Officia Propria Sanctorum Toletanae Ecclesia et Dioecesis

Madrid, 1790. Peter Marin. Small 4to. 224 pp. Bound in contemporary horsehide (?) -- on covers a flower tool has been impressed in gold to form a cross, in the outer edges a rope-work roll, at the corners the same flower tool, four raised bands on spine, in the compartments impressions in gold of the same flower tool; two pair of original catches and clasps affixed by nails (one indistinguishable replacement), all edges gilt, around edges of the textblock are 11 impressions of a 6-pointed star. Minor wear to binding, text clean and crisp. Preserved in a cloth box. FEASTS AND FESTIVALS in Toledo. It was suggested to us that this book was bound in Columbia, South America, where it had been (beautifully) preserved located since Colonial times. Be that as it may, the front and back pastedowns consist of printed Spanish Revenue Stamped paper: "Quarenta Maravedis / Sello Quarto, Quarenta Maravedis, Ano de Mil y Ochocientos Siete" (1806). Such documents would have been valid for one year only in Spain, after which time the document was unusable in any official capacity, and therefore of no value except as scrap paper. Our binding must date ca. 1807-1810. The provenance suggests that the book originated in Granada: on the verso is the contemporary inscription "Fr[atre] Fran[cisc]o Illorales" (presumably of Illora, Granda). ¶ Of particular veneration in Toledo was Saint Ildefonsus (607-667), Bishop of Toledo, whose Feast is celebrated on 23 January. El Greco's portrait of him is in the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad, Illescas, Toledo where it has been preserved, along with four other El Greco paintings, for more than 400 years. ¶ COMMENT: We are grateful to Farley Katz, Esq., for his kind assistance in the cataloguing of this item.