The exceptionally rare first French edition in untouched original binding

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de.

Les travaux de Persiles et de Sigismonde histoire septentrionale, où, parmy les traverses amoureuses de ce Prince de Tule & de de ceste Princesse de Frislandie, sont contenuës plusieurs autres Avantures de nostre temps, non moins rares & memorables, que morales & delicieuses ... traduicte en nostre langue par Francois de Rosset. Et dediée a Madame la Duchesse D'Usès.

Paris: Jean Richer, 1618.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #004206

8vo (161 x 103 mm). [12], 740 (i.e., 742), [2] pp. Page numbers 607/8 duplicated. Title page with small vignette; woocut initials, head- and tailpieces; royal privilege leaf bound at the end. Signatures: a⁶ A-Z⁸ Aa-Zz⁸ Aaa⁴. Contemporary French calf, spine with 4 raised bands gilt lettered and richly decorated in compartments, red-sprinkled edges, original endpapers (leather rubbed, wear to extremities and spine ends, upper joint cracked but cords holding, corners scuffed). Generally clean and crisp internally with only very minor occasional spotting, a few pages with a faint pale waterstain, text leaf somewhat browned and dust-soiled; upper margin trimmed close touching headlines in some instances. Provenance: illegible signature on front-pastedown, from a private Spanish collection. A fine copy in untouched contemporary binding. ----

FIRST EDITION IN FRENCH, AND OF UTMOST RARITY. Palau y Dulcet only knows two copies in public libraries: one in the British Museum and the other in the Biblioteca de Cataluña. Another copy, also eletronically available, is in the Bibliotheque National de France (see gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/ bpt6k87098426). Although not notable for its style, this translation has the merit of being extremely faithful, and with it Rosset demonstrates his perfect knowledge of the Spanish language. The translator made up for the requirement that the first Spanish editions lacked by giving all the chapters their corresponding epigraphs. These therefore differ from those that were later included in the Spanish edition of 1719. Beautiful printing with large, clear type" (Rius, transl.).
Rousset fared better with Persiles than with the second part of Don Quixote, and even had the good sense to include epigraphs in all the chapters. It is a rare work. (Palau, transl.).
The last work by Cervantes, The Works of Persiles and Sigismunda is a romance which relates the ideal love and unbelievable vicissitudes of a couple, who, starting from the Arctic regions, arrive in Rome, where they find a happy ending to their complicated adventure. It was completed on April 20, 1616, just two days before his death and published in 1617 almost simultaneously in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Pamplona, Paris, Port au Prince, Soria and Valencia. Persiles y Sigismunda stands in opposition to his famous novel Don Quixote by its embrace of the fantastic rather than the commonplace. While Cervantes is known primarily for Don Quixote, widely regarded as one of the foremost classic novels of all time, he himself believed Persiles to be his crowning achievement.
Bibliography & References: D. Leopoldo Rius, Bibliografia critica de las obras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Madrid, 1895; Givanel Mas, Juan. Catálogo de la Colección Cervantina. Volumen I. Años 1590-1785. Barcelona, [Biblioteca Central], 1941, n. 53, p. 93-94; A. Palau y Dulcet. Manual del librero hispano-americano ... Segunda ed., corregida y aumentada por el autor. Barcelona, 1948-77; A. Palau y Dulcet, Bibliografia de Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Barcelona-Madrid, 1950. - Visit our website to see more images!

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