CERVANTES SAAVEDRA Miguel de El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Compuesto por Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

Palau, 51984; Ford & Lansing, p.5; Biblioteca Nacional, Don Quijote, Ausgaben in vierhundert Jahren, 9; Henrich, n° 10 (erroneous pagination); Salvà, 1551.

Second Brussels edition of the first part of Don Quixote.

It closely follows the first Brussels edition, published four years earlier. Here, some errors have been corrected, but as the text has been completely recomposed, others reappear. In this edition, Solisdàn’s sonnet to Don Quixote was removed. The printer Velpius, who had acquired the exclusive rights to publish Don Quixote in 1607, sold part of the rights to his colleague Hubert Antoine two years before this privilege expired. Hubert Antoine published the second part of the novel in 1616, without sharing the new privilege with Velpius. This copy conforms to the collation given in the Biblioteca Nacional catalog, but the pagination is incorrect; there are actually [16]pp., including the title page, 583, [9]pp. The last page contains the privilege granted for six years from March 6, 1607.

Literary provenance

Copy that belonged to Jean Joseph Marius Diouloufet (1771-1840) with his signature on the title page and flyleaf. Provençal poet Diouloufet is the author of Provençal poems, fables, and tales, as well as “Don Quichotte philosophe,” published the year of his death. A loose leaf bears his (?) notes with suggestions for typographical corrections between pages 24 and 50.

A very fine copy.

[Together with:]

The true second edition of the Segunda Parte

CERVANTES, Miguel de. Segunda parte del Ingenioso Cavallero don Quixote de la Mancha. Brucelas, Huberto Antonio, impressor jurado cerca del Palacio, 1616. Large 8vo (178 x 101 mm) 8 unn.l, 687 pp. Contemporary vellum, flat spine with manuscript title, no laces.

Ford-Lansing, p. 5; Don Quijote, Ausgaben in Vierhundert Jahren, no. 11; Henrich-Rius, Iconografia de las ediciones del Quijote, no. 13; Peteer-Fontainas, 228; Brunet, I, 1748; Barges-Medias, Manuel del coleccionista de Quijotes, 2.VII; Salva, no. 1553.

First Brussels edition, first edition printed outside the Iberian Peninsula, and second edition of the text of the Secunda parte de Don Quijote.

Published during the author’s lifetime, who died a few days later, it appeared a few months after the original Madrid edition (Juan de la Cuesta, 1615). It was followed by a third edition, also published in 1616 in Valencia by Mey.

“Der exacte Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung dieser Ausgabe des zweiten Teils ist sehr umstritten. Fitzmaurice-Kelly in seinem Werk ‘The Life of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra… with a tentative bibliography’ S. 330, Heinrich in seiner ‘Icononografia de las ediciones del Quijote’, und Givanel in seinem ‘Catalogo de la seccion Cervantina de la Biblioteca Central’ reihen sie vor der valencianischen Edition aus dem gleichen Jahr 1616 ein. Salva, Rius und Cortejon hingegen betrachten di Brüsseler Ausgabe als die zweite überhaupt, da sie (trotz über hundert Abweichungen) doch fast alle Druck- und Zeichensetzungsfehler der Editio Princeps aufweist. Der auffälligste Fehler befindet sich gleich auf dem Titelblatt : ‘Marqués de Saria’ für ‘Sarria’. Diese Ausgabe passt zum Ersten Teil, den der gleiche Drucker dann 1617 veröffentlichte” (Don Quijote Ausgaben).

Quires ‘a’ to ‘z’ and ‘Vv’ reinforced in the margins without affecting the text, quires slightly dislodged, pagination errors: 41 instead of 51, 257 for 247, 413 instead of 431, 525 instead of 552, 581 instead of 591, and in the table in chapter 74, page 979 instead of 679). Small loss to the upper joint.

A fine copy with very good margins, as indicated by Barges-Medias: “The pages must be more than 17 cm high to be a good copy.”