| Description | Background
The collection contains c1,300 volumes published between 1611 - 1985. There are 25 texts published pre - 1701 and 24 early editions in various languages.
Don Quixote
The collection includes facsimiles of the first editions of parts I and II of Don Quixote. The earliest original editions in the dated 1611 and 1616, both in Spanish but printed in Brussels. Part I of Don Quixote was translated into English in 1616, but the library does not possess a copy, although it does have the first English edition of both parts, 1620, one of the books which survived the fire. We also have editions in Bengali, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, and an important early illustrated edition of 1673 with plates by Bouttats; Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, and Turkish. Also worth a mention is the 1738 edition in four volumes, in Spanish, but printed in England by Tonson, generally considered the best early edition, with excellent text, clear type and numerous illustrations. This was the first large format edition. The first edition printed in Spain to bear comparison with it was the 1780 one in four volumes, edited by the Real Academia Espanola. In 1742 Tonson also brought out Charles Jarvis's English translation in another excellent edition, and in 1755 appeared the first edition of a translation by Tobias Smollett, author of several picaresque novels which show the influence of Cervantes. The 1781 edition in six volumes, annotated by Dr. Bowle, is important for its quotations which were extensively used by later editors.
Novelas Ejemplares (exemplary novels)
Five of these, the earliest, are simple, exciting Italianate stories of intrigue; the remaining seven consider the human condition in the light of Cervantes experience and are steadily becoming more profoundly appreciated. The collection includes a facsimile of the first edition, 1613, the first Brussels edition, 1614, another very early edition printed at Barcelona in 1631, and translations into Dutch, English, French, Geman, Italian, Latvian and Russian.
La Galatea
Cervantes’ first romance, published in 1585, was a not wholly satisfactory pastoral novel in which the
characters, courtiers imitating shepherds, discuss the nature of true love in prose and verse. The work never comes to grips with life, and it is perhaps a sign of Cervantes' dissatisfaction with it that, although he continually promised a second part, it never materialised. In the collection it is represented by the earliest edition printed in France (1611, in Spanish) by Spanish editions off 1618, 1738 and 1784, and by translations into English, French and German. The collection also includes editions of Florian’s imitation of La Galatea, Galatée, roman pastoral, including a very fine French edition of 1793 with early colour printed plates.
Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The wanderings of Persiles and Sigismunda)
Unlike Don Quixote, Cervantes’ last work was a serious romance of chivalry, but with a deep religious purpose; the knights and ladies are pilgrims in search not of platonic truth but of the religious truth of the Catholic faith. No other work of Cervantes enjoyed such immediate, if not lasting, popularity. The collection includes an edition printed at Pamplona in the same year as the first, 1617, an early Brussels edition of 1618, the first English translation, 1619, and other translations into English, French and Italian.
There is very comprehensive coverage of criticism in all languages, but particularly English. There is also the catalogue of Isidro Bonsoms’ collection at the Institut d’ Estudias Catalans, Barcelona, the catalogue of the Barcelona Biblioteca Central Cervantes Collection, Manuel Heinrich’s bibliography, Inconografia de las ediciones del Quijote, exhibition catalogues from the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, and Anales Cervantinos.
Classification
Texts are arranged in sections by size - octavo, quarto and folio under the Dewey classification of 863.3. The collection has a card catalogue accessible to view in Archives & Collections and particular titles will appear on the online library catalogue. |
| AdminHistory | The Cervantes collection is the second oldest special collection in the Reference Library. The original collection was donated by William Bragge, a highly successful, much travelled, cultured businessman, who in 1873, prompted by the setting up of the Shakespeare Library here, gave his Cervantes books, the most important part of his extensive collections, to the city of his birth. Although born in Birmingham, the son of a well known jeweller, William Bragge spent much of his life in South America, where he built gas, railway and waterworks for Buenos Aires, and had the Order of the Rose conferred on him by the Emperor of Brazil. He also visited Spain frequently, and it was probably these connections that led to his particular interest in Spanish literature and Cervantes.
Tragically, very few of his books survived the disastrous fire which destroyed the Reference Library in 1879, but his collection, recorded in the old library catalogues, was undoubtedly very choice, including the first edition of Novelas ejemplares, a first edition of Persiles y Sigismunda, a variant dated the same year (possibly a fictitious imprint), the first edition of Part II of Don Quixote, and the third, and copies of the fifth to tenth edition of Part 1.
The attempt was made to rebuild the collection and although those books which were destroyed have not been replaced, many interesting editions have been acquired. |