Oct 24, 2024 - Sale 2683

Sale 2683 - Lot 36

Price Realized: $ 688
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
Torquemada, Antonio de (c. 1507-1569)
The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles. Or the Garden of Curious Flowers.

London: Printed by I.R. for Edmund Matts, 1600.



First edition, quarto, translated into English by Sir Lewes Leweknor (1560-1627); title page printed within compartment of type ornaments (edges chipped with loss and repaired with Japanese tissue); lacking preliminaries A1 & A4 and 3 text leaves: K3, K4 & Ss1; bound in modern half leather; first few preliminaries with marginal paper restorations; lacking first leaf (blank but for signature mark); 7 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.

STC 24135; Pforzheimer 1011.

Shakespearian scholars believe that this translation of Torquemada, in this edition, was the source for the character name Robin Goodfellow [aka Puck]. Other works translated by Leweknor also may have been consulted by the bard, with sources on Venice and ideas about Othello's defense against the charge of witchcraft.

Rasmussen-Hines Collection of Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature.