The Founding of the California Missions; Under the Spiritual Guidance of the Venerable Padre Junípero Serra
San Francisco: Printed at the Nueva California Press, 1934. Limited edition. Quarto (11 1/4 inches tall), original gray paper boards with printed paper labels, uncut, original dust jacket. Bookseller's ticket. Fine book partially unopened, early owner signature, modest creasing to top margins of slightly toned dust jacket. About-fine. Item #1096
"THE CHARACTER AND DOINGS OF THE MAN WHOSE LIFE WORK WAS THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF CALIFORNIA"
Limited Memorial Edition of Fray Francisco Palou's contemporary account of the 1769 expedition of Junípero Serra and his companions—a "tribute to the Founder of the Missions of California on the 150th anniversary of his death at Carmel Mission. A complete copy of an important book in excellent condition.
This edition is published with a frontispiece portrait of Serra and a short Introduction by editor Watson emphasizing the importance of Francisco Palóu in California's history: "To San Franciscans the biographer of Junípero Serra should be doubly dear, for he was not only the founder and pastor of Mission Dolores...from its beginnings, October 4, 1776 until July 1785; but while serving as its spiritual head he found time to write two books; La Vida de Junípero Serra and Las Noticias de Californias which are the sources of much of the early history of this state." First published in Mexico City in 1789, the text of Palou's Life of Junípero Serra is composed of four books and concludes with a double-page Spanish map of the Californias (1787), preceding the Entry of Serra's Death, inscribed by Fray Francisco Palóu in the Book of the Dead at Carmel Mission when Serra died in August 1784. "The Apostle of California" was canonized by Pope Francis at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in September 2015. Francis J. Weber. A Select Guide to California Catholic History, 61-62.
Price: $200.00