Quaderno de Alcaualas. Leyes del Quaderno nueuo de las rentas de las alcaualas y franquezas hecho en la vega de Granada: por el qual el Rey [y] la Reyna n[uest]ros señores reuocan todas las otras leyes de los otros quadernos hechos de antes. Y añadido el priuilegio de las ferias de Medina de Rio seco, Nueuamente con gran diligencia a toda su primera integridad restituido de muchos vicios que por el discurso de tiempo en el auia.

[Colophon] Salamanca, En casa de Juan de Junta, 1550.. Folio (30 x 20.5 cm.), later wrappers of laid paper (eighteenth-century?) with several contemporary vertical rules in ink. Large woodcut arms of Spain (the greater coat of arms of Carlos I, 13.1 x 9.5 cm.) on title page; woodcut border on 3 sides, overall 24.2 x 15.8 cm.; good impressions of both. Seven- and four-line initials on verso of title page. Gothic redonda type, 48 lines. Title page darkened and with some soiling, edges chipped (repaired in margin at top left and right edge, affecting the edge of the borders on recto, one initial and 3 letters on verso). Dampstained in top half of page throughout, without loss of text. Sound and honest: a good copy. Numerous early (sixteenth-century) marginal ink inscriptions and underlinings in Latin; on title page, these are faded to the point of illegibility. A few later (eighteenth-century?) ink inscriptions and underlinings. xxvii, (3) ll. *** 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. The 147 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 Carlos V). The law on the final leaf of text was issued under Juana's name and dated 1511, "por mandado del Rey su padre."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; the final law in this collection, ff. xxxvi recto-xxxvii recto, deals specifically with the fair in Medina del Rioseco.) 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" (ff. xiii r-v, Ley lviii). 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. When Carlos wore his Holy Roman Emperor crown, his wars 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.Juan de Junta, one of a family of Florentine printers, founded a printing dynasty in Spain that lasted until the early seventeenth century. He first printed in Burgos in 1527, and leaving the press in the hands of employees, established a press in Salamanca in 1532 that he operated for twenty years. He specialized in legal and liturgical works, but also printed many works by professors at the University of Salamanca, including Domingo de Soto, Diego de Covarrubias, and Hernán Núñez de Guzmán. Junta's business included not only printing but bookselling, binding, and editing.*** Palau 137374 and 242548n: noting a copy sold by Vindel in 1926 for 60 pts.; for other editions, see 242546-51 and 137364-85. Gil Ayuso, Noticia bibliográfica de textos y disposiciones legales de los Reinos de Castilla 140: citing only a copy at Lib. de Julián Barbazán, and noting that the decree was issued in Burgos, 13 December 1511. Ruiz Fidalgo, Imprenta en Salamanca (1501-1600) 342: locating copies at the Biblioteca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro; Santiago Cathedral; and Vitoria, Seminario; on Junta, see I, 52-58. Cuesta Gutierrez, Imprenta en Salamanca pp. 27-30. Not in Adams. Not in William Pettas, History & Bibliography of the Giunti (Junta) Printing Family in Spain 1526-1628; the coat of arms corresponds to his CA-02. See also William Pettas, "A Sixteenth-Century Spanish Bookstore: The Inventory of Juan de Junta," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society vol. 85, pt. 1 (1995), pp. 1-247. Not located in Rebiun or CCBPE. Not located in Jisc. KVK (51 databases searched): Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Biblioteca Universitaria di Sassari, Biblioteca nazionale centrale-Roma.