonal and further prayer. Pages 190-273 comprise a further nine-day programme of meditation and prayer for a good death. The author (1727-1804), a native of Aragòn, was archbishop of the province of Rio de la Plata (presently the archdiocese of Sucre in Bolivia). An early publication from Buenos Aires, where the first press, the Imprenta de los Niños Expositos, was only set up in 1780.

An interesting copy, fol. V1 (151-2) has it appears a cancellation slit, and has a contemporary signature at foot of recto (?Thomas Bustos) that would seem to relate to this (an instruction or authorisation?) Examination of the two copies in the British Library, the JCB copy (digitised at archive.org), and the copy digitised at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (cf. OCLC) shows fol. V1 in these other examples to be the same printed leaf as we have.

Details

4to., pp. [2] 275 [3]. Occasional wax stains. E.p's loosening, final leaf also loosening, and with stain. Otherwise good, bound in contemporary mottled (?)sheep, worn and stained, with cracking to hinges, but not in need of repair. Some traces of paper affixed with sealing wax to front pastedown, f.f.e.p. recto with notes from 1890s, verso of title-page with earlier MS medical receipt.

CCPB000148297-1. Palau 289516. Sabin 75981. Furlong 338. Medina 'Rio de la Plata' 116.