[Rarebooks] fa: ALEMAN - THE ROGUE or THE LIFE OF GUZMAN DE ALFARACHE, THE WITTY SPANIARD - 1656

[ardchamber at earthlink.net]

Listed now, auction ending May 22. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/jh7mkjr

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Mateo Aleman; [James Mabbe, trans.]: The Rogue: or, The Life of Guzman de Alfarache, the Witty Spaniard. In Two Parts. Written in Spanish, by Matheo Aleman, Servant to His Catholick Majesty and born in Sevil. The Fifth and Last Edition, Corrected. London: Printed by J.C. for Philip Chetwind; and are to be sold by Tho. Johnson, at the Golden Key in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1656. Small 8vo (17 cm) bound in nineteenth-century half calf and marbled boards; [4], 142, 99, [3], 216 pp. (separate pagination and title-pages, as called for); frontispiece portrait by Gaywood ("fecit 1655"). ESTC R223799; Wing A904.

Uncommon early ("Last") edition of this English translation of Aleman's picaresque novel: ESTC locates only three copies worldwide, at the Bodleian, Folger and UCLA Clark libraries; apparently especially uncommon "with the rare half length portrait by Gaywood" (Catalogue of the first portion of the very extensive curious & valuable library of the late James Crossley, 1884). As called for, Books 1 and 2 of the Second Part have separate title-pages with the printer’s name Henry Hills and the date 1655.

Binding with fairly modest rubbing and wear, joints professionally repaired; text block trimmed close at the top occasionally touching page numbers and running title, bound a bit tight at the gutter; some dust-soiling to the title-page; toning to the leaves with occasional spots and light soiling; one leaf torn with loss at the fore-edge, not affecting any text; otherwise generally clean and sound, firmly bound. From the library of noted book collector Hugh Selbourne, with his discreet ownership stamp on the verso of the title-page.