THE TALES OF THE SPANISH BOCCACCIO: COUNT LUCANOR; OR THE FIFTY PLEASANT STORIES OF PATRONIO

Second edition in English. Translated from the Spanish and done into English by James York, M.D. Nine-page preface by James York. Illustrated with thirty black and white illustrations (as called for) including tissue-guarded black and white portrait frontispiece. ***Very good in dark moss green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to spine and front board and black line illustration to front board and publisher's gilt emblem to spine and blind emblem to rear board. All edges of text-block untrimmed (rough-cut, as called for). Tissue-guard of frontispiece very slightly torn at the edge (frontispiece itself intact). Boards very slightly marked. Light small bump to outer edge of front board. Edges of boards slightly rubbed. Head and tail of spine slightly rubbed. Very light sporadic foxing to prelims. Interior pages clean. No inscriptions. Pages clean. Spine tight. 198mm x 136mm. xi prelim-pages plus 246 text-pages including index of names to rear. ***'Like our Chaucer, Don Juan Manuel has a high claim to the reverence of his countrymen as one of the first who consolidated their language, and discarding 'canine-latin' (Ciceronian having become impossible), gave to the Castilian dialect a permanence and importance, at the same time improving and enlarging its capabilities of expression. ***From the Arabic phrases which we find scattered through the book, it may safely be assumed that Don Manuel had, during his long intercourse with the Moors, become tolerably proficient in that language. This inference lends probability to the idea that some of the Eastern collections of tales were not unknown to him, and that he may have drawn considerably from such sources in some of his narratives.' (Quote from page ix of the preface by the translator). ***Count Lucanor is a fourteenth century Spanish series of stories (each of the tales is a story within a story), and is one of the earliest works of fiction in prose. Prince Don Juan Manuel uses material from the Arabian folktales, the Tales of Aesop among other classic works of literature. The Tales of Count Lucanor are said to have influenced writers such as Shakespeare and Hans Christian Anderson. ***Second edition in English in its original decorative moss green boards, profusely illustrated with black and white line illustrations throughout by S. L. Wood, in very nice collectable condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc.…