In 1539, Bartolomé de las Casas wrote Breuissima relacion de la destruycion de las Indias..., a short treatise that indicted the Spanish conquerors for acts of brutality inflicted on the American Indians in the New World. The first of nine tracts on this subject, Brevissima was first published in 1552 and later published in France in 1579 as Tyrannies et Cruautez des Espagnols Perpetres es Indes Occidentales Quon dit le Nouveau Monde: Brievement Descrites en Lettre Castillane par L'Evesque Don Frere Bartelemy De Las Casas...fidelement traduites par Jackques De Miggrode: à Paris par Guillaume Julien.... Clements manuscript was likely prepared in 1582 for an illustrated Paris edition which was never printed; the 17 watercolor illustrations, depicting gruesome acts of torture, are similar to the engravings of Jodocus van Wingheused used by DeBry for the first illustrated Latin edition in 1598.
Las Casas wrote two chronicles, Historia General de las Indias and Historia Apologetica de las Indias, which were designed to form a single work. He asked his executors not to publish them until forty years after his death. They were not printed, in fact, until 1875-1876 at Madrid, when they appeared under the title "Historia de las Yndias." The original manuscripts are in the Biblioteca de la Academia de la Historia, Madrid. The Clements copy corresponds to the prologue and first 11 chapters of the printed Historia General.
Two bookplates are present on the front pastedown: The Honble. Frederic North, 5th Earl of Guilford and William L. Clements. The first two leaves are mounted and the volume contains other repairs. A note written in ink, possibly a contemporary hand, reads, "Manuscrit original qui a servi à l'imprimé de 1582." The following binding description was provided by Julia Miller: non-contemporary but notable 18th century binding; dark green leather; covers bordered with decorative rolls; large fleur de lis corner decorations; spine gilt; maroon leather lettering piece tooled in gold; black leather roundel, blank; paper shelf label at tail of spine; non-contemporary marbled and plain endpapers; text block sewn on four recessed cords; text edges gilt; worked headbands; pink silk register bound in.
Bartolomé de las Casas (c.1484-1566), was an early Spanish historian of the New World. La Casas' father, Pedro de las Casas, was a merchant and early Spanish settler in Espanola who traveled with Columbus on his second expedition. Las Casas was educated in law at the University of Salamanca and sailed for Hispaniola in 1502, possibly on a mining or military expedition. He returned to Spain in 1506 and became a Dominican priest in 1507. He then devoted himself to stopping Spanish brutality of the Indians in Mexico and the Caribbean. In 1542 he was made bishop of Chiapas, and in 1547 he returned to Spain, where he devoted his energies to criticizing Spanish brutality in the New World. From 1547-1566, las Casas worked as an attorney-at-large in the court of Charles V, where he fought for legal reforms to protect the indigenous peoples. He wrote a series of controversial books describing the atrocities, including the influential Brevissima Relacion de la Destruccion de las Indias, written in 1539, and later published throughout Europe.
