The Cervantes Collection

A Unique Copy of Cervantes’
“Persiles y Sigismunda”

Late in his career, Cervantes began to turn away from his longtime publisher Francisco de Robles. In 1614 Cervantes contracted with the widow of Alonso Martín to publish his Viaje del Parnaso. But in the next year he returned to Robles to publish the second part of Don Quixote. At the same time as Robles and the printer Juan de la Cuesta were producing the long-awaited second part of Don Quixote, Cervantes reached out to a different publisher, this time Juan de Villarroel who contracted with the widow of Alonso Martín to produce the Ocho comedias. Had Cervantes offered this work to Robles and been turned down? Robles must have known that the likelihood of the Ocho comedias turning a profit was remote, yet publishers often took on a successful author’s weaker efforts as a matter of course. It seems unlikely that Robles would have rebuffed his most successful author and old friend. Thus the rejection must have come from Cervantes. In any case Cervantes’ final work, the very marketable Persiles y Sigismunda, was not published by Robles, but by Juan de Villarroel, who engaged Juan de la Cuesta to print the work. This book was published posthumously, and Cervantes must have made his wish known that it was not to be published by Robles.

All the known copies of the Persiles y Sigismunda indicate that it was published by Juan de Villarroel, with one exception. The copy in Special Collection at KU clearly names Francisco de Robles as publisher. It is possible that this particular copy may have been sophisticated; i.e., the title page was supplied from another, no doubt defective, copy, so as to make the present copy, which apparently lacked a title page, “complete.” The staining on the title page shows no corresponding staining on the next leaf, suggesting that when the title page was stained it was not part of the present copy. When the title page and the rest of the book were brought together is unknown, but the title page could have been stained in Cuesta’s shop or Robles’ warehouse before it was joined to the rest of the book and thus this lack of corresponding staining may not indicate subsequent sophistication at all. On the other hand, the title page could have been added as late as the middle of the nineteenth century when the present binding was added. In any case, the title page appears to be genuine. The paper is very like, if not identical, to that used in the rest of the book, and the title page is printed with several of Cuesta’s quite distinctive fonts and his famous woodcut in what is plainly a new setting of type. It seems most likely that the Robles title pages were produced at the same time as, or soon after, the Persiles, regardless of when this particular title page was joined with the text of this particular Persiles.

That a work would have two publishers and two separate title pages is not unknown. Villarroel and Robles may have entered into a co-publishing agreement with each taking a share of the completed sheets. It is obvious that Cuesta originally printed the first preliminary signature bearing the Villarroel imprint. Then, in certain copies, the Villarroel title page was removed and the Robles title page, newly printed by Cuesta, was supplied. This suggests that Villarroel was indeed the sole publisher, and was subsequently forced to sell some of the unsold copies to Robles to raise money (or to pay off a previous debt to Robles). Robles, in turn, had Cuesta print a new title page bearing his own imprint to replace the original title page. As there were relatively few of these Robles title pages to begin with, it is understandable that few, and perhaps only one, has survived.