Page 207 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

377 ● (LITERTURE AND POETRY.) LATINO, JUAN (JUAN DE SESSA.) Ad
Catolicum, et Invictissimum Philippum Dei Gratia Hispaniarum Regem De
augustam memorabilia simul & catholica reagalium corporum ex varijs in
unum regale templum translatione . . . epigra[m]matum sive epitaphiorum, libri
duo per Magistrum Ioannum Latinum Garnate adolescetiae moderatorem.
Woodcut capitals throughout. Engraved half-title with the royal coat of arms. 4to, signed in
8’s, 15, 1-68 leaves, large folding plate at signature “A” repeating the coat of arms. Original
flexible full vellum, title in ink down the spine; lacking the original ties; 2 inch split at top
of front joint; neat closed tear at the engraved half-title.
Grenada: Hugo de Mena, 1576 [40,000/60,000]
AN EXCESSIVELY RARE BOOK, BEING THE FIRST EDITION OF THE SECOND WORK BY
JUAN LATINO, OR JUAN DE SESSA THE GREAT “ETHIOPIAN HUMANIST” (CA 1518-1596)
AND FIRST AFRICAN AUTHOR TO BE PUBLISHED IN EUROPE. Captured as a small child
by Spanish slavers near the coast of Guinea, Juan was sold to Don Fernando de Cordoba,
Duque de Sessa, from whence he was given his surname. Spanish humor of the day quipped
that he was so black that they baptized him at least twice—just to be sure. Young Juan was
raised with the Duke’s son Gonzalo who became his close companion. The two were sent to
the University of Granada, where Juan excelled in all studies, but displayed extraordinary abil-
ity in Latin—and was thus dubbed “Juan Latino.” As a result of this prodigious talent, the
University eventually offered him a chair in Latin Grammar. Over the course of his life, Juan
Latino wrote three published works: The present, of which only two other copies are recorded,
and two earlier (1573) works of which three copies and one copy respectively are known.
It is hard to imagine, a black man being so totally absorbed into any other European society of
the day, as was Juan Latino. He married a white wife, had mulatto children, and taught the
children of Granada’s nobility. This was Spain’s “Siglo de Oro,” or golden age, and Juan
Latino became an accepted member of the literati of Granada, and even sat with the famed
“Cuadra Dorada,”or Golden Stable as it was called. Both Churchmen and lay scholars alike
sought Latino’s opinion on a variety of important matters. Cervantes mentions Juan Latino in
his classic Don Quixote as “El Negro Juan Latino.”
THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN AUTHOR PUBLISHED IN EUROPE