Author: [MARCHE, Olivier de La] and Hernando de ACUÑA (translator).
Title: El cavallero determinado, traduzido de lengua Francesa en Castellana por Don Hernando Acuña. Antwerp, Officina Plantiniana (the widow of Plantin, Jeanne Rivière and Jean Moretus), 1591. 8vo. With an etched vignette on the title page, 20 full-page etchings, a full-page printer's device at the end, decorated woodcut initials, and woodcut tailpieces. Late 18th- or early 19th-century diced and blind-tooled red morocco, with the title and author lettered in gold on the spine, with an almond shaped ornament in the center of both boards, surrounded by two fillet frames, blind tooled board edges and turn-ins, marbled end papers.
Description: [32], 208, [5], [3 blank] pp.Splendid first and only Plantin edition of a popular allegorical chivalric romance, with twenty beautiful full-page etchings. It contains the Spanish translation of Olivier de La Marche's (1425-1502) Le chevalier déliberé, made by Hernando de Acuña (1518-1580), the famous poet and translator of the Golden age of Spanish literature. The text was incredibly popular in its own time and is known to have been the favourite book of Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-1556), who even commissioned the present translation.Olivier de La March (1422-1502) was a Burgundian courtier, poet and chronicler. The present work is considered his best. It was first published in 1488, but earlier manuscript copies are known. The story was written in praise of Charles the Bold and describes a knight’s search for salvation in the form of a quest. At the start of the story, he is impulsive, and leaves his house without a plan. He is started along the way by "Thought", who brings him to realise how unprepared he is for the quest, and his enemies, "Accident" and "Debility". The knight befriends the hermit "Understanding" and eventually arrives at the house of "Study" where "Fresh Memory" begins his real instruction. While the story was originally written in prose, the Spanish translation is in verse. It contains 379 numbered poems (double limericks) of 10 lines each, and was first published in Antwerp by Jan Steelsius in 1553. The present edition is the eighth overall, but the first by Plantin, and the first with the 20 etchings, which were most likely made by Pieter van der Borcht (ca. 1530-1608), one of the regular illustrators of the Plantin Press. These etchings closely follow the iconographic programme established by the second incunable edition (Gouda, ca. 1489-1490).Hernando de Acuña represents the first generation of Petrachian poets in Spain. He is best known for his sonnets, eclogues and elegies. Several works were dedicated to Charles V who admired him for both his military and literary talents. He fought with Charles V in Germany, Italy and Flanders and with Felipe II in San Quentin before he in ca. 1560 abandoned his military career and went back to Spain to settle in Granada. His translation of le Chevalier délibéré, was ordered and much esteemed by the emperor. It was originally published in 1553. In 1591, in the same year as our Plantin edition of El Cavallero was printed, his Poesías varias appeared, edited by his widow.The boards have been scratched. The work is internally very lightly browned and foxed, the leaves may have been washed, as the few annotations in the margins have nearly completely faded. Otherwise in good condition.l Adams, L 59; Belg. Typ., 1761; Bibl. Belg. L 1 (III, p.647); Brunet, III, p. 782; Graesse, IV, p. 82; Imhof, Jan Moretus, I Mo5, pp. 437-438; Machiels, L 36; Palau, VII, 130356; Peeters Fontainas, 663; USTC, 440151; cf. Delen, A. J. J., ‘De illustraties can “Le chevalier déliberé d’Olivier de la Marche’, in: Het Boek, 12, pp. 250-232 (plates); New Hollstein Dutch, Peeter van der Borgt, Bookill., part V, 2327-2347 (plates).

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