[Hombres Celebres] Retratos De Personages Celebres

Spain: S. N.. Good with no dust jacket. c1840. Leather. Large frontis engraving with cherubs and Father Time (? ) , by Esplugas and Amills, plus 138 other engravings of famous people throughout history. Octavo, in contemporary leather with gilt dentils to front and back, gilt in the spine. Each engraving with a tissue guard. Engravings are signed by many different artists, but the most common names are Juan Amills, Buenaventura Planella, and P. Esplugas. There is no name, no printer, no location, no date, not even a title except the spine title, no pagination or leaf signatures. Many of the individual engravings are digitized at the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica. Our date of c1840 is based on the working dates of the artists and engravers. Although these books of famous people were popular in Spain in the mid-1800s, we found only one reference to this unnamed work. At the Deposito Academico Digital Universidad de Navarra in FA-Siglo 19 which describes a book of "Hombres Celebres" sl, sn, sa, with 138 plates, which certainly fits! Condition is good. Covers have some moderate rubbing, a small splotch on the front, some scuffing at the rear. Interior has old bookseller notes in pencil, foxing to the tissue guards with some transference to the engravings themselves, but otherwise clean and unmarked. One tissue guard is torn across. The 138 plates are in alphabetical order, from Abarca de Bolea (Conde de Aranda) , to Alcibiades, to Bouflers, to Cid Campeador, to Esquines to Lavater to Napoleon to Ximenez de Cisneros. Many of the portraits are of Spaniards but not all, and most are of men, but not all. Each has a brief description in Spanish underneath. A very scarce collection of Spanish engravings from the mid-1800s, in a handsome binding. ; Engravings; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 139 pages .