The life and adventures of Buscon the witty Spaniard: Put into English by a person of honour. To which is added, the Provident Knight. By Don Francisco de Quevedo, a Spanish Cavalier.

London: Printed for Henry Herringman, at the Blew Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange, 1670. Hardcover. Good. 8vo (158 x 97mm). Pagination: [1-8], 9-247pp. Signatures: A-P(8), Q(4). Near contemporary paneled calf, speckled in center and outer panels, tooled with tulip cornerpieces, spine gilt in five compartments, red morocco lettering label “Adventures of Buscon/ Quevedo,” marbled endpapers; (covers loose but present, spine headcap with some chips and loss, some light marginal browning or light ink offsetting on text page versos, margins occasionally trimmed close affecting some text; otherwise a good copy).

Second London edition of Francisco de Quevedo’s rogue literature masterpiece, the Historia de la vida del Buscón, literally the “Life of a Scoundrel,” first published in English as “The Life and Adventures of Buscon the Witty Spaniard” by Henry Herringman in 1657. The prominent and successful London bookseller and publisher Henry Herringman (1628–1704) held his shop under the Blue Anchor in the lower walk of the New Exchange, a sign he adopted in about the year 1653. Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645), a Spanish Baroque author of
Castilian nobility, wrote his “witty” and vividly descriptive Historia de la vida del Buscón in the style of a picaresque novel, or rogue fiction – it has been described as a written exercise in “courtly wit” that followed the dueling matches of petty thieves and swindlers. It was first published in Zaragoza in 1626, during Quevedo’s lifetime, and shortly thereafter became a French adaptation, known as La Geneste, before being “put into English.” The anonymous translator, or “Person of Honour,” named in the title page of the English edition is usually identified as John Davies of Kidwelly (1625–1693), who was a Welsh-born scholar and prolific translator of Spanish works. Not only is The life and adventures of Buscon the witty Spaniard, with it The Provident Knight, captivating for its rousing content, the literature
is an important precursor to the adventure novel, but it epitomizes Elizabethan interest in acquiring Spanish fiction, shared concern for societal and moral values, and more broadly the intensity of Anglo-Spanish cultural relations over the course of 17th century. This
second English edition is rare. ESTC locates four copies in North America: at UCLA, Universities of Florida, Illinois, and Yale, only 6 copies are in UK institutions. ESTC R24486.