La Gimnasia en Jardines y Habitaciones: ó Higene de los Ejercicios Razionados, sin Necesidad de Aparejos

Madrid: Saturnino Calleja Fernandez, 1900. First edition of this Spanish pocket guide to health and fitness, part of Saturnino Calleja Fernández's "Biblioteca Popular" series. The book offers a visual introduction to calisthenics, featuring dynamic illustrations in which dotted lines indicate movements of the limbs. The prescribed exercises require no equipment, and can be performed anywhere, at any time: "Nuestro sistema, por tanto, carece de aparejos, puesto que cada uno los lleva consigo, pudiendo ejercitarse sin fatiga á la hora que mejor parezca y en el sitio que más convenga." The colorful cover, featuring a muscular woman hoisting a dumbbell and boys swinging from a trapeze, is therefore misleading, but the graphic appeal of this little book is characteristic of the ephemeral educational works for which Saturnino Calleja Fernández was known: the Madrid publisher issued enormous runs of inexpensive, portable volumes to schools, playing a particularly important role in impoverished areas of Spain. OCLC lists only one institutional holding, at El Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte, Madrid. A near-fine survival. Single volume, measuring 4.5 x 3 inches: [7], 8-126, [2]. Original color pictorial lithographed boards; rear cover with elaborate publisher's device; spine titled in black with decorative border. Wood-engraved headpiece to preface, forty-one photoengraved black line drawings. Light toning and edgewear.