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A world- famous Spanish satire translated into Dutch

QUEVEDO Y VILLEGAS, Francisco Gomez de.
Groote Spaensche droomer, ofte de VII. wonderlijke gesichten, in welcke alle de gebreken deser eeuwe, onder alle staten van menschen, vermakelijck en oock stichtelijck werden bestraft, en als in een schilderye naecktelick verthoont.

With woodcut illustration on title, and 7 half-page woodcuts in text, woodcut head- and end-pieces, woodcut initials.

With woodcut illustration on title, and 7 half-page woodcuts in text, woodcut head- and end-pieces, woodcut initials.

With woodcut illustration on title, and 7 half-page woodcuts in text, woodcut head- and end-pieces, woodcut initials.

With woodcut illustration on title, and 7 half-page woodcuts in text, woodcut head- and end-pieces, woodcut initials.



Utrecht, Juriaen van Poolsum, 1687. 12mo. Contemporary limp vellum. With woodcut illustration on title, and 7 half-page woodcuts in text, woodcut head- and end-pieces, woodcut initials. 332, (28) pp.

Very rare edition of the Dutch translation by Haring van Harinxma of Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas's Sueños y discursos (Dreams and discourses), also known as Los Sueños, the first Spanish edition being printed in 1627, edited by his friend José González de Salas. Probably Harinxma has translated from the French translatiion by Fr. Geneste, Les visions de Dom. Francisco de Quevedo Villegas (1633). The first edition of Harinxma's translation appeared in 1641, followed by at least 10 others, testifying of the succes the translation of this world-famous satire by one of the best Spanish poets had in the second half of the seventeenth century in Holland; some editions with the title Seven wonderlijcke gesichten.
Francisco Quevedo y Villegas (1580-1645), undoubtedly the greatest satiric writer and master satirist of Spain's Golden Age, was born in 1580 at Madrid, where his father, who came from the mountains of Burgos, was secretary to Anne of Austria, fourth wife of Philip II. Early left an orphan and full of zeal to conquer all knowledge, he betook himself to Alcala, the nearest university to Madrid, where in a few years he acquired a knowledge of classical and modern tongues - of Italian and French, Hebrew and Arabic, of philosophy, theology, civil law, and economics. His masters were astounded at his erudition, and his fame reached beyond Spain; at twenty-one he was in correspondence with Justus Lipsius on questions of Greek and Latin literature, and the great scholar loaded him with praises and treated him as an equal.
The licentiate of Alcala next betook himself to the court and mingled with the corrupt society that surrounded Philip III, or rather the duke of Lerma, then the real ruler of Spain. The cynical greed of the ministers, the meanness of their flatterers, the corruption of all the royal offices, the financial scandals, the shamelessness of the women, formed a spectacle which soon awoke in Quevedo his talent as a painter of manners. At Madrid or at Valladolid, where the court resided from 1601 to 1605, he mingled freely with these intrigues and disorders, and soon lost the purity of his morals, but not his independence, his uprightness and integrity. From this period date his first 'Dreams', satirical fantasies in which the spirit and manner of Lucian and Dante are combined. 'Dream of Skulls', 'The Possessed Alguazil', such are the titles of these earliest writings composed in 1607-8, which in some degree recall the Dances of Death of the later Middle Ages; the author is transported in sleep to hell, where he assists at the long and lamentable procession of men of all conditions, profession, and trades who move toward their punishment, clad in their most characteristic vices and absurdities.
The present work contains 7 visions of unvarnished truth, each illustrated with a rather crude woodcut: (1) 'Van een bezetenen Algoüazil, ofte Deurwaerder' (on an obsessed bailiff; pp. 7-30); (2) 'Van de Doodt' (on death; pp. 32-87); (3) 'Van het laetste oordeel'(on the Last Judgment; pp. 87-112; (4) 'Van het huys der verliefde sotton' on the house of the fools being in love; pp. 112-132); (5) 'Van de wereldt in zijn binnenste' (on the world from inside; pp. 133-63); (6) 'Van de helle ende de verdoemde'(on Hell and the damned; pp. 163-247); and (7) 'Van eenen oproer door de geheele helle' (on the insurrection in Hell; pp. 148-318), followed by a poem 'Lucifers gebodt' (pp. 319-32), and the index on the last 14 lvs.

Good copy.- (Title sl. soiled, circular ownership's stamp and ms. entry, dated November 1934 of H.P. Tulner on inside of front cover; quires A-D loosening, first lvs. a bit frayed, some browning throughout).
P.H. Moser, 'Overdroomde dromen. Haring van Harinxma (1604-1669) als vertaler van Quevedo's Sueños', in: Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis, 9 (2002), pp. 41-56; Buisman 1872; De Vries 217; Buisman auction 850; Gieles & Plak, Bibl. Ned. narratief fictioneeel proza 1670-1700 (1988), 225; Muller, Populaire prozaschrijvers 37; de Vries, Populaire prozaschrijvers, 217.

Related Subjects: 17th Century  Dutch  Literature  Satire  Utrecht  Woodcuts 

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