The George Peabody Library’s holdings of the all-time best-selling novel of the Spanish Golden Age, Don Quixote, rank among the most extensive literary collections in North America. The nucleus of the collection was formed by the eminent Baltimorean Severn Teackle Wallis, a founding trustee of Peabody’s Library Committee, whose statue stands facing St. Paul Street from the east end of Mt. Vernon Square.

While Wallis’s bequest of his collection laid down sound foundations for the Peabody Library’s subsequent growth in siglo de oro books—including several early editions of the Quixote itself—more recent additions to the collection have focused in particular on later illustrated editions. Chief among these is the beautiful Jean François Bassompierre Don Quixote, which is visually stunning and in every way a fine production in the book arts of the later French ancien régime. The nocturnal scenes illuminated by firelight, executed by Bernard Picart with others by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, rank among the most appealing in the long history of Quixote book illustration. In this early scene from the novel, an innkeeper pretends to perform the solemn rite of knighthood, presumably reading from a hay-and-barley accounts ledger while the momentous event is witnessed by a stable boy and several prostitutes. The book-mad Quixote kneels at the innkeeper’s feet, prepared to receive his shoulder taps and elevation to the ranks of chivalry embodied by the heroic Amadis de Gaul and Palmerín.

Don Quixote was an immediate international sensation, translated into every major European language, adapted to the stage, and depicted in numerous artistic media. By the early eighteenth century, his story made its way into the pages of children’s books and comic books, his visage graced all manner of decorative arts, from large-scale tapestries to delicate fans held in the hands of ladies, exemplified here by this apparently unknown painted vignette. It illustrates one tale in particular from Part II of Don Quixote (1615), which was published by Miguel de Cervantes a decade after the more farcical and famous Part I. In the more philosophical sequel of this best-selling proto-novel of the Spanish Golden Age, the reader views the wedding bower of the beautiful maiden Quiteria, who has been tricked into marrying the lovesick Basilio despite being betrothed to the rich Camacho, shown to their left with his hands spread in disbelief (2.20–21). Don Quixote, depicted just to their right, appears in full armor and capped with the Golden Helmet of Mambrino, his hand raised as if to conclude his speech opining that no one should quarrel over wrongs done in the name of love. The more pragmatic Sancho Panza, who earlier had praised Quiteria for her original decision to marry for money, stands close to the cooks as they prepare the nuptial feast. Presumably conceived for reproduction on a commercially produced fan, it is unknown if this design was ever executed in print, nor does it appear to be based on illustrated editions of Don Quixote from the same period.

—Kelsey Champagne, Earle Havens