Unrecorded Mexican Cockfighting Manual

[Mexico]: [Cockfighting]:

Reglamento para El Juego de Gallos [wrapper title].

Oaxaca: Imprenta de Julian S. Soto, [ca. 1905]. 9pp. Original illustrated wrappers, sewn. Minor edge wear, bottom corner of front wrapper chipped, some creasing. Still, very good. Item #12846

An unrecorded turn-of-the-20th-century edition of an 1856 work, also unrecorded, of the rules and regulations for cockfighting in Mexico. The present Oaxaca edition is illustrated with a woodcut of a rooster on the cover, but is otherwise concerned, in minute detail, with the rules, duties, and penalties governing cockfighting. This includes the roles of the administrator, the keeper of the ring, encomenderos, and judges, as well as the rules of the fight and the penalties for noncompliance with the rules.Beyond its recreational nature, the regulations reflect the legal and moral formalization of a spectacle deeply rooted in 19th-century social life in Mexico. The pamphlet is dated at the end of the text, "Septiembre de 1856," but was obviously not printed until much later. A curious work reflecting the popular cultural and recreational practices in 19th and early-20th centuries for a sport that is not entirely out of favor in modern times.

Price: $550