Cervantes, Istoria settentrionale di Persile e Sigismonda, Venice, 1626, contemporary limp vellum

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE

Istoria settentrionale di Persile e Sigismonda [translated by Francesco Ellio]. Venice: Bartolomeo Fontana, 1626

8vo (153 x 102mm.), woodcut device on title-page and final verso, with final blank leaf, contemporary limp vellum, title-page repaired with slight loss, a few leaves remargined at foot, lacking 2 pairs of ties

First Italian translation of Cervantes' romance, first published posthumously in Madrid in 1617 and quickly translated into French (1618) and English (1619). Palau opines that the translator, the Milanese poet Francesco Ellio, used the French rather than the original Castilian.

LITERATURE:

Palau 53938; USTC 4001483