Kaaterskill Books

Mitre, Bartolomè.

Historia de Belgrano [Two Volumes].

Buenos Aires: Libreria de la Victoria / Impr. de Mayo, 1858-1859. 644 pp.; 553, 4 [ads] pp. Sm. 4to. Cloth. First edition. Very good copies with restored wrappers; Vol. I has nick to first few leaves, last few leaves unopened (uncut); Vol. II has publisher's error with earlier extra title (dated 1858) bound upside-down before half-title and also inserted correctly at rear; binding near fine. Palau 173451. Spain & Spanish America I, 459. Sabin 49758. Leclerc 1915. Conde Montero 25. Item #34899

Historia de Belgrano was the expansion of an article that originally appeared in Galeria, and it subsequetly went through four editions, the last in 1887, each one much augmented. "Mitre gathered and studied the books of America history, he submitted them to critical testing, he classified them according to what precipiated from them, and tried to contrast the results of his personal reseach among unpublished sources with what was already published," (Romulo D. Carbia, Historia critica de la historiografia agentina, p. 166-7). "Despite the impressive bibliographical apparatus supporting his work, however, Mitre's Historia de Belgrano provoked an enduring polemic regarding his basic premise: that a history of Belgrano, a great man, and the enlightened minority in Buenos Aires could somehow be a history of Argentine independence," (Nicolas Shumway, The Invention of Argentina, p. 208). Sabin calls it "a masterly work."

Price: $650.00