Vida y hechos del ingenioso cavallero Don Quixote
Spanish edition of Don Quixote from the Age of Enlightenment, adorned with 44 fine woodcut illustrations.
A very fine copy preserved in its contemporary limp vellum.
4 volumes in 4 octavo volumes: I/ (1) blank f., (16) ff., (1) f., 166 pp., 268 pp., 270 pp. (misnumbered 278), (3) ff., (1) blank f.; II/ (1) blank f., (3) ff., 517 pp., (4) pp., (1) blank f.; III/ (10) ff., 450 pp. (misnumbered 408), (5) ff., (1) blank f.; IV/ (1) blank f., (2) ff., 387 pp., (9) pp., (1) blank f.
Contemporary limp vellum, traces of ties, smooth spine, calligraphic title on spine, handwritten inscriptions and some stains on the covers. Contemporary binding.
150 x 100 mm.
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. [Don Quixote]. Life and Deeds of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. Composed by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. New edition: Divided into four octavo volumes for greater convenience: corrected and illustrated with forty-four engravings: with the addition of the life of its Author, written by Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, Librarian to His Majesty…
Madrid, D. Manuel Martin, 1777-78.
Viuda de Rico, 612-613; Rio y Rico, 74; Plaza Escudero, I, 48; Benages/Fonbuena, 54; Palau, 52023.
Precious edition of Don Quixote published by Manuel Martin during the Enlightenment.
Adorned with 44 wood-engraved illustrations in the text, it is based on the editions Costa 1605 and Martin, 1765.
“It is not a very common text, and Henrich did not reproduce its title page. The Suñés cite it in entry 59, but Givanel Mas did not refer to it, nor is it mentioned by del Río y Rico.
The title page and the general composition are different from those of other editions.”
(E. Rodriguez-Cepeda, Los Quijotes del siglo XVIII).
“It must be considered, however, that these printings are the ones that universalized Cervantes’ idea.
With the rationalist philosophy of the eighteenth century, Enlightenment and rationalism were the best shelter for Cervantine imagery, allowing such an original and whimsical text to proliferate most easily in the minds of readers.
Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar made the first study on the life of the author, included in this work. Mayans y Siscar is not only the first, but the one who made Don Quixote a modern book to understand Cervantes and the novelistic genre in that era. ”
(A. Sequera Victoriano, Editions of Don Quijote de la Mancha printed in the eighteenth century).
“A special type of Quixote, illustrated with woodcuts, was sold in the street; it was published by M. Martín between 1765 and 1782.
This was how this most intellectual of Spanish literary works penetrated the popular culture of the period.
For all these reasons, with the Enlightenment the reach of Cervantes' work expanded, and the power of the text encompassed all social classes and all cultural levels; in the eighteenth century it began to be the true book for everyone.
Quixotes with woodblock illustrations are now very scarce, and sets of four volumes are almost always incomplete (even in official catalogues and libraries).
These printings are those that most have universalized Cervantes’ idea.” (E. Rodriguez-Cepeda).
“The philosophers, the encyclopaedists made Don Quixote a weapon against religion and its ministers” (P. Mérimée, M. Bardon, Don Quichotte en France au XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles).
Very attractive copy, in perfect purity, preserved in its contemporary limp vellum binding.
Provenance: Library of Fernand Bertrand, with ex-libris on the front endpaper; with various manuscript ex-libris of the period “Beauvany”, “Château Gonti” on the flyleaves and covers.
