THE FINEST ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF CERVANTES’ DON QUIXOTE
Don Quixote, one of the most influential literary works of the Siglo de Oro and certainly the most famous novel in Spanish literature, combines features of the picaresque style and of the epic novels. Quixote is one of the few fictional characters to have gained universal recognition not only for his extraordinary adventures but also because he represents an archetypal figure who lives in a magical world between reality, madness and imagination.
Don Quixote, somewhat downat-heel but still strong and determined, is a hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he slowly loses his sanity, and strongly believes in an imaginary world marked by challenges and duels, and by the saving of damsels in distress and glorious fame as a knight-errant who dedicates his amazing exploits to his ideal lady-love. As he sets off to defend the weak and helpless, he is accompanied by a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, to whom he promises the property of an island if he agrees to be his squire. However, the times have changed and glorious adventures are few and far between but, in his visionary, undeterred quest for glory, he continues to insist on the reality of his imaginary world, confusing prostitutes and princesses, taking windmills for giants, mistaking a flock of sheep for Saracen armies. Continuing to fight these imaginary adversaries, he is trounced each time, arousing the laughter of those who witness his exploits. Don Quixote embodies the hero of freedom and free-thinking and many of the characters he encounters are also “bewitched by books” so that the journey becomes in fact a review of the literary ideas of the period.
When the volume was first published in 1605, the novel was an immediate success all over Europe. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Vicente de los Ríos of the Spanish Royal Academy curated a critical edition with an amended and corrected text, introducing the biography of Miguel de Cervantes and various critical texts on the work of the author. In the upcoming Rare Books and Autographs sale we are pleased to offer a very fine copy of this edition by Joaquin Ibarra, one of Spain’s most important printers who dedicated all his craftsmanship to this great literary work. This edition is particularly appreciated for its typographical excellence: beautiful paper, neat types and magnificent plates designed and engraved by the most valuable artists of the time such as Antonio Carnicero, José del Castillo, Bernardo Barranco, Gerónimo Gil, and Joseph Brunete. In his monumental Manual del librero español e hispanoamericano, the great bibliographer and scholar Antonio Palau y Dulcet described Ibarra’s work as “magnífica edición y superior en belleza artística a todas las que hasta entonces se habían hecho en España y en el extranjero”, an opinion shared by all the important bibliographies, from Brunet who describes the work as one of the masterpieces of typographical art, to Updike who considers it the most beautiful edition of all times, up to Cohen-De Ricci who praises the beautiful plates and illustrations, without forgetting Richard Ford who correctly claims that no grand library should be without this book!
The copy of Don Quixote we will offer in our next sale presents a beautiful contemporary red morocco binding and a distinguished provenance reading “Bibliothecae Heideggeriana”, once being part of the famous library of the Swiss Hans Heinrich Heidegger (1711-1763), sold by his son Johann in 1810. We might mention two other illustrated editions of Cervantes’ masterpiece that will be auctioned in our June sale: one printed at Tours in 1848 and now fairly rare, featuring numerous steel and wood engravings by Grandville with a charming chromolithograph and gilt binding that highlights embossed vignettes representing Don Quixote on horseback. The other, published in four volumes in 1938, is the French translation of Louis Viardot enriched with 288 plates by Albert Dubout coloured “au pochoir” by Beaufume, Jon and Raynal.
By Cristiano Collari
Don Quixote, somewhat downat-heel but still strong and determined, is a hidalgo who reads so many chivalric novels that he slowly loses his sanity, and strongly believes in an imaginary world marked by challenges and duels, and by the saving of damsels in distress and glorious fame as a knight-errant who dedicates his amazing exploits to his ideal lady-love. As he sets off to defend the weak and helpless, he is accompanied by a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, to whom he promises the property of an island if he agrees to be his squire. However, the times have changed and glorious adventures are few and far between but, in his visionary, undeterred quest for glory, he continues to insist on the reality of his imaginary world, confusing prostitutes and princesses, taking windmills for giants, mistaking a flock of sheep for Saracen armies. Continuing to fight these imaginary adversaries, he is trounced each time, arousing the laughter of those who witness his exploits. Don Quixote embodies the hero of freedom and free-thinking and many of the characters he encounters are also “bewitched by books” so that the journey becomes in fact a review of the literary ideas of the period.
When the volume was first published in 1605, the novel was an immediate success all over Europe. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Vicente de los Ríos of the Spanish Royal Academy curated a critical edition with an amended and corrected text, introducing the biography of Miguel de Cervantes and various critical texts on the work of the author. In the upcoming Rare Books and Autographs sale we are pleased to offer a very fine copy of this edition by Joaquin Ibarra, one of Spain’s most important printers who dedicated all his craftsmanship to this great literary work. This edition is particularly appreciated for its typographical excellence: beautiful paper, neat types and magnificent plates designed and engraved by the most valuable artists of the time such as Antonio Carnicero, José del Castillo, Bernardo Barranco, Gerónimo Gil, and Joseph Brunete. In his monumental Manual del librero español e hispanoamericano, the great bibliographer and scholar Antonio Palau y Dulcet described Ibarra’s work as “magnífica edición y superior en belleza artística a todas las que hasta entonces se habían hecho en España y en el extranjero”, an opinion shared by all the important bibliographies, from Brunet who describes the work as one of the masterpieces of typographical art, to Updike who considers it the most beautiful edition of all times, up to Cohen-De Ricci who praises the beautiful plates and illustrations, without forgetting Richard Ford who correctly claims that no grand library should be without this book!
The copy of Don Quixote we will offer in our next sale presents a beautiful contemporary red morocco binding and a distinguished provenance reading “Bibliothecae Heideggeriana”, once being part of the famous library of the Swiss Hans Heinrich Heidegger (1711-1763), sold by his son Johann in 1810. We might mention two other illustrated editions of Cervantes’ masterpiece that will be auctioned in our June sale: one printed at Tours in 1848 and now fairly rare, featuring numerous steel and wood engravings by Grandville with a charming chromolithograph and gilt binding that highlights embossed vignettes representing Don Quixote on horseback. The other, published in four volumes in 1938, is the French translation of Louis Viardot enriched with 288 plates by Albert Dubout coloured “au pochoir” by Beaufume, Jon and Raynal.
By Cristiano Collari