(Constitution of Colombia) | First printing of the first constitution of Gran Colombia

(Constitution of Colombia)

Constitucion de la Republica de Colombia. Rosario de Cúcuta: Bruno Espinosa, 1821

4to (222 x 170 mm). Uncut and unopened. Stitched as issued.

First printing of the first constitution of Gran Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, mainland Ecuador, and portions of Peru and Brazil), with Simón Bolívar as president and Francisco de Paula Santander as vice-president. The title-page is preceded by (and conjugate with) a five-page introductory address "El Congreso General a los Habitantes de Colombia," signed in type by Miguel Peña, President of Congress; Rafael Obispo, Vice President; and deputy secretaries Fancisco Soto, Miguel Santamaria, and Antonio José Caro. This prefatory matter is typically lacking from the few surviving copies of the constitution.

Printed in the small town of Cúcuta on the border between Colombia and Venezuela on the portable press of Bolívar's Army of Liberation, the Colombian constitution adopts the United States separation of power among the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches, but defines powers and responsibilities more precisely than the U.S. Constitution. A superb copy of a very rare publication.

REFERENCES

Not in Palau; see Ardila & Hernández, “Los impresores como constructores de la República de Colombia. Los casos de Espinosa, Roderick y Navas, 1819-1830,” in Procesos. Revista Ecuatoriana de Historia 53 (2021): 77–107