THE EXEMPLARY NOVELS in Two Volumes, London: , 1900. UNDERSIZE 654 paugust2015 51

London: The Society of English Bibliophilists, 1900. No. 15 of a limited edition of 100 . Hardcover. in exceptionally good condition. Demy octavo, [17.5cm/7inches], full gilt-embossed half-bound leger green and chestnut-brown coloured calf/marbled boards, t.e.g., with silk place ribbons. Translated into English by James Mabbe, writing under the pseudonym "Don Diego Puede Ser," [ Spanish for Don James Maybe], and published in 1640. The illustrations are by Sir Frank William Brangwyn, R. A., [who later painted murals for the 1915 San Francisco Exposition and in the Thirties worked with Diego Riveria on Rockefeller Center]. Volume I: pp. xxii, 220, annotated. Illustrated w/ frontis and four sepia-tinted plates. Includes: "The Two Damsels," "The Lady Cornelia" & "The Jealous Husband" … Volume II: pp. vii, 208, annotated. Illustrated w/ frontis and six sepia-tinted plates. Includes: "The Liberal Lover," "The Force of Blood" & "The Spanish Lady." Please feel free to inquire as to particulars and/or additional photographs. Exemplary Novels (Novelas ejemplares) is a series of novellas executed after the Italian mode. Written between 1590 and 1612, the collection was published in Madrid in 1613 by Juan de la Cuesta and proved popular following the publication of the first part of Don Quixote. Note: The translator James Mabbe, (Don Diego Puede-Ser) (1572-1642) was an English scholar and poet, and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. He was involved in Spanish translations, in particular of some of Cervantes oeuvre. James Mabbe may also be the "I. M." who wrote the fourth commendatory verse to the First Folio of Shakespeare's Plays (1623), given that his friend and colleague Leonard Digges wrote the third. This volume is rare in that there are absolutely no copies advertised on any of the internet bookshops. Please feel free to inquire as to particulars and/or additional photographs. I