Lot 166
Bullfighting, Peru--Razon de los toros
Auction: 16 May 2008 at 12:00 BST
Description
que sehan de lidiar en la plaza mayor de esta ciudad de Lima el dia 25 de Enero de 1785. En celebracion del recibimento del Exmo. Señor Don Theodoro, de Croix. [Lima, 1785], 4to, (210 x 155mm.), [4]pp., small woodcut of a bull with a matador, paper with the watermark of a bull, uncut, small tear at fold (not affecting text)
Footnote
Note: This is one of several bull fights organised to welcome to Lima Teodoro de Croix, the viceroy of Peru from 1784 to 1790, an important figure in the history of New Spain at this time. The pamphlet contains an eight-line poem on bull fighting followed by a list of the participating bulls, giving the name of the bull and its breeder, together with the colours of the "divisa" each bull wears.
The watermark of a bull was probably originally accompanied (on the other half of the folio sheet) by one of a picador. It seems that most paper watermarked thus was produced in Palermo or Genoa for the Spanish market. The present example does not match closely any of those described by Heawood.
Medina, La imprenta en Lima 1436 gives a listing of these bull-fighting pamphlets from 1777 to 1787.