ONE OF THE VERY FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATIONS OF... Lot 25

ONE OF THE VERY FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATIONS OF QUIXOTE CERVANTES (Michel). LE VALEUREUX DOM QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHE, ou l'Histoire de ses grands exploits d'armes, fidèles amours et Adventures estranges. Rouen, Jean Berthelin, 1646. Two volumes in one in-8 (8 ff, 730 pp, 3 ff table // 2 ff, 785 pp, 6 pp table), full contemporary ivory vellum. Page breaks from 782 to 785 without missing (cf. Rius, 467); 2 ff from the end have been bound in at the head of the volume. Perforation on p. 147 with loss of a few letters. Scattered foxing. One of the first French editions to include the complete text of Don Quixote. Reworking of translations by César Oudin (1614) and François de Rosset (1618). Until 1639, these two volumes were published separately. Bardon (Don Quichotte en France) pp. 53-54, quoting Emile Gebhart: "Seventeenth-century France thus read this text, which, with its sinuous suppleness, naive grace and Latin turn, is singularly reminiscent of the language of Descartes. And it's precisely because the French of this period was like a faithful transposition of the Latin language, that our translation molds itself with astonishing ease on Cervantes' Castilian... " Palau, 52701 does not cite this edition at Berthelin's address, unlike Rius, 467. Henrich, 244. At the beginning and in fine bookplate "Joh. Baptinty of Axelé" (18th century).