Author

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de

Title

Vida y Hechos del Ingenioso Hidalgo.
Don Quixote de la Mancha.

Published, Date

J and R. Tonson, London,1738.

Description

Four volumes, 4to (28.7 x 22cm). Engraved portrait of Cervantes, 68 engraved plates, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials; very occasional spotting and browning. Contemporary French red morocco gilt, gilt edges, a fine set.

Note

THE FIRST SPANISH EDITION PUBLISHED IN ENGLAND AND 'THE FIRST WITH A GREAT ARTISTIC VALUE' (Palau). A FINE COPY IN FULL RED MOROCCO. Most of the engraved plates are by Gerard Vander Gucht after Vanderbank and two are after Hogarth. This was the first deluxe critical edition of Don Quixote to be published anywhere, preceding the Royal Spanish Academy edition by over forty years In fact it was the English in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, not the Spaniards, who most keenly read and used stories from the work in their own writings. The frontispiece depicts Cervantes as an heroic classical figure and "depicts the moment [Cervantes] passes from the ranks of a popular writer to those of a classic" (Cervantes Dictionary).

References

Lowndes II, 401: 'A splendid and excellent edition'; Palau 52010.

Stock Number

85908