Viage de America a Roma de AMERICAS. Castro, Joseph de - 1745

Mexico: por la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, 1745. THIRD EDITION (1st ed. Madrid 1689; 2nd Mexico 1690.). Hardcover. Fine. Bound in 18th c. vellum, possibly re-cased at an early date. A fine copy with light wear to corners and a few margins, and a few trivial blemishes. With a woodcut title border and decorative borders to the text leaves throughout; a few of the borders very lightly shaved. Type-set acrostic poem on penultimate leaf. With a 19th c. private ownership stamp (dated 1881) Pedro Escobar y Cano, possibly the Durango jurist of that name. A marvelous and highly unusual first person verse travelogue by a Mexican Franciscan priest, who relates his journey from Zacatecas to Rome in the year 1687. De Castro was commissioned to represent the province of Zacatecas in the General Chapter of the Franciscan Order that was to take place on June 5, 1688 in Rome. De Castro recounts his journey overland through Mexico, by ship through the Caribbean, across the Atlantic to Spain, overland through Europe to his destination (Rome), and back by land and sea to Madrid, where he wrote his poem before returning to Mexico.

De Castro describes his European experiences through the lens of one born half a world away. His poem is no dry itinerary; it has the intimacy of a letter written to friends, which, in fact, is De Castro's intention, as he states explicitly in his poem. He tells us of the marvels and also the hardships of a trip that has ground him down (given the itinerary and the distances traveled, could it have done otherwise?).

De Castro recounts his amazement at marvels that have no equivalent in the Americas, such as the opulence of the Medici palace in Florence:

En el palacio de el Duque
quedé atónito y suspenso
de tanta riqueza junta,
puesta en salones diversos,
mesas de piedras preciosas
con los diamantes muy bellos
y finíssimos rubíes
y esmeraldas son arreo
de las bellas galerías
que de pinceles muy diestros
de estatuas, bronces y jaspes
son un admirable lleno.

And Saint Peter's in Rome. (How can you describe something that is difficult to comprehend?)

Entré al templo maquinoso,
pasmo de el entendimiento
¿Cómo será descrivirlo,
si es difícil entenderlo?
Pues para él cualquier volumen
fuera un escaso bosquexo.

But De Castro also recounts the numerous inconveniences, set-backs, and dangers that have always hindered travelers. He fell ill in Madrid, could only see Toledo from afar because the caravan leader took a circuitous route to avoid the tolls. They were forced to abandon their carriage in heavy rains because the wheels had become stuck in the mud. In France, he was denied entry to Perpignan despite his pleas (he wanted to rest and recover from another illness) but the French, who refused entry to all Spaniards, sent him off to the foreigners' hostel outside the walls. At the border of San Gil, the customs officials reviled him for being Spanish, mocked and spit on him, and dumped out all of his belongings, spoiling De Castro's souvenirs (relics and pilgrim badges).

The Poem and De Castro's Itinerary:

De Castro's "Journey from America to Rome" is a poetic narrative of 4,366 verses in octosyllabic romance meter. The text tells of the appointment of De Castro to represent the province of Zacatecas in the General Chapter, made June 5, 1688 in Rome. In Veracruz narrates the beginning of the trip on April 1, 1687 from San Luis Potosí. He recounts his passage through Mexico City and his way to the port where he will embark. He set sail for Cuba on the ship San Antonio on the 23rd September of the same year. He describes the 20-day journey through the Caribbean to Havana, where the navigators stayed about a month to repair some parts of the ship damaged by storms. On November 10, they set sail for Spain, and after almost seventy days they arrived at the island of Fayal, in the Azores, where they spend two days to stock up of water and food. They continue the journey and on January 21, 1688 they arrive in Cádiz. The intense wind prevents them from entering the bay, so they are forced to disembark in San Lúcar.

On February 15, after some difficulties with customs, he goes by land to Madrid, passing through Jerez, Seville, Ecija, Carmona, Córdoba, Andújar and Toledo. In Madrid he remains a few days in the Convent of San Francisco el Grande. Starting out at last for Rome, he passes through Alcalá, Guadalajara, Catalayud, Zaragoza, Lleida, Barcelona, and Girona. Arriving in France, he takes the route through Perpignan, Narbonne, Monpelier, and Avignon. In April he enters Italy, at Viani, and passes through Savoy, Turin, Milan, Plascencia, Parma, Modena, Bologna, Imola, Faenza, Forlí, Rimini, Pesaro, Ancona, in order to go to Loreto, where he spends a few days. Then he heads towards Assisi and later, on May 16, he arrives in Rome to fulfill his religious obligations.

After attending the meeting of the General Chapter, he pays a visit to Frascati and returns to Rome to prepare his return trip. On June 23 he leaves for L'Isola and Roussillon, visits Florence, Pisa and Livorno, where he takes a boat to go to Genoa. He continues the sea voyage passing through San Mauricio, San Remo, Nice, Nagaya and Marseille, where he takes up the land route. He goes to Toulouse, later to Bayonne, and there he rents horses to make the route of the Pyrenees. He enters Spain through Irún, passes through San Sebastián, Bilbao, Vitoria, Burgos, Valladolid and finally up to Madrid, the final point of the itinerary described in his 'Viaje' (although, of course, he really ends the trip with the return to Zacatecas).

About the publisher:

"When Hogal died in 1741, his widow, whose name is unknown, took ownership of the press, printing as "La Viuda de Don Joseph Bernardo de Hogal," and sometimes additionally as "Impressora del Real y Apostólico Tribunal de la Santa Cruzada" (Printer of the Royal and Apostolic Tribunal of the Holy Crusade). The number of Hogal's employees suggests that she would have been more of a business manager than a printer herself. However, she showed considerable initiative, printing Mexico's second periodical, Mercurio de México, and issuing numerous newssheets. She must also have shared Hogal's emphasis on quality, because the press produced its finest and most important books under her leadership.... Hogal's widow managed the press until her death in 1755." (Kelli Hansen, Mujeres de la Prensa: Women Printers in Colonial Mexico, 1600-1815, Exhibition Catalogue, Studies in the Book Arts, University of Texas at Austin, 2008, pp. 2-3 & 20).

The editions:

The first two editions are extremely rare. In the U.S., there is a copy of the 1689 edition at JCB; the 1690 is held at Yale. The third edition is less rare but still scarce. The book was published by the widow (name unknown) of the printer Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, who emigrated from Spain to Mexico in 1720, setting up his press a year later. For his wife's prolific activity, see "about the publisher" below. The imprint on the title page gives the publishing history: "Impresso en la Europa [i.e. Madrid]; y por su original reimpresso en Mexico: por Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio; y áhora nuevamente reimpresso [en Mexico] por la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal.