Vida Y Hechos del Ingeniso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.

CERVANTES, Miguel de.

$2,000.00

Item Number: 145580

Amsterdam: Henrico y Cornelio Verdussen, 1719.

Eighteenth century Dutch new and corrected edition of Cervantes’ masterpiece “which is to Spanish literature what Shakespeare is to English” (Bloom). Duodecimo, two volumes bound in full contemporary Dutch parchment with yapp edges and laced case construction, all edges red, engraved title pages, illustrated with thirty-two full page plates [sixteen in each volume]. In near fine condition with bookplates to the front pastedown of both volumes. An very nice example.

"Cervantes' great, ironical, romantic story is written in a style so noble, so nervous, so humane, so branded with reality that, as the wise critic has said, the mere touch and impact of it puts courage into our veins… Not to have ever opened it… is to have missed being present at one of the 'great gestures' of the undying, unconquerable spirit of humanity" (Powys, 27). Widely regarded as "the first modern novel", Cervantes' masterpiece was first published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. This, the first known edition of the first part of Don Quixote printed in Barcelona, was printed by Bautista Sorita for three different Barcelona booksellers: Miguel Gracián, Juan Simón and Rafael Vives. The second part was printed simultaneously in 1617 by Sebastián Matevad for the same booksellers making the two parts combined the first complete edition of Don Quixote, though just as the two parts were usually bound separately, they are now found typically found separately when they seldom appear.