CERVANTES, Miguel de. News [...]. - Lot 152

CERVANTES, Miguel de. News [...]. First edition of this French translation, from the library of John Hayford Thorold. Amsterdam, Marc Antoine, 1705. In-12, midnight-blue morocco, smooth spine decorated with gilt stippling, boards framed with the same motif, inner gilt roulette, all edges gilt. [7] ff, 508 pp, [2] ff, 8 engraved plates including frontispiece. Covers and corners rubbed, spine lightened. Small, unobtrusive brown spots. Rare first edition of this French translation of Cervantes' "Nouvelles exemplaires" attributed to Abbé Saint-Martin de Chassonville. The seven short stories are illustrated with eight intaglio plates, including a frontispiece showing the author at his desk surmounted by an angel offering him a quill. Armorial bookplate with faded name, almost certainly from the Syston Park library of John Hayford Thorold (1734-1815), an important English bibliophile and politician. A fine copy in a neat binding.