First edition of Don Quijote found

First published in Spanish on 17 January on Spanish National Library blog.

The first edition of the first part of Don Quixote was published in January 1605, more than a century before the Spanish National Library existed.  It was printed by Juan de la Cuesta in his printworks at 87 Calle Atocha (Madrid), from where came many of Cervantes’ books and those of other writers of the Golden Age, for example Lope de Vega.  The building is now owned by the Cervantes Society of Madrid and its façade has a plaque commemorating this year.

Commemorative Plaque in Calle Atocha 87

In the nineteenth century, the index of the Spanish National Library included a copy of the first edition, but the book could not be found.  We also had a copy of a second edition dated 1605.  How did we get another copy of the first edition?  It was an accident and an act of generosity.

In the 60s of the nineteenth century the Library was supervised by the writer and philologist Hatzenbusch Juan Eugenio, who participated, along with Francisco Lopez Fabra, in creating the facsimile edition of Don Quixote preserved in the Spanish Royal Academy (first edition, 1605, the only copy known at the time).  His idea was to use this new technique so that the public could see the book as it came out of the press.  The resulting work was spread throughout Spain, so that a student from Zaragoza, Justo Jareño Zapater, saw it.  As narrated by Hatzenbusch in the report he sent to the Ministry of Development in 1865:

“that letter and those ornaments reminded him that he had seen in a house in the town (of Teruel) a book by Ingenious Hidalgo with a similar front page: he sought it out and acquired it and understanding that was probably the first edition, and consequently of great rarity, he wrote to this library, generously offering it.  Well it could have been a mistake by Mr. Zapater, because the first and second editions of Don Quixote, printed in Madrid by Juan de la Cuesta in 1605, have the same page that was reproduced by Mr. Fabra, but fortune, as if to crown the noble purpose of Mr. Zapater, and return to the National Library half of a sensitive loss, meant that the copy of Teruel was the first edition, in good condition, although it was missing the front cover and table of chapters at the end of the volume, faults that have been remedied, using the copy of the Spanish Academy and the skill of Mr. Fabra. “

First edition of Don Quijote de la Mancha

Proving that this was indeed the first edition of 1605 was not complicated: the first edition came out with so many errors that Cervantes would speak of them in the second part of Don Quixote, via the character Sanson Carrasco.  Maybe it was because of money or time problems, but it also lacked full episodes, such as theft of Sancho’s donkey.  So we know that the gift made by Justo Zapater was invaluable.

This donation, probably the most important received by the Spanish National Library, next to the Song of the Cid, led to the possibility of preserving one of the major Spanish bibliographic treasures and, in addition, of a second example of the first edition.  Today many more have been located and are in Library of Catalonia; Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Library of Congress – two copies; and The British Library … but in the mid nineteenth century the only known example was that of the Spanish Royal Academy.

As noted by Hatzenbusch, the Don Quijote that came to the Spanish National Library had no cover and was also missing four opening pages.  These were reproduced by Lopez Fabra using the copy of the book in the Spanish Royal Academy.

Books4Spain has 2 versions of Don Quijote in English available and also Monsignor Quixote, a fantastic modern day take by Graham Greene

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Books4Spain  also has a selection of classic Spanish literature and modern Spanish literature in translation and thousands of other books about Spain, ranging from subjects such Flamenco, the Spanish Civil War, Camino de Santiago as well as Crime Fiction books set in Spain,  books about Living in Spain, Novels set in Spain, Spanish Cook & Recipe books and much more as well as books about Spanish authors and artists such as Federico García Lorca, Salvador Dali, Picasso, Franco, Bunuel etc.