Quixote and Persiles Additions

Author(s): Francisco Aguilera

Source: Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, Vol. 15, No. 4 (AUGUST 1958), pp. 228-
232
Published by: Library of Congress
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29780881
Accessed: 11-05-2017 09:14 UTC

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 Quixote and Persiles Additions
IN 19 4 4 MR. LEONARD KEBLER presented
the Library with a score of editions of
Don Quixote. These additions to the
Library's collection justified the late Pro?
fessor Miguel Romera-Navarro's com?
ment: "The combined holdings of Cer
vantina in the Hispanic Society of
America, Library of Congress, and Har?
vard University will give American Cer?
vantes scholars greater facilities for re?
search than those enjoyed by scholars in
any single country abroad." 1
A year later, Mr. Kebler favored the
Library with 40 additional Quixotes and
twelve other works of Miguel de Cervantes
Saavedra. Since then, the acquisition on
a selective basis of noncurrent editions of
Cervantes' works has enhanced the stature
of the collection. The criterion has been
to increase its usefulness for research, bib
liophilic, and iconographic purposes. A
constant preoccupation also has been to
bring the collection of his works other
than Don Quixote to a level comparable
to that reached by the latter.
The Kebler Quixote additions have
been the subject of three articles in this
Journal.2 In the present paper, the im?
mediate purpose of which is to report on
three recent acquisitions of outstanding
1 In a letter to the Hispanic Foundation,
1945.
2 Francisco Aguilera, "The Kebler Addition
to the Don Quixote Collection," QJCA II
(February 1945), 11-22; Edwin B. Knowles,
Jr., "A Rare Quixote Edition,'' QJCA III
(February 1946), 3-5; Francisco Aguilera,
"Further Additions to the Cervantes Collec?
tion," QJCA IV (November 1946), 7-9.
228
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importance, some of Mr. Kebler's gifts (in?
cluding non-Quixote items excluded from
the above mentioned articles) will be de?
scribed in some detail.
At two Sotheby sales, held in February
and March 1958 in London, the Library
bought the second edition of Don Quixote
(published in the same year as the first),
the first edition of the first English transla?
tion of Persiles and Sigismunda, and the
eighth edition (published in the same
year as the first) of the same novel in the
original Spanish.
To appreciate the significance of the
second edition it is pertinent to recall the
publishing history of Cervantes' master?
piece at the very inception of its career.
At least six different editions of Don
Quixote in the original Spanish came out
in 1605: the princeps and the fourth, both
printed in Madrid by Juan de la Cuesta;
the second and third, in Lisbon, by Jorge
Rodriguez and Pedro Crasbeeck respec?
tively; and the fifth and sixth, in Valencia,
both by Pedro Patricio Mey.
In 1916 Professor Homero Sens discov?
ered a 1605 copy issued by Cuesta which
differed notably from the two Cuesta edi?
tions mentioned above, and nearly thirty
years later Prof. Edwin B. Knowles, Jr.,
discovered a second such copy, "the only
other copy known to be in existence,"
which, incidentally, was included in Mr.
Kebler's gift to the Library of Congress.
Senor Sens concluded that he was dealing
with a new issue, or possibly a new edition,
by the Madrid printer; he designated it
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 Pommes
?. Witty Difc??tfes, Morall, Political!,
\;4md Dcfcghtfoll. ;
STie firftCopi^ in Spanifli ?
; \ iranftMid afterward into French $ and

/;'?;-: LONDON*
Printed by ? X. fortac. X. and are to be fold at
the%le'o^ ? ;

Title page of the travels of persiles and sigismunda (London, 1619).

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with the name "nueva variedad."3 In
this he was supported by leading Spanish
bibliographers. Mr. Knowles' strong without being aware of this fact, a glance
belief is that the newly discovered 1605
copy "is unquestionably a different state
or issue and stands chronologically be?
tween the first and second Cuesta edi?
tions." 4
The copy recently acquired by the Li?
brary was printed by Jorge Rodriguez in
Lisbon. It has a distinguishing charac?
teristic: a woodcut on the cover depicting
a mounted knight, sword in hand, pre?
ceded by a squire on foot with lance and
sword. (See illustration.) This consti?
tutes the first known illustration in the
history of the book. Whether such an
illustration is a representation of Don
Quixote and Sancho Panza, as Henry S.
Ashbee believed, is a point subject to dis?
cussion. In An Iconography of Don
Quixote, 1605-1895 (London, 1895), p.
1, Ashbee described it in these terms: "A
rough wood-cut . . . representing Don
Quixote, sword in hand, mounted on
Rosinante, preceded by Sancho on foot,
carrying a lance." On the very same page
Ashbee is more cautious in his wording
in referring to a certain illustration in
another edition: ". . . representing a
mounted knight in full career, which may
pass as a representation of Don Quixote"
(italics supplied by us).
The late Juan Givanel Mas, a life?
long student of the history of the book, in?
cluding its iconographic aspects, was of the
opinion that the woodcut in the Rodriguez
edition is one of the many stock engravings
suggesting medieval chivalry that were
available at print shops in those days
8 Homero Seris, La Colecci?n Cervantina de
la Sociedad Hispdnica de America {The His?
panic Society of America), ediciones de Don
Quijote (Urbana, 111., 1920), p. 36; see also his
"Una nueva variedad de la edicion principe
del 'Quijote,' " in The Romanic Review, April
1918, p. 205.
4 Edwin B. Knowles, Jr., op. cit., p. 5.
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(Catdlogo de la Colecci?n Cervantina,
Barcelona, 1941, vol. 1, p. 11). Even
at the illustration is apt to dissuade one
from the idea that it was made especially
for this particular story. Ashbee's trail
blazing monograph and Manuel Hein
rich's Iconografia de las ediciones del Qui
jote de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
(Barcelona, 1905) are valuable undertak?
ings, all the worthier if we take into con?
sideration the fact that 60 years or so ago
the bibliographical history of Don Quixote
left much to be desired. Since 1905 the
only comprehensive, though far from ex?
haustive, effort along these lines is the 576
page book by Juan Givanel Mas and
Gaziel,5 Historia grdfica de Cervantes y
del Quijote (Madrid, 1946). It is rea?
sonable to assume that the Don Quixote
collection in the Library of Congress can
be of great assistance to someone studying
such iconographic aspects in extenso and
with sensitivity.
The Lisbon edition under discussion is
chronologically, as stated before, the sec?
ond edition of Don Quixote. It was a
pirated product, as was another one issued
by Pedro Crasbeeck of the same city.
Both Lisbon editions follow the text of the
editio princeps. For this reason, they are
the only two (or two of the only three, if
we recognize the "nueva variedad" issue)
to include an original Cervantes passage
which was to stand altered for nearly three
centuries in hundreds of editions in both
Spanish and foreign-language translations.
In this passage (chapter 26) the protag?
onist makes a rosary by tearing a large
strip from the tail of his shirt. This episode
was reworded in the second Cuesta edi?
tion (chronologically the fourth in the his?
tory of the book) at the suggestion of some
critics who thought it indecorous, and not
5 "Gaziel" is the pseudonym of Agustin
Calvet.
229
by order of the Inquisition, as asserted by
hasty commentators.
Shelton, Jarvis, Motteux, and other
English translators followed the modified
text, whereby, to quote Jarvis (1742),
"Don Quixote strung some large galls of
a cork tree, which served him for a rosary."
Shelton and all the others before and after
him followed the text of the second and
third editions published in Brussels in
Spanish (in 1611 and 1617 respectively).
It was not until 1898 that the original
Cervantes text was restored. This distinc?
tion belongs to the epoch-making Edin?
burgh-London edition prepared by James
Fitzmaurice Kelly and John Ormsby. The
singular thing is that 13 years before this
restored edition in Spanish appeared in
Great Britain the same John Ormsby, a
most scholarly and gifted translator, pub?
lished his own English version of Don
Quixote (London, 1885), in which he re?
surrected the "indecorous" passage, thus:
"And then it occurred to him how he
might make a rosary, and that was by tear
a great strip off the tail of his shirt which
hung down, and making eleven knots on it,
one bigger than the rest, and this served
him for a rosary all the time he was there,
during which he repeated countless ave
marias." The translator explains in a foot?
note that "the rosary accounts for the
shortage of Don Quixote's shirt, especially
referred to in chapter 35." The example
set by Ormsby and Fitzmaurice Kelly was
followed in Francisco Rodriguez Mann's
critical edition of 1911-1913, and has be?
come the norm in both Spanish and Eng?
lish translations, such as Samuel Putnam's
(New York, 1949).
The Lisbon copy now owned by the
Library of Congress is a good one, from Count of Lemos, Los trabajos de Persiles
the collection of Henry Labouchere, first
Baron Taunton. Other copies are re?
ported in the Biblioteca Nacional (Ma?
drid), Biblioteca Central (Barcelona),
British Museum, Boston Public Library,
230
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and Hispanic Society of America (two
copies). The exceptional rarity of this
Rodriguez issue is attested by Salva and
Watts, among others, who considered it
even rarer than the Madrid editions of the
same year.
It is no exaggeration to say that Don
Quixote was the Iberian Peninsula's book
of the year for 1605: three editions in Ma?
drid (if we recognize the "nueva varie
dad") ; two in Lisbon (Spain's king was
also Portugal's); two in Valencia. The
Library of Congress now has in its collec?
tion the princeps and "nueva variedad"
(Madrid), the first Lisbon edition, and
the first Valencia edition. The last named
was included in the 1944 Kebler gift.
The two Valencia printings, both by
Pedro Patricio Mey, are two distinct edi?
tions. The catchword on folio 2 (LA in?
stead of AL) of the Kebler copy instantly
discloses that we are dealing with the
earlier issue, without having to compare
the hundred variants established between
the two.
If Don Quixote was the book of the
year for 1605, Persiles and Sigismunda
was the book of the year for 1617. Pub?
lished posthumously (Cervantes died on
April 23, 1616), it equaled or bettered the
Quixote record. Eight editions came out
in 1617: three in Madrid by Cuesta; two
in Barcelona by Bautista Sorita; one in
Valencia by Mey; one in Pamplona by
Nicolas de Assiayn; and one in Lisbon by
Rodriguez.
Persiles was the work that Cervantes
treasured most of all his productions.
In the dedication of the second part of
Don Quixote (written on October 31,
1615) Cervantes offers to his patron, the
y Sigismunda, "a book which I shall finish
within four months, Deo volente; which
book will be either the very worst or the
very best that has been written in our
language,?of books of entertainment, I
mean;?and indeed I repent having said
the very worst, for in the opinion of my
friends, it is bound to reach the greatest
possible excellence." (Ormsby's transla?
tion.) Incidentally, he did not finish it
"within four months," but in about five
and one half months, on April 19, 1616,
four days before he died.
The first edition of the first English
translation, which the Library has recently
bought, bears the title, The Travels of
Persiles and Sigismunda. A Northern
History. It was not a direct translation
from the Spanish, and the fact is so stated
on the title page: "The first Copie, beeing
written in Spanish; translated afterward
into French; and now, last, into English."
It was printed in London in 1619 "by
H. L. for M. L." The latter, the pub?
lisher, in his dedication to Philip Lord
Standhope, states his ignorance of the
identity of the translator: "This transla?
tion falling into my hands by chance, not
knowing whose labor hath brought it to
light_" Identified as the J. P. R. Lyell
copy, it shows repairs to several leaves.
According to Rius (Bibliografia critic a de
las ob ras de Miguel de Cervantes Saave
dra, Madrid, 1895-1904), this English
text is based on D'Audiguier's French
translation (1618). The Short Title
Catalogue mentions two copies in the
United Kingdom (British Museum and
Bodleian Library) and three in the
United States (Huntington Library, Gha
pin, and W. A. White). To these must be
added a copy in the Reference Library at
Birmingham, England. We are indebted
for this information to Mr. Victor Woods,
City Librarian of Birmingham. "The
Birmingham copy," wrote Mr. Woods in
a recent communication, "was one of the
many valuable items in a collection of
Cervantes presented to the library by W.
Bragge, Esq., F. S. A. The majority of
the volumes in this Collection were, un?
fortunately, destroyed in the disastrous fire
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at the Reference Library on 11th January,
1879. From our records I find that our
first edition of the English translation of
Per sties is one of the items saved from the
fire. Stains at the top of the first fifty
pages seem to show that the volume suf?
fered from scorching in the fire."
The third book acquired at the Sotheby
sale is the "Paris" edition, or "eighth" edi?
tion, of Persiles in the original Spanish,
which appeared in the same year as the
princeps (1617). Entitled Los trabajos
de Persiles y Sigismunda, Historia seten
trional, it was printed by Juan de la
Guesta for Estevan Richer in Paris.
Givanel Mas lists it eighth in his Catd
logo. Rius considers it the third edition,
following the first of Madrid and the
Madrid counterfeit that took second place.
The present copy bears a bookplate of
James P. R. Lyell. Copies are in the Bi
blioteca Nacional (Madrid), the Biblio
teca Central (Barcelona), the Bibliotheque
Nationale (Paris), the British Museum,
and the Hispanic Society of America.
The Library has had for a number of
years five other Persiles items worthy of
note. Together with the two recently ac?
quired, they can well provide the founda?
tion for a distinguished collection of the
work which Cervantes loved best.
One is the Barcelona edition printed by
Bautista Sorita in the same year as that
of the Madrid first (1617). The book?
seller is variously given in different varie?
ties of this edition as Juan Simon, Miguel
Gracian, and Raphael Vives. The Li?
brary's copy (added to the collection in
1931), like the one at the British Museum,
has the name of Simon included in the
imprint.
Another valuable Persiles is the 1617
Lisbon edition by Jorge-Rodriguez; it was
donated to the Library by Mr. Kebler.
Copies are in the national libraries at
Madrid and Lisbon, the Biblioteca Cen
231
tral (Barcelona), and the Hispanic So?
ciety of America.
Two other Kebler copies are the first
Italian and the second English transla?
tions. The Italian was published in Ven?
ice in 1626 by Bartolomeo Fontana under
the title Istoria settentrionale, de trauagli
di Persile, e Sigismonda. The translator
was Francesco Ellio. The second English
version (entitled Persiles and Sigismunda,
A Celebrated Novel), anonymous like the
first, appeared in London in 1741 in two
volumes. It is believed that the transla?
tor followed the French text of Madame
Le Givre de Richebourg (1738).
Finally, we shall mention the third
translation into English, The Wanderings
of Persiles and Sigismunda, A Northern
Story, the work of Louisa Dorothea Stan?
ley (London, 1854), which entered the Li
232
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brary's collection in 1906. A feature
which Miss Stanley proudly introduces in
her book is the repro uction on the title
page of "an undoubted Portrait of Cer?
vantes" belonging to Sir Arthur Aston,
who obtained it in Madrid, having found
it in the possession of a family that highly
prized it. Givanel Mas, on more than one
occasion, refused to grant to this portrait
even the possibility of authenticity.6
Francisco Aguilera
Specialist in Hispanic Culture
The Hispanic Foundation
6 Barcelona, Biblioteca Central, Catdlogo de
la Exposition de Iconografia Cervantina . . .
Precedido de un estudio acerca de los retratos
de Cervantes por Juan Givanel y Mas (Bar?
celona, 1944), p. 28-29. See also p. 437-38 of
Catdlogo de la Coleccion Cervantina, cited
above.