CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de.

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

"The most important work of the entire Spanish literary canon"; Illustrated Ibarra Edition of Don Quixote

Madrid: Don Joaquin Ibarra, 1782.

Out of Stock Item Number: RRB-148971

Custom Clamshell Box (+$450)

* Custom Clamshell Boxes are hand made by the Harcourt Bindery upon request and take approximately 60 days to complete

The illustrated Ibarra edition of Cervantes' masterpiece "which is to Spanish literature what Shakespeare is to English" (Bloom). Quarto, 4 volumes, written in spanish, bound in full red morocco by Derome le jeune with gilt titles and tooling to the spines in six compartments within gilt bands, elaborate gilt ruling with gilt armorial crests to the front and rear panels, all edges gilt, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, silk moire endpapers. Engraved frontispiece to volume one, with 23 full page engraved plates throughout, and a 2-page folding engraved map of Don Quixote's travels to the rear of volume 1. Additional leaf to the rear of each volume with binders instructions of illustrated plate placements for each volume. 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 good condition with some losses to the leather and splitting to the hinges. Binders ticket to the verso of the front free endpaper. From the collection of Ken Rapoport with his ownership plate to the second free endpaper of volume one.

Often cited as the first modern novel, Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quixote remains not only the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age, but the most important work of the entire Spanish literary canon. First published in 1605, Don Quixote gained immediate popularity in Spain for its "variety, liveliness, and gibes at the famous" while Cervantes' universal portrayal of the human condition has cemented its status as "one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times" (PMM). The Ibarra edition swiftly became the preferred edition in Spain when it appeared in 1780 (Palau, 52024). “It is interesting to realize that the first modern novel was composed by a sick, aged and impoverished man, who believed that a satirical tale might produce more revenue than the poems and plays that he regarded as his more serious mission. Under the guise of a parody on romances of chivalry, Cervantes created a study of reality and illusion, madness and sanity, that links him with such acute 16th-century students of psychology as Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare” (Folger’s Choice 30).