CERVANTES SAAVEDRA., Miguel de.

£98,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

.An outstanding English copy of one of the earliest editions of Don Quixote (first 1605) according to Ruis the best to date and the seventh overall. Most importantly, it was the first printed outside the Iberian peninsula, the edition that introduced the text to the non-Spanish world, and in particular to the readers of Northern Europe, who absolutely loved it. Often described as the first modern novel, copies were thoroughly read and examples in fine contemporary condition are rare. This copy was in England very soon after publication, the binding dates from the early years of the C17. Before the end of that century it was in the library of Arthur Charlett, Royal Chaplain, Master of University College Oxford, owner of a very extensive library - how many novels I wonder? He is probably responsible for the spine label and certainly the first bookpile bookplate in England (cf. David Pearson) which he commissioned in 1698 from Samuel Pepys. After his death, intestate his books were sold at auction and widely dispersed. The next identifiable private owner, Jean Peeters-Fontainas was the pre-eminent bibliographer of the Spanish imprints of the Low Countries, then part of the Spanish Empire. .Apart from vastly expanding Don Quixote s readership, Velpius also materially corrected and improved the text which is based on Cuesta s second edition (Madrid, 1605), but now shorn of its many errors and imperfections both of printing and in the text itself. As Alan Thomas used to remark, if

• Binding: Hardcover

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