Del Hijo de David mas perseguido Jesu Christo Senor Nuestro
C. W. Miller gifted this book, Del Hijo de David mas perseguido Jesu Christo Senor Nuestro, to Trinity in 1953. At the time of the donation, Trinity’s librarian appraised its value at $10. It is the first volume of three and the only one present in the C.W. Miller collection. The title roughly translates to “Of the most persecuted Son of David, Jesus Christ, Our Lord,” indicating that it is a Catholic text published at the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Spain. Cristóbal Lozano, the author, was a devout Catholic and doctor of theology, eventually becoming a priest. He finalized the publication of this book in 1650, the second part in 1659, and the final part in 1661. These books are considered his most important work and what led to his fame. All three were published en la imprenta de (in the printing house of) Juan de Ariztia in Madrid, Spain.
Conditions and Alterations
From 1716 to 2024
This book, printed in 1716, reveals much to us about the nature of printing in this era. It was expensive and labor-intensive to print a book, and the cost and relative scarcity of materials meant that if a book did not come out perfectly, the printer would use ink blots and ‘patches’ made from recycled book pages to fix mistakes. We can see such fixes throughout this book. Additionally, nubs of thread can be found on the opposite sides of the front and back covers, which the bookbinder used to tie the book together because vellum covers would shrink over time. Binders also used ties like this to keep low-quality, hand-bound books together.
There are also more modern contributions to the condition and alteration of the book. Flipping through the pages, you might notice handwritten notes in English, random numbers, and even a math equation written inside this book! All of this more ‘modern-looking’ writing is in pencil, and it is possible that Trinity’s archivist or a previous owner made these notes. It also appears that there was a more recent attempt to repair one side of the back cover with blue paper.
