August 1, 2010
PRINTED 1675: A FINE FOLIO EDITION OF THE FIRST AND BEST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF DON QUIXOTE
“THE FIRST MODERN NOVEL” (PMM)
The Book:
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de, [The History of the Valorous and Witty-Knight-Errant, Don-Quixote, of the Mancha. Translated out of the Spanish; now newly corrected and amended.]. R. Scot, etc.: London, 1675. Prefixed to pt. II is a title page bearing the imprint: Printed by Richard Hodgkinson, An. Dom. 1672. 2 VOLS in 1. FOLIO, 28 cm. 273 pgs; [8], 137; [5], 138-214, 216-244, 244-273 lvs., small marginal tear to leaf 6 not affecting text, some very occasional spotting, otherwise a VERY GOOD AND COMPLETE COPY. Blind-ruled full period style calf, armorial bookplate. Provenance: Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley, 1st Baron Stuart of Wortley PC (15 September 1851 – 24 April 1926), the British Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1880 until 1916. Lord Stuart of Wortley married Beatrice, daughter of Thomas Adolphus Trollope and niece of the author Anthony Trollope, in 1880. She died in July 1881 and Stuart married as his second wife Alice Sophia Caroline Millais (1862-1936), daughter of the artist John Everett Millais. [SOLD]
Thomas Shelton (fl. 1612-1620) was the English translator of Don Quixote. Shelton’s was the first translation of the novel into any language. This 1675 edition, the third appearance, is one of the earliest obtainable translations.
“In the dedication of The delightfull history of the wittie knight, Don Quishote vjd (1612) he explains to his patron, Lord Howard de Walden, afterwards 2nd Earl of Suffolk”, that he “Translated some five or six yeares agoe, The Historie of Don-Quixote, out of the Spanish tongue, into the English … in the space of forty daies: being therunto more than half enforced, through the importunitie of a very deere friend, that was desirous to understand the subject.”[2] Shelton did not use the original edition of the First Part of Cervantes’ masterpiece, but a version published in the original Spanish in Brussels in 1607.[3] Shelton’s translation of the First Part of the novel was published while Cervantes was still alive. On the appearance of the Brussels imprint of the Second Part of Don Quixote in 1616, the year of Cervantes’s death, Shelton translated that also into English, completing his task in 1620, and printing at the same time a revised edition of the First Part. His performance has become a classic among English translations for its racy, spirited rendering of the original… ” [Ref: Wikipedia]
