Levanto, Leonardo:

$7,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

CATHECISMO DE LA DOCTRINA CHRISTIANA, EN LA LENGUA ZAAPOTECA. A particularly nice copy of this rare Zapotec catechism, the supposed second edition after the exceedingly rare first of 1766. Medina also discusses a supposed 1732 edition, but doubts its existence altogether. Appropriately originating from the press of the Biblioteca Palafoxiana, this work presents translations of prayers, the Ten Commandments, the Seven Deadly Sins, the Seven Virtues, the three Theological Virtues, the four Cardinal Virtues, the five Senses, the Act of Contrition, and more in addition to a bilingual Spanish-Zapotec catechism. Zapotec is one of the indigenous languages of Oaxaca, Mexico, a member of the Oto-Manguean language family, and was spoken by the builders of Monte Albán and Mitla."Fr. Leonardo Levanto [was] brother to Fr. Dionisio Levanto in blood, country, profession, honor, and doctrine. He came to America with his brother, and together they took the habit of St. Dominic in Oaxaca. He was a professor of theology and a Provincial in two provinces: one at San Hipolito de Oaxaca and the other at San Miguel y Santos Angeles de la Puebla" – Beristain.The number of books printed in Zapotec during the Mexican colonial era was much, much smaller than the number published in Nahuatl or even Otomi, and an early bilingual work in such pristine condition is rare indeed.

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