The Museum of New Mexico's Fray Angélico Chávez History Library recently purchased its first book printed by New Mexico's earliest publisher, Padre Antonio José Martínez, and is negotiating to buy another.

Instituciones de derecho real de castilla y de indias (Principles of Royal Law of Spain and the Indies) is a treatise on the practice of law, published in 1842 on what was then New Mexico's only printing press.

The 4-by-5 1/2-inch, leather-bound book is a condensed version of a four-volume set written by José Maria Alvarez and originally published in Guatemala in 1819.

The book has chapters on the rules of evidence, how to transfer land and what to do with abogados demeterios — unscrupulous lawyers.

The first nine pages of the 148-page book are missing, but library officials have duplicated those from another copy in the New Mexico State Archives.

Otherwise, the museum's copy is in good condition — despite being hauled around in saddlebags more than a century ago. The inside of its covers are lined with old letters and pages from periodicals — a standard practice in the early 19th century.

Scholars believe fewer than 100 of the books were printed. Only six copies are known to exist today.

History library officials purchased the book earlier this year for $8,000 from Thomas Burch of Raton. The Robert Moody Foundation, named for the great-grandfather of Robin Martin, who owns The New Mexican, The Taos News and The Sangre de Cristo Chronicle, provided $5,000. The Robert Frazer Fund provided $3,000.

Burch, a former director of the Raton Museum, inherited the book from his mother, the late Tilly Schwacheim. She acquired it, along with an Indian blanket and other items, as collateral for a loan, which was never repaid, while she was a teacher in Taos about 1914.

"It's been around here since that time," said Burch, who lives in the house his grandfather built in Raton in 1880. "Her brother was Carl Schwacheim. He was the one who discovered the Folsom points (ancient stone tips found near Folsom, N.M.), and they were all collectors."

Burch recalled that in the late 1940s he took the book into Santa Fe to see if anyone was interested in buying it, but had no offers. He said he was told at the time that the state history library had sold its copy to the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. He said his book remained at his home until history library officials approached him a few years ago.

Burch said he almost broke off his negotiations and gave the book to someone else when the library officials asked him for his Social Security number and other personal information. "I finally told them, 'Bring me my book back or give me the cash. I'm tired of messing around,' " he said.

History library director Thomas Jaehn said the economic downturn has made some rare-book collectors more willing to sell their treasures, although the recession also means the library's foundations have less money to spend.

Jaehn already is negotiating to buy a second book printed on Martínez's press: Manualito de parrocos (Little Manual for Priests), which explains, in Spanish and Latin, how to baptize children, how to administer last rites and other priestly duties.

But the copy of the Manualito is not in as good a shape as the copy of Instituciones. For decades, it was kept with its pages spread open in a plastic frame on a wall in a Taos shop, causing the leather cover to became so stiff that the book no longer can be closed.

Jaehn said the book's owner, whom he declined to identify, is seeking $10,000 for it. He said Michael O. Olivas, a law professor with an interest in New Mexico's earliest books, already has pledged $1,000 toward the purchase.

About a half dozen books, at least two newspapers and other documents were printed on the press acquired by Martínez in the early 1800s.

Although no copy has ever been found of Martínez's first newspaper, El Crepúsculo de la Libertad (The Dawn of Liberty), the history library owns one copy of another Martínez periodical, El Payo de Nuevo Mexico (Payo is an archaic term for "rustic fellow"), that will be displayed in an exhibit on the Mexican Period at the new state History Museum that opens here on Memorial Day.

No New Mexico institution owns a copy of the "holy grail" of New Mexico publishing — Cuaderno de ortografia (Notebook of Orthography) — a spelling primer published for Martínez in 1834, just before he bought the press. Copies are believed to be at the Huntington, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and the Newberry Library in Chicago, although the Newberry has been unable to locate its copy. You can read the book online at www.wdl.org/en/item/78/.

Jaehn plans soon to set up a display of Instituciones and Manualito, along with other books owned but not published by Martínez on philosophy, mathematics and other topics, at the library at 120 Washington Ave.