El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha: Nueva Edicion, Corregida Por La Real Academia Española.

by Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de

$22,000 · Offered by Biblio

First edition

Madrid: Don Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. The deluxe illustrated Ibarra edition of Cervantes' masterpiece. Quartos, 4 volumes. Bound in full 19th century green morocco with central motif and cornerpieces stamped in blind to the panels, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, elaborate double-ruled gilt borders, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, engraved frontispiece to each volume and 31 engraved plates throughout, 2-page folding engraved map of Don Quixote's travels to the rear of volume 1. Spanish printer Joaquín Ibarra made several important technical developments in press printing, book-making, typography and paper-making. In his printed work, Ibarra sought to achieve a perfect flow of harmonious type, inks, illustration, margins, and textures. He worked with the best painters and engravers of his time and, based on a secret formula he developed, the Ibarra ink gained a reputation for its exceptional quality and brilliance. The present volume was printed on "ex profeso" paper with melted types of "ex novo" on the pages, both of which Ibarra created in his Madrid workshop specifically for this project. In near fine condition. A superior example of Ibarra's best-known work. Don Quixote tells the tale of a man so entranced by reading about the chivalrous romantic ideals touted in books that he decides to take up his sword and become a knight-errant himself, with the aims of defending the helpless and warding off the wicked. With his somewhat confused laborer-turned-squire, Sancho Pan

• Publisher: Don Joaquin Ibarra
• Year: 1780
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: unknown

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