The Cervantes Collection

Based upon the collection of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, the Cervantes Collection is notable particularly for the number of editions of Don Quixote which it contains. Although Spanish editions are by no means absent (we have, among others, the second Juan de la Cuesta edition, 1605, the first Valencia edition, 1605, and the great Ibarra edition of 1780) pride of place must be given to the foreign printings: the 1605 Lisbon piracy, the Roger Velpius edition of 1607 (Brussels), the first complete Italian edition (Venice, 1625), the first English edition (Shelton's 1612-1620 translation), and a host of others, including chapbook versions, versifications, scholarly editions, and dramatizations. Illustrators represented in the collection include Johannot, Cruickshank, Vierge, Doré and Dali.

The Novelas Ejemplares and Cervantes' other less known works are almost equally well represented by both Spanish and foreign editions, including the first French and the first English editions of the Novelas.