CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (1547-1616). The History of the Valorous and Witty-Knight-Errant, Don-Quixote of the Mancha. Translated from the original Spanish by Thomas Shelton. London: Richard Hodgkinsonne for Andrew Crooke, 1652.

2 parts in one volume, chancery folio (286 x 184 mm). Woodcut devices on both titles, woodcut head-pieces and decorative initials. (Title-page worn and soiled at edges, small hole above title, some spotting throughout, lower marginal loss at foot of final leaf with small paper repair to verso, also with some marginalia to both recto and verso). Full contemporary English calf twice ruled in blind, rebacked (corners worn with losses, some surface wear, lacking blanks).

SECOND EDITION IN ENGLISH of Cervantes’s celebrated novel. Originally published in Madrid in 1604 and part II in 1615, the Thomas Shelton translation published in 1612 and the second part in 1620 was the first translation in any language which took him only forty days to complete. THIS IS THE FIRST ONE-VOLUME EDITION of Shelton’s translation that is generally considered the only translation that “realizes Cervantes’s manner more nearly than any successor” (DNB). PMM 111 (first Spanish edition).