HISTORIA URBANA DEL REINO DE CHILE.

Santiago, Chile: Editorial Andres Bello, (1978)., (1978).. Very good. - Quarto, 12-1/4 inches high by 9-1/4 inches wide. Natural buff buckram titled in gilt on the front cover & the spine, in a color pictorial blue dust wrapper. The dust jacket is rubbed with wear to the corners and head & tail of the spine. There is some slight foxing and minor staining to the top edge of the book. 509 pages including a 76 page bibliography. Profusely illustrated in black & white throughout. There is a light vertical crease and minor faint foxing to the rear endpaper. Very good.

First edition, limited to 2,000 copies.

N.B.: The text is in Spanish.

Although not indicated in any way, this book was purchased from the Vermont estate of the great Chilean concert pianist Claudio Arrau.

The author, Father Gabriel Guarda, is regarded as a pioneer in the field of urban history studies in Chile. Following the release of his work "Historia de Valdivia: 1552-1952", he went on to publish numerous articles and papers on colonial urban planning which culminated in his publication of "Historia Urbana del Reino de Chile".

"A quarter century of ransacking archives and libraries and the steady enlargement of the theme through writing and reflection underpin this truly remarkable study of the cities of colonial Chile by Gabriel Guarda. His previous, well-known inquiries into the origins and Spanish use of the grid plan for urban layout, the historical and archaeological examination of the cities abandoned after the great Araucanian uprising of 1598, and the surge in urban development of the eighteenth century are all incorporated into a monumental study. Through the lenses of its cities in what was a colony arranged around cities, the entire social and economic history of colonial Chile is given new focus and vision." .... "Guarda's analysis and exposition are of a thoroughness and subtlety that one hopes for in a work so long in design and execution. He examines the types of streets, squares, roads, building lots, and the buildings erected thereon, finding one set of stone and adobe in the center, and a unique adaptation to the colder climate and readily available supply of lumber in the south. His discussion of urban layout is based, town by town, upon plans and the results of archaeological excavations for the southern cities, even to the Dutch report of 1643...." [Quoted from Woodrow Borah's article in the "Hispanic American Historical Review" (1981)].

RARE.