OBRAS DEL ILUSTRISSIMO, EXCELENTISSIMO, Y VENERABLE SIERVO DE DIOS DON JUAN DE PALAFOX Y MENDOZA...

Madrid, 1762.. Thirteen volumes bound in fifteen. [100],704; [67],581; [44],619; [8],536; [8],608; [16],632; [28],611; [36],632; [18],586; 40,586; [14],618; [8],525; [8],564; [8],651; [42],652pp., plus three engraved portraits. Woodcut titlepage vignettes, head- and tail- pieces, and initials. Large folio. Contemporary Spanish mottled calf, spines elaborately gilt, leather labels. Some rubbing to boards, slight worming and chipping to heads or tails of some spines. Occasional minor foxing, soiling, and marginal staining to text; closed vertical tear to titlepage of part two of second volume. Overall a most handsome, attractive, and sound set. A rare large-paper copy of the complete works - in almost 10,000 folio pages - of this notable theologian and Mexican missionary to the Indians, here collected in a noble edition. Palafox was the Bishop of Puebla (1640-1655) and the interim Archbishop of Mexico (1640-1642). He also held the post of the Viceroy of New Spain from June 10, 1642 to November 23, 1642. The long and fruitful career of Palafox makes him one of the foremost thinkers of 17th-century Spain. After his death there was a movement to make him a saint, but it was blocked by Jesuit opposition.

The present work is the second collected edition (the first was issued in 1659-1671) of Palafox's works, described by Palau as preferable by far because of its textual corrections and the beautiful typography. Sabin called it the "best edition." The set consists of thirteen volumes bound in fifteen (volumes two and three are each in two parts), with the engraved portrait of Palafox by Palomino after Velasquez and an engraved portrait of Carlos III by Gil in the first volume, and the last volume comprising the life of Palafox by Antonio Gonzalez Rosende, with the engraved portrait of Palafox bound after the preliminaries and opposite the first page of text. This is indeed a most handsome and substantial set in a wonderful contemporary binding, as massive and imposing as the theology contained within. PALAU 209561. MEDINA, BHA 4001. SABIN 58299.