Two separately published parts, octavo (vol. I, 163 x 103 mm; vol. II, 163 x 93 mm). Early 18th-century calf, decorated in similar style but not exactly matching, both with raised bands with elaborate gilt tooling in compartments, twin red morocco labels added sometime later (one since renewed), covers of vol. II bordered with a single gilt rule and board edges gilt, vol. II with French curl pattern marbled endpapers, edges sprinkled red; both bindings square and firm, joints of both volumes and two corners of vol. I skilfully repaired, a little loss of calf to edge of rear board of vol. I. Woodcut historiated and floriated initials, head- and tailpieces. Title page of vol. I with bookplate of the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and ownership inscription “德金” (“De Jin”), probably Joseph de Guignes. Frequent annotations in French in ink, pencil, and red crayon in different hands to both volumes, title pages laid down on a later sheet, vol. I with closed tear to margin of three leaves and one margin with crude early repair (loss of initial letter on 11 lines), four small ink burns with loss of a few letters, occasional marks to contents, otherwise generally clean. An attractive set.

The first part was originally published in Madrid by Juan de la Cuesta in 1605. The second part was first published by Cuesta in 1615, the year before Cervantes’s death. The first complete edition of Don Quixote, combining the two parts with the same date, did not appear until 1617, in Barcelona.

The first part here is the second Brussels edition, succeeding the first of 1607. It was published by Rutger Velpius, official printer to the court in Brussels, and his son-in-law Hubert Anthoine, who worked together from 1601 onwards. Based on the second Cuesta edition, it corrected several obvious errors in the text, although, astonishingly, only two of those corrections found their way into the third Cuesta edition of 1608. Velpius died around 1614-15, leaving Hubert Anthoine to succeed him. Anthoine’s edition of the second part was published only a few months after the princeps by Cuesta and follows it closely.

Don Quixote is a landmark of Western literature and one of the most-translated books in the world. “It was the variety, the liveliness, and the gibes at the famous, which won it instant fame. … Within months Don Quixote and Sancho Panza had become legendary... Don Quixote is one of those universal works which are read by all ages at all times, and there are very few who have not at one time or another felt themselves to be Don Quixote confronting the windmills of Sancho Panza at the inn” (PMM).

Provenance: title page of vol. I with bookplate of the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Paris, and ownership inscription “德金” (“De Jin”), probably the French orientalist Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800); the pair latterly in the extensive library of Andre Gutzwiller (fl. 1958-1994), Swiss banker and bibliophile, with his bookplate to front pastedowns.

Salva 1551 & 1553; Ruis 10 & 13; see Printing and the Mind of Man 111 (first ed. Madrid 1605).