St. Thomas Aquinas
Gregorio Alfonso Villagomez y Lorenzana (fl. 18th century).
Prima oratio […] in laudem angelici Doctoris D. Thomae Aquinatis.
Puebla: Royal and Pontifical Colleges of San Pedro and San Juan, 1770. (BRB1408)
An outstanding example of eighteenth-century Mexican printing, this oration by a local Puebla preacher on the life of St. Thomas Aquinas features handsome typography in red and black, gold retouching of the name of “D. Thomae Aquinatis,” and an elaborate allegorical frontispiece engraving. Signed in 1767 by José Nava of the Colegio de San Juan in Puebla, the engraving portrays St. Thomas holding a consecrated sacramental Host and a quill pen. Inspired by the dove of the Holy Spirit, he rides in a triumphal chariot pulled by the symbols of the four evangelists. The wheels of the chariot run over a multiheaded serpent, symbolizing heresy, one of whose heads (at the left) is labeled "Luther."
