CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (Jacob Campo WEYERMAN translator; Antoine COYPEL illustrator).
De voornaamste gevallen van den wonderlyken Don Quichot, door den beroemden Picart den Romein ... in XXXI kunstplaaten, na de uitmuntende schilderyen van Coypel in't koper gebragt ...
The Hague, Pieter de Hondt, 1746. Large folio (42 x 27 cm). Title in red and black with an engraved vignette (Quixote and the windmill), and 31 engraved illustration plates, all coloured by a contemporary hand, heightened with gold and set in in a gilt frame. Further with large woodcut initials and tailpieces, and each text page in an ornamental frame built up from typographic ornaments (the frames not in the 4to issue). Contemporary, richly gold-tooled dark red morocco by the so-called Van Damme bindery in Amsterdam, sewn on 7 supports, each board with Van Dammes typical hourglass- or vase- or flask-shaped central cartouche with a starry sky on a black ground, here showing a short-stemmed chalice or goblet with fire or flame-like leaves (like a snake plant, Dracaena trifasciata) in the cartouche and a basket of flowers topping the cartouche, the whole in an elaborate frame built up from hundreds of impressions of numerous small tools, the spine-title in gold on a black ground in the 2nd of 8 compartments, each of the other 7 with flowers, other decorations and a small flower in a pot, gilt edges. With a tissue guard-leaf before each plate. [2], XXVI, 420 pp.
€ 48,500
Very rare large-paper copy of the first and only edition of a "free and joyous" Dutch translation of Cervantes's Don Quixote, with 31 rococo style plates in spectacular contemporary hand colouring and with gold highlights. The plates have been engraved by leading Dutch artists Bernard Picart (12), Jacob van der Schley (13), Pierre Tanjé (5), and Simon Fokke (1), after paintings by leading French artists Antoine Coypel (25), Charles-Nicolas Cochin (2), Pierre-Charles Trémolières (2), François Boucher (1), and Jacques-Philippe le Bas (1). The impressions are crisp and the hand colouring is bright and of the highest quality, with subtly graded tones, and highlights in gold. Antoine Coypel (1694-1752), responsible for the design of most of the illustrations, was one of the most important French history painters of the early 18th century. His Don Quixote paintings are highlights in his oeuvre and can be found in several museum collections.
The Dutch edition was translated by Jacob Campo Weyerman (1677-1747), one of the foremost Dutch authors of the Enlightenment, who was known for his merry style. He added to this edition a Dutch translation of the biography of Cervantes by Gregorio Mayans (1737), and explanatory texts to the plates. De Hondt issued the present edition in at least three formats: 4to, folio on ordinary paper and folio on large paper. The present copy is the large-paper folio issue, which is indeed very rare: several libraries have folio editions on ordinary paper (usually about 35 cm tall), but we have not located a copy of the large folio issue in any library. The only other large-paper copy we have been able to trace is slightly smaller.
Cervantes's Don Quixote, first published in Spanish (1605-1615), was first translated into Dutch in the early 17th century and went through several editions until 1732. Engraved prints after Coypel's famous Don Quixote paintings started circulating in 1734. De Hondt took this opportunity to publish a new Dutch translation with the Coypel illustrations and some others. He asked Weyerman, who was already a famous writer but was imprisoned for slander, to translate the text. He also commissioned new plates (after Coypels paintings) from the leading Dutch engravers. This came together in what became a masterpiece of rococo book production, and the present hand-coloured copy of the large folio issue is the outstanding result.
The Van Damme bindery was the "most important Amsterdam workshop of the 18th century" and is praised for the "high quality of its work" (Storm van Leeuwen): 89 bindings are attributed to it. Although its earliest dated binding is from 1747, the present work and two others in similar Van Damme bindings in the British Library were printed in 1746, so these bindings may be among Van Dammes earliest work, made in or soon after that year. Three of the six Van Damme bindings in the British Library, as well as several examples in Storm van Leeuwen, have a similar cartouche with a black interior, but none includes the present vase or goblet of flames or flame-like leaves: we have not identified the patron.
The boards are very slightly rubbed, the corners and head and foot of the spine have been reinforced. A few small spots in the foot margin of the title page, and slight browning of the paper of 2 quires. Otherwise in very good condition. Arents, Cervantes in het Nederlands 27: "Kneppelhout, nr. 2587 (gr. fol., rood verg. marok., verg. op sn. Zeer fraai ex. op gr. papier. Het titelvignet en de 30 prtn. allen alleruitmuntendst uit de hand gekl. en met goud afgezet. In oud-Holl. prachtbd. van rood marokyn. De rug verg. in afdeel. De platten met een zeer breed verguldsel, randwerk, en verg. middenfig. op zwart leder. Verg. op sn. (Gekocht door Hr. Elte voor fl. 420)."); Cohen & De Ricci 216 ("superbes illustrations; livre tres recherche"); Van Gorp, pp. 161-162; Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman 18 (1995), passim; Rius I, 806; STCN 197115810 (8 copies); Marleen de Vries, Aanzet tot een bibliografie ... van Jacob Campo Weyerman (1990); cf. for the binding: Storm van Leeuwen I, pp. 460-499.
Related Subjects:
