Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780.
4 parts in 4 volumes 4to of: I/ (1) frontispiece, (1) title page, xvi pp. of prologue, 1 portrait, ccxxiv pp., 199 pp. 6 plates out of text, 1 map on double page; II/ (1) frontispiece, (1) title page, (1) table page, 418 pp, 9 plates; III/ (1) frontispiece, (1) title page, xiv pp., 306 pp. 7 plates ; IV/ (1) frontispiece, (1) title page, (1) table page, 346 pp. 9 plates.
In total 31 plates, 4 frontispieces, 1 portrait and 1 double-page map.
Bound in full red morocco, framed with Duseuil-style fillets around the covers, with gilt fleurons at the corners and central gilt decoration, flat spines decorated with the same central decoration repeated five times, green morocco lettering pieces, inner gilt border, gilt edges. Contemporary Spanish morocco binding.
290 x 222 mm.
Famous edition, one of the monuments of the Spanish book, undertaken by the Madrilenian academy which intended to restore Cervantes’ text in its authenticity; it is accompanied by an illustration for the first time entirely drawn and engraved by Spanish artists.
Magnífica éditión y superior en belleza artística a todas las que hasta ahora entonces se habían hecho en España y en el extranjero (Palau, 52024).
The characters were specially engraved by Geronimo Gil and the paper was made at the mills of Joseph Florens, in Catalonia. The architecture of the book is rigorous; the typography, executed by Ibarra, one of the masters of his art, is balanced and harmonious. All the type used in the book hangs together wonderfully, and the founts are so full of color, and so original and lively in cut, that they seem like the work of a man unhampered by professional and mechanical traditions (Updike, Printing Types, II, pp. 55-57).
The abundant illustration contains 31 engraved figures by M. Salvador y Carmona, Gil, Selma, P. P. Moles, Joaquin Fabregat, Juan Barcelon, Joaquin Ballester and Fransisco Muntaner, after J. del Castillo, Carnicero, Joseph Bruneta, Bernardo Barranco, Geronimo Gil and Gregorio Ferro. There is also an engraved general map of Spain, folded, out of text, 13 ornamented letters, 25 headpieces or vignettes and 20 tailpieces by Carnicero, Brieva and Rafael Ximeno, engraved by Minguet, Mariano Brandi, J. Fabregat, Ballester, Palomino and Miguel de la Cuesta; in addition, there is a portrait of Cervantes by Joseph del Castillo engraved by Manuel Salvador y Carmona and two frontispieces by Antonio Carnicero and Pedro Arnal Arquitecto, engraved by Fernando Selma and Juan de la Cruz.
The plates, of a learned and original composition, are very beautiful; the headpieces and the initials, full of fun, artistic invention and precision, are distributed with exceptional happiness.
“This edition is a true typographical masterpiece; it has been enriched with the Life of Cervantes and the analysis of his novel by Vicente de Los Rios” (Brunet, I, 1749).
“Magnificent edition as typography and ornamentation”, Cohen mentions.
According to what Cervantes himself tells us in the Prologue of Part I, his aim was to write a novel of chivalry, capable of standing out from all the others widely spread at that time.
“The whole work is as if enveloped in an immaterial and translucent smile, which secretly lets through an inexhaustible wealth of humanity and real life experiences. The magic of this smile, by conferring on the story an inimitable character, has assured Cervantes a triumphant fame.”
A superb copy in the state before the letters, bound in Spanish red morocco (very rare condition), strictly of the period and elegantly decorated.
From the library of Pierre Briquet, one of the finest booksellers of his time and the best specialist in eighteenth century books.
