CASAS, BARTOLOMEW DE LAS Popery Truly Display'd in its Bloody Colours: Or, a Faithful Narrative of the Horrid and Unexampled Ma...
London: Printed for R. Hewson at the Crown in Cornhill, near the Stocks-Market. 1689. First English edition. Modern ruled calf in period style, the spine with gilt lettering and raised bands. 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches (19.5 x 13.5 cm); 4 leaves, 80 pp. Tissue strengthening to verso of the margin of the title and first leaf, ink pagination to the top right corners, paper flaw affecting headline of leaf A3, spotting mostly to margins and edges.

The English translation of Bartolomé de Las Casas' Brevissima Relacion, first published in 1552, which condemned atrocities reportedly committed by the Spanish in the New World. Printed for propaganda purposes, the text opens with a section titled "The Cruelties of the Spaniards in America" noting that "the Spaniards never received any injury from the Indians, but that they reverenced them as Persons descended from Heaven, until that they were compelled to take up Arms, provoked thereunto by repeated Injuries, violent Torments, and unjust Butcheries." The work is scarce: we note only two copies at auction in recent decades and few copies held institutionally. We trace this copy to MacManus, Catalogue 234, 1977, item 234.

C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation

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