Bartolomé de las Casas, 1552

The Third Indian Tract
Bartolomé de las Casas, 1552
CASAS, Bartolomé de las (1474-1566). Entre los remedios...para reformacio[n] de las Indias. Seville: J. Cromberger, 1552.

First edition of Las Casas' third Indian tract, assigning "twenty reasons to prove that the Indians should not be given to the Spaniards in any form of slavery" (Church). Las Casas' famous "Indian Tracts," the earliest report on the Spanish atrocities in the New World and the first to condemn them, was written in Spain in 1539, but its publication was forbidden until 1552. Las Casas, a son of one of Columbus's sailors, sailed with the governor, Nicolas de Ovando, to America in 1502. He was perhaps the first priest ordained in America. The above comprises the principal sources of information on South America and in particular the state of Indians at that time. "[The account] of Las Casas proved a most formidable weapon for any nation on ill terms with the Spaniards" (Field). Alden & Landis 552/9; Church 89; Field 881 (1699 English ed.); Palau y Dulcet 46942; Sabin 11229.

Quarto (187 x 132mm). Title printed in red and black, within woodcut border (without final blank leaf). 19th-century red morocco, boards and spine gilt (wear on spine and corners; Zambrano Library of Congress call number label on back flyleaf). Provenance: early underlining and marginal notes – Biblioteca de la Recoleta, La Paz, Bolivia (ownership stamps on woodcut border and title page verso, final page, and another leaf).