The two copies, a third edition of Book I of “El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha” printed in 1608, and a first edition of Book II dated 1615, were acquired by an anonymous buyer in the same lot for 504,000 euros. , about 536 thousand dollars at the current exchange rate.
The books, which were first exhibited to the public two weeks ago at Sotheby’s London headquarters, were purchased by a Bolivian diplomat nearly a century ago.
Jorge Ortiz Linares, appointed Bolivia’s ambassador to France in 1947, and a fervent collector, spent a long time after an original edition of what is considered the first modern novel.
In the 1930s his longing took him to London, “arguably the most important center of the international trade in old books” at the time, bookseller Ed Maggs, great-great-grandson of Uriah Maggs, founder of the Maggs Bros. bookstore, told AFP. .
After not finding what he was looking for during his visit to this bookstore, Ortiz left his contact information. In 1936 he finally received the long-awaited call from the bookseller, and he undertook a hasty trip to London.
On December 21, 1936, he acquired the two copies of Don Quixote, Book I for 100 pounds of the time, and Book II for 750, explains Anne Heilbronn, head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s.
These volumes are “unique” since they were bound together in the 18th century for an English collector and it is very unusual to find Quixotes with such old bindings, added the specialist.