Cartas marruecas del Coronel ….

Barcelona, En la Imprenta de Piferrer, 1796.. 4°, contemporary mottled sheep (some wear), smooth spine with citron lettering piece, gilt letter and bands, marbled endleaves. Woodcut vignette on title page of a monogram beneath a ducal coronet. Dampstained in lower margin, not affecting text. In good condition. Two-line ink inscription dated 21 December 1813 at top of second front free endleaf recto, above a penciled profile of a bearded man's head. Small rectangular white printed paper ticket on rear pastedown endleaf with manuscript inscription: "Llibreria // S. i LL.". (4 ll.), 224 pp. *** Second edition of a work first published by Sancha in Madrid, 1793, and frequently since. Ticknor compares it to Montesquieu's Persian Letters and Goldsmith's Citizen of the World, but notes that it is more concerned with literary discussions and satire than either of those works. Cartas marruecas includes sections on Spanish character, customs, nobility and commoners, language, pride, respect for the aged, love of luxury, Barcelona, moneymaking, history and historiography, Don Quixote (pp. 143-5), pedantry and scholars, forced marriages, coquetry, and more.Cadahalso y Vasquez was born in Cádiz in 1741, served as a colonel in the Caballería de Borbón, and was killed during the siege of Gibraltar in 1782. He is considered one of the canonical Spanish Enlightenment authors.*** Palau 39096. Aguilar Piñal II, 224. Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature (1849) III, 276-77.