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Author: Orrio, Francisco Zavier Alexo de
Title: Solucion del Gran Problema Acerca de la Poblacion de Las Americas
Place Published: Mexico City
Publisher:Maria de Ribera
Date Published: 1763
Description:

[xliv], 72 pp. Large woodcut armorial device on first text leaf. (4to) 19x14 cm (7½x5½") period full vellum, spine lettered in an early hand. First Edition.

Howell describes the work as "An ingenious effort by a Jesuit philosopher to explain the contradictory evidence, as it appeared in the eighteenth century, regarding the origins of the human race in America, and its relation to accepted theological interpretation as opposed to scientific evidence and non-Christian mythology. The question of the origin of the American Indian had been of great concern to Spanish theologians from the early days of the conquest until well into the period of the Enlightenment, and Father Orrio's Solucion continued the tradition of thought that had developed from the great Las Casas-Sepulveda debates of the middle of the sixteenth century." A scarce work in the trade though well represented in institutional collections. The most recent copy to appear in auction records was 29 years ago. Medina, Mexico 4840; Palau 204612; Sabin 750.

Vellum soiled and rippled, chipped at upper corner of front cover, upper corner of front free endpaper chipped; outer margin of first text leaf trimmed to edge of text and illustration, blank strip of paper affixed to inner margin of same leaf, some light foxing within; very good.