Leyes del q[ua]derno nueuo d[e] las re[n]tas de las alcaualas y fra[n]quezas. Hecho enla vega de Granada: por el qual el rey y la reyna n[uest]ros señores reuocan todas las otras leyes delos otros q[ua]dernos fechos de antes. MDxlv.

[Colophon, f. xxvi verso] Seville, En las casas de Juan Cromberger que Dios aya en gloria, acabose a ij. de Enero ... M.D. [y] xlv años (2 January 1545).. Folio (28.2 x 20 cm.), twentieth-century beige cloth over boards with earlier pastedowns and flyleaves of laid paper; crimson morocco lettering piece on spine with gilt-lettered short title and date; text-block edges with old marbling. Title page has woodcut arms of Emperor Carlos V, a good impression but printed in reverse (with the arms of Spain at the upper right and lower left), in front of a double-headed eagle surmounted by a crown, within a double-rule border (11.6 x 10.2 cm.); the whole set within an ornamental woodcut border incorporating dragons and floral ornaments. Woodcut initials (7- and 6-line) on verso of first leaf. Gothic redonda type, 56 lines. Printed marginal summaries. Tabla (f. xxvij verso-xxviij recto) in 2 columns. Two small brownstains, faint dampstain, and a few flyspecks on title page. Very minor marginal soiling in rest of text. In good to very good condition. A few early (sixteenth-century) marginal notes in Spanish and Latin, and some equally early underlining. xxviij leaves, signed a28. *** One of many editions of these laws setting out who pays taxes in Spain and how much. The earliest edition of the Quaderno listed in Palau is Burgos, 1486; the latest is Alcalá, 1560. This is the last of the numerous editions by the Crombergers: it appeared the year Juan died. Palau lists Cromberger editions of 1510, 1514, 1520, 1529, 1535, and 1540.The 146 laws were issued by Los Reyes Católicos (D. Fernando and D. Isabel) and by "Juana la Loca," nominally queen of Castile and Aragon 1504-1555, who was imprisoned after 1509 on orders of her father D. Fernando and kept imprisoned by her son, D. Carlos (later D. Carlos I of Spain and Emperor Charles V).In Spain in the early sixteenth century, the crown's main source of revenue was the alcabala, a flat 10% sales tax that was supposed to be collected on every mercantile transaction. The laws reprinted here make it startlingly clear how many exemptions and changes were accepted into the seemingly simple flat-tax code. There are special laws applying to goods used on Crusades, goods captured from Moors in time of war, and fairs held in various towns. (Such fairs, especially the one at Medina del Campo, had become the financial markets of the sixteenth century.) There are rules for tailors, spinners, and rag collectors. Dozens of laws regulate landlords and tenants. One restricts Jews and Moors: "Que los judios y mores no sean arrendadores menores saluo en lugar que tenga jurisdicion y sea de dozientes vezinos arriba" (Law 58). One can also see the trend toward taxing basic foodstuffs rather than all sales. The Quaderno includes dozens of taxes relating to those who sell oil, meat, wine, and bread.Although the title page states that these laws were issued in the vega de Granada, the laws themselves mention Seville, Cordoba, Cadiz, the Basque town of Fuenterrabia (in Guipúzcoa), Guadalupe (Extremadura), Val de Palacios (near Madrid?), Villa Franca del Arzopisbado, Santa Maria la Nieva (Segovia), Valladolid, Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Jaen, Badajoz, and Ubeda (Andalusia).Revenues from the alcabala far outstripped even the income from the gold and silver being mined in Spain’s American colonies. Wars of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V were still funded mainly by taxes such as the alcabala, levied in Spain. When he could not raise adequate funds by such taxes, he had to borrow at rates as high as 43%. Collection of taxes was therefore a matter of great urgency. However, the income from the alcabala was problematic. Many towns had set a fixed sum that had not kept up with inflation, receipts often went to local nobles rather than the king’s coffers, and, as is clear from this collection of laws, exemptions were frequent.The Crombergers were a publishing dynasty founded by Jacobo Cromberger, a German immigrant who was active in Seville from 1503 to 1528. At the invitation of D. Manuel I of Portugal, he printed in Évora and Lisbon from 1521 to 1528 (or perhaps printed in Seville using the Portuguese imprints), while still maintaining his print shop in Seville. In 1525 he handed management of the Seville office to his son Juan Cromberger, who ran it until 1528 using his and his father's name, and from then to 1540 under his own name. One of Juan's claims to fame is the introduction of printing to America: he sent Juan Pablos (Giovanni Paoli) to Mexico in 1539, with types from the Cromberger stock. Juan's widow took over the Cromberger press from 1541 to 1545, when it was transferred to his eldest son, Jacome Cromberger, who remained active until 1553. This work was published at the Cromberger press the same year as the first edition of Medina's Arte de navegar.*** Palau 137382: noting a copy offered for 100 pts. in 1934; for editions printed by Cromberger from 1510 to 1540, see 137373-4, 137375-6, 137379, 137381. Clive Griffin, The Crombergers of Seville. The History of a Printing & Merchant Dynasty, Appendix I, no. 494. Gil Ayuso, Noticia bibliográfica de textos y disposiciones legales de los Reinos de Castilla 118: citing copies at Lib. de García Rico y Cª and the Palácio Nacional. Not in Adams. Not in Escudero y Perosso, Tipografía hispalense. For a summary of the Cromberger dynasty, see Juan Delgado Casado, Diccionário de impresores españoles (siglos XV-XVII), pp. 170-4. Not located in Jisc. Not located in CCBPE, which lists a Cromberger edition of 1520. Not located in Rebiun. Not located in KVK worldwide (51 databases searched).