Palou, Francisco:

$20,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

RELACION HISTORICA DE LA VIDA Y APOSTOLICAS TAREAS DEL VENERABLE PADRE FRAY JUNIPERO SERRA, Y DE LAS MISIONES QUE FUNDO EN LA CALIFORNIA SEPTENTRIONAL, Y NUEVOS ESTABLECIMIENTOS DE ... First edition, second issue, with "Mar Pacifico" printed on the map (see Wagner). This is also the issue with the phrase "a expensas de various bienhechores" preceding the imprint on the titlepage. An outstanding book on early California. Cowan, in the 1914 edition of his bibliography, calls this "the most famous and the most extensive of the early works that relate to Upper California." Palou was a disciple of Father Junipero Serra for many years, and his work is still the principal source for the life of the venerable founder of the California missions. "The letters from Father Serra to Father Palou [provide] interesting details on the various Indian tribes and their manners and customs, together with descriptions of the country....This work has been called the most noted of all books relating to California" - Hill. "Both a splendid discourse on the California missions, their foundation and management, and an intimate and sympathetic biography of the little father-present. Better, by long odds, than the bulk of lives of holy men, written by holy men" - LIBROS CALIFORNIANOS. "[The map] is of interest here because it seems to be the first on which a boundary line was drawn between Lower and Upper California" - Wheat. The map shows the locations of nine missions (of an ultimate total of twenty-o

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