Papeles de Nueva Espana. Segunda Serie. Geografia y Estadistica. Tomo I

332+xi pages with index. Royal Octavo (9 1/2" x 7"). Issued in original wrappers. Volume one, Relaciones Geograficas de la Diocesis de Tlaxcala. Manuscript 2.800 of the National Library of Madrid. First Edition.

Modern scholarship continues to be deeply indebted to the labors of Francisco del Paso y Troncoso, less for any extended completed studies or synthesis than for a lifetime of collecting historical materials of the greatest importance to continuing investigation. His activities in Europe during the 23 years he spent searching out, copying and preparing for publication a vast store of prime documentary materials for the pre-Conquest and colonial history of Mexico have been abundantly documented. Paso y Troncoso saw his prime mission as twofold. First, he proposed to gather and publish as complete a corpus of Sahagun documents as possible. His interest in the great Franciscan had stemmed from the days when Paso y Troncoso as a young man had helped Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta prepare the latter's Bibliografia mexicana del siglo XVI. Second, he expected to copy documentary source materials related to colonial Mexico, an elaborate group of varied papers which he generically called "Papeles de Nueva Espana." In a letter from Madrid, Paso y Troncoso outlined to the Secretary of Public Instruction his views and plans for the "Papeles de Nueva Espana". He mentioned that for various reasons the material had he had compiled for publication under that general title should be divided into series, each according to the class of data it contained. Each series would begin with a volume 1, and subsequent volumes would include similar documents, rather than being only a single series with diverse materials. Various circumstances frustrated Paso y Troncoso's dream of putting numerous volumes of several series each of the PNE into print. He published four relatively complete volumes, and two partial volumes, of Series 2. "Geography and Statistics." Complete were volumes 1, 4, 5, 6 and partially complete were volumes 3 and 7. At Paso y Troncoso's death various works were in the printing houses of Spain. Most of these volumes seem to have been lost or dispersed. Only volume 1 of series was published, Salazar's Cronica de Nueva Espana. Several later hands have dipped into the mass of material Paso y Troncoso compiled for PNE and have utilized his transcripts or copies for publication.

Condition:

Spine and edges sunned, edge wear with some small tears, front heal hinge beginning to tear, unread else about very good.