A Natural and Civil History of California

London: Rivington and Fletcher, 1759. First Edition. Fine. 2 vol. First in English of the foundational book on California, preceded only by the 1757 edition in Spanish from which it was translated. The natural history in this book is interesting, but it is the civil (political) history herein that is both valued and timeless because it is from the only first hand sources. Contemporary calf, a single penny sized worn spot to front free endpaper and a nick to one spine tip, but this is otherwise an extraordinary set in fine condition, never rebacked and without any repair, tighter than the sea and the shore, and smoother than a cube of ice, and other sets called fine, are called so in descriptions spun out of the air like cotton candy by those who have never seen a set like this one. Complete with all 8 copper plate illustrations and the folding map, the first widely distributed map in an English book to accurately depict California as a peninsula rather than an island—confirming the continental connection definitively established by Father Consag's landmark 1746 expedition. Old half calf case. Not a scarce book, despite ridiculous characterizations of it as scare, or rare, by booksellers either out of touch with reality or so pompous that they think no one will verify their claims, but a set like ours is of serious rarity in this condition. If you want the finest, here it is. Half morocco box. Miguel Venegas, a Jesuit administrator and historian born in Puebla, New Spain, wrote the original Spanish text upon which this English translation is based. Though Venegas never personally visited California due to health problems, he meticulously gathered information by corresponding with Jesuit missionaries and accessing their extensive archives. His original 600-page manuscript, completed in 1739, was initially shelved for a decade due to concerns about its sensitive military details regarding California's defenses. It was eventually revised by another Jesuit scholar, Andrés Marcos Burriel, who updated and restructured it before its 1757 publication in Madrid. This 1759 English translation quickly established itself as the standard reference on early California, giving the English-speaking world its first thorough account of the region.

The exceptional value of this work lies in the political history derived from firsthand Jesuit sources. Venegas collected his data from missionaries who established seventeen missions in Lower California between 1683 and 1746, maintaining fourteen of them until their expulsion. The book is organized into sections covering geography, native inhabitants, early Spanish colonization attempts, and the Jesuit missionary enterprise. Spanish King Carlos III, falsely informed that Jesuits were hoarding treasure rightfully belonging to the crown, ordered their expulsion from the New World in 1768, after which the Franciscans under Junípero Serra assumed control of the missions. This political transition marked the beginning of administrative changes that would eventually separate the California territories – with the peninsula becoming known as Baja (Lower) or Antigua (Old) California, while the northern territories from San Diego beyond were designated Alta (Upper) or Nueva (New) California until their formal administrative separation in 1804. (Inventory #: 1160)