Posthumous Poems
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1714
DE LA CRUZ, Sor Juana Inés (1651-1695)‏. Fama, y obras posthumas del fenix de México, dézima musa, poetisa Americana, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Madrid: Antonio Gonçalez de Reyes, 1714.

Early issue of the posthumous poems of Sor Juana, the "Mexican Phoenix." Sor Juana was a Mexican philosopher, poet, book collector, and nun who contributed to the Spanish Golden Age. The illegitimate daughter of a Spanish captain, Juana grew up in her maternal grandfather's hacienda among his considerable library. Eschewing marriage, she entered a Hieronymite convent in 1669. Skilled in both Latin and Nahuatl as well as theology and logic, her radical thinking on church hierarchy and women's roles caused the Catholic Church to publish a letter in 1690 demanding that she focus on prayer rather than philosophy. She was eventually forced to sell her extensive library of some 4,000 volumes as well as her musical and scientific instruments. Plague struck her convent in April 1695, and Sor Juana was among the many victims. This work was first printed in Madrid in 1700 by Manuel Ruiz de Murga. According to Sabin, it is sometimes found as vol. III of the three-volume Poemas edition by the same publisher, also printed in 1714. Sabin 17733 & 17735 (three-vol. Poemas ed.).

Quarto (206 x 149mm). Occasional paper toning and spotting. Contemporary limp sheep parchment, ink titling on spine (darkened, corners worn; Zambrano library label on back pastedowns). Provenance: Pio Salinas (old ownership signatures on back endpapers).