4to. [19.8 x 14.5 cm], (12) ff., 272 pp., (14) ff., 8 folding plates (that of the catafalque oversized & signed Francisco Gazan after Jos. Vives), and 1 printed in red and black. Bound in contemporary flexible vellum, title stenciled on spine in a neat hand. Ownership inscription of Juan Ant. de Figueras on front end leaf; some foxing and small, light waterstain on title and in upper margin of scattered leaves; some repairs to blank upper margin of approximately 15 leaves. Otherwise good.

Scarce first edition of this curious funeral books for Carlos II, King of Spain (1665-1700), the last Hapsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire, whose death triggered the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14). The volume is notable both for its 8 folding letterpress calligrams, its fine folding engraving of the King’s catafalque, and for its reference to American Indians, Jesuit missionaries in America, an earthquake at Lima, and tidal flooding in Cuba (European Americana, n. 227).

The funeral proceedings by the Jesuit Rocaberti and its typical encomiums for the deceased “Rex Hispanorum et Imperator Americae” dutifully recorded here, but the work is unusual in that some of the orations, laments, hymns and other literary texts are arrayed in calligrams, labyrinths and other graphically striking configurations (one of which is handsomely printed in red and black). For example, the text of a Latin distich Mors rapuit Carolum (“Death has taken Charles”) has been elaborately arranged in a diamond-shaped letterpress pattern.

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