Hispania Rare Books

£1400.00

J.M. Antepara (1770-1821)

South American Emancipation. Documents, Historical and Explanatory, shewing the Designs which have been in Progress, and the Exertions made by General Miranda, [Francisco de Miranda 1750-1816] for the attainment of that object during the last twenty-five years.

London: Printed by R. Juigne, 17,  Margaret Street, Cavendish Square. 1810

First edition, 8vo, (220 x 135mm) , pp. [X] 299+[I], full calf, gilt decorated. Frontispiece portrait of General Miranda and engraved “Plan de la Bataille de Landen” Provenance: Professor Malcolm Deas Collection. Sabin 1667.

London in the early 19th century became the center of the Spanish-American independence movement. After the publication of the famous Letter to the Spanish Americans by Peruvian Juan Pablo Viscardo, a group of South American exiles and intellectuals in favour of independence was formed in London, led by Francisco de Miranda.  Ecuadorian born J.M. Antepara was deeply influenced by  enlightenment ideals of liberty, republicanism, and human rights.  In 1803 he was in London and soon joined the American Lodge of Rational Knights, whose Grand Master and founder was Miranda, together they collaborated on several publications advocating for independence from Spanish rule in South America.

Published in London in 1810, J.M. Antepara ” South American Emancipation” is one of the first published works explicitly calling for South American independence, appearing even before some of the first formal independence movements in Argentina (1810) and Venezuela (1811). The book is an historical significant document in the intellectual history of Latin American independence. 

Rarity: surviving copies are mostly found in specialised  archives and research libraries.  Very rare on the market, apart from this copy, I could not trace any other example since one was sold in 2008.

Condition:  Worn extremities, rubbed corners, signs of age and use, occasional spotting and browning,  slightly off-setting, small tear to map  bottom right corner. Good. Please see pictures.