Item #5543 Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa. Thomas SERRANO.
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa
A FESTIVAL BOOK FROM VALENCIA
WITH FINE ENGRAVINGS OF THE CELEBRATIONS
PRINTED BY A WOMAN
Valencia, La viuda de Joseph de Orga, 1762.

Fiestas seculares, con que la coronada ciudad de Valencia celebró el feliz cumplimiento del tercer siglo de la canonizacion de su esclarecido hijo, y angel protector S. Vicente Ferrer, Apostol de Europa.

4to [20.1 x 14.9 cm], (17) ff. (including engraved frontispiece), 452 pp., (2) ff. folding engraved plates, with (10) finely engraved headpiece vignettes, woodcut initials, and woodcut tailpieces. Bound in contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine, red and blue mottled edges. Minor rubbing to spine and covers, headband and tailband loose. Minor mend to the half title, occasional minor spotting, toning in a few quires, a worm track in the inner margin of pp. 349-433, old mends to the naumachia folding plate. Generally good.

Rare first edition of an illustrated festival book describing the celebration in Valencia of the 300th anniversary of the canonization of St. Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419), the Dominican friar and native of Valencia acclaimed for his missionary work, his application of logic to theology, and his efforts to end the Western Schism (1378-1418). The Jesuit Thomas Serrano’s (1715-84) Fiestas seculares presents a full written account of the festivities, detailing the genesis of the event, providing a block-by-block account of decorations, and describing both sacred ceremonies and secular merriment. 

Serrano’s text is enlivened by a series of fine engravings, including a full-page allegorical frontispiece treating Ferrer’s sainthood (with a view of Valencia) and 10 headpiece vignettes – all engraved by the local artist Vicente Galcerán y Alapont (1726-88) after the designs of the painter Jose Vergara (1726-99) – which illustrate a scene from Ferrer’s life, portray the city council entrusted with staging the festivities, record principal façades and views of the city, and depict various events from the celebration (the solemn Mass, a procession of Ferrer’s cult statue, notable citizens parading on horseback, and a sort of terrestrial naumachia, with horse-carts disguised as ships engaged in a musket battle between Christians and Turks). Two folding engravings by Carlos Francia record the house of Joaquin Valeriola y Proxita (fabulously decorated with 7698 lanterns, innumerable mirrors, shrines, and façade paintings) and a vast naumachia in progress in the Turia River, the cityscape of Valencia in the background.

The book was published by Antonia Gómez de Orga (1715-1780), an important eighteenth-century Spanish printer. She learned the craft from her father, the printer Manuel Gómez, and later established a printing press in Madrid with her husband Joseph de Orga. The husband-and-wife team ran a number of important publications, including Mercurio Histórico y Político--the foremost Spanish newspaper at the time. Upon Joseph's untimely death in 1756, Antonia, burdened by debt, returned to her native Valencia, where she founded a new printing press. Specializing in prints, Latin classics, Golden-Age authors, as well as popular comedies, the firm quickly became a success. All in all, Antonia printed 270 works before her death in 1780, passing the business on to her sons.

OCLC locates U.S. copies of the Fiestas seculares at Texas, Illinois, Michigan, and Iowa.

*Palau 310499; Agilar Pinal, Bib. S. XVIII, vol. 7, p. 4810; Bénézit, vol. 4, p. 587, and vol. 10, p. 451; https://iemasd.wordpress.com/2016/11/05/antonia-gomez-de-orga-el-nobilissim-art-dimprimir-valencia-ca-1715-1780/.

Price: $2,850.00

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