CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de (1547–1616). El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Paris: Julio Didot Mayor, 1827.
32mo (121 x 76 mm). Half–title, engraved title–page, engraved portrait frontispiece and numerous steel–engraved plates, double–page engraved map at end. Full cathedral blindstamped red calf with a central coat of arms below the arches of the sponsor Joaquin Maria de Ferrer (1777–1861), spine further blindstamped with a cathedral design and a central windmill device, all edges gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers, STAMP–SIGNED BY SIMIER R. DUROL (spine gently sunned, few small spots of rubbing to extreme ends and covers).
Provenance: Domingo de Monte (1804–1853), the Cuban author’s gilt morocco bookplate stamped “Ex Museo del Montino”. Del Monte was an important Cuban author and one of the most influential intellectuals in Cuba at the time; Domingo Guillermo de Arozarena (dated gift inscription from Ramon Zambrana, 23 October 1862); gift inscription to a “Doctor Baldwin” dated 1900 from Bora Adel Morley(?).
RARE MINIATURE EDITION “in which Jules Didot, desiring to associate his fame with that of Cervantes, has invented and made use of a new size in letters; and, overcoming all the difficulties which the art presented, has achieved a miniature edition which is not only equal to the best of its kind executed in London and Paris, but exceeds them in beauty and clarity; printing in one column what is usually printed in two, the better to wield the minute letters which had until then been considered impossible to wield.” Brunet 1:52051; Palau 52051; Rius 79.