CORDEL LITERATURE IN A BEAUTIFUL EXEMPLARY

First and second part of the Testament, ordered by the serene Mr. Juan de Austria (second of this name): and fervent act of love of God, that before receiving the SS. Sacramento did, and dismissal of his brother, Mr. King Don Carlos Second of Spain. (At the end :) Barcelona: Printing House of the Herederos de la V. Pla, Cotoners street. (1830/1850)

Quarto minor (21.8 x 16 cm / 8.58 x 6.3 in), 8 pp. Text printed in two columns, in the form of a verse, with an engraving on the first page: an hourglass and a skull resting on top. Good copy, on the branch, without trimming, and with its beards.

The second part has the title: 'Second part From the testament of the most serene Mr. Don Juan of Austria: refer to the catholic and last farewell that before exhaling the King made his brother, the whole kingdom and the great ones, and also the orders he left to the images of his devotion’.

The work alludes to the farewell made by Juan José de Austria (1629 - 1679), extramarital son of Felipe IV, monarch of Spain, and the actress María Calderón. At just 13 years old, he was recognized by the King, and being the brother of Carlos II, he carried out important political and military work, becoming the viceroy of the Principality of Catalonia. The narrator, an eyewitness, "a man without letters or study, / and of medium reason", describes the final hours of that nobleman in front of the Queen mother (widow of Felipe IV) and the King his brother.

These loose sheets reached the public through a street vendor who, with his singing or shouting, offered them around the city. Since the 18th century, Ferdinand VI granted that privilege to the blind in a sales monopoly that on many occasions was denounced by the beneficiaries themselves, who claimed that the printers sold them directly, avoiding this obligation.

S.O.IX-GBM