[SANCHEZ, Thomas Antonio, ed.]
Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas Anteriores al Siglo XV, vols. I-III
vol. I: Poema del Cid (1779)
vol. II: Poesias de Don Gonzalo de Berceo (1780)
vol. III: Poema de Alexandro Magno (1782)
Madrid: Antonio de Sancha, 1779-82.

First editions. Octavo (the pages 18 x 11.5 cm). Contemporary calf marbled brown, tan and green, smooth spines gilt in eight compartments, red morocco title labels and tan volume labels, other compartments with flowers, leafy corner tools and stars within panels, edges gilt with rope rules, marbled endpapers in Spanish stone design complementing the covers, all edges stained carmine. Some worn spots and unobtrusive wormholes on covers, slight corner and bottom edge wear, small clean tear in gutter of vol. III front endleaf (no loss), internally strong, fine and bright.

Tomás Antonio Sánchez's four-volume Colección de poesías castellanas anteriores al siglo XV is the epochal first canon of Spanish medieval poetry, printing the original manuscripts with bibliographical rigor. The fourth volume of the series, the Libro de Buen Amor, was issued in 1790, eight years after the preceding volume. The present set, comprising the first three volumes, would have been acquired and bound before that.

Vol. I: Poema del Cid (1779). Collates [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title), xiii + [1] pp., pp. i-lxii, 1-404, 1 l. (errata), [1 l.]. Comprises 230 pp. notes preceding the poem and 143 pp. the poem itself. The preliminary material includes "Noticias Para la Vida de Don Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza," "Catalogo de las Obras Impressas y Manuscritas ded. Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marques de Santilla y Conde del Real," and the "Proemio al Condestable de Portugal Sobre las Obras." This greatest of the medieval Spanish epics celebrates the legends of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid Campeador, printed for the first time from the ancient surviving manuscript of the Castilian cantar de gesta Cantar de Mio Cid.

Vol. II: Poesias de Don Gonzalo de Berceo (1780). Collates [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title), pp. i-xxiv, 1-559, [1 p.], [3 ll.]. Comprises prologues, 473 pp. poems and 85 pp. alphabetical index. Gonzalo, of the Riojan village of Berceo and first Spanish poet by name, wrote in the mid-13th century Castilian devotional genre called Mester de Clerecía ("Ministry of Clergy"). The poems include "La Vida del Glorioso Confesor Santo Domingo de Silos," "Vida de San Millan," "Del Sacrificio de la Misa," "Martirio de S. Lorenzo," "Loores de Nuestra Señora," "De Los Signos que Apareceran ante del Juicio," "Introduccion a los Milagros de Nuestra Señora," "El Duelo que Fizo la Virgen Maria," "Vida de Santa Oria Virgen," "Los Versos Siguientes Estan en la Lapida del Sepulcro de Santa Auria Virgen," "Himnos" and "Loor de Don Gonzalo de Berceo," all here printed for the first time.

Vol. III: Poema de Alexandro Magno (1782). Collates [1 l.], 1 l. (half-title), 1 l. (title), pp. i-lvi, 1-443, 1 p. (errata), [1 l.]. Comprises 357 pp. poem and 86 pp. alphabetical index. This great medieval Spanish epic, here printed for the first time, is considered anonymous but in Sánchez's time was given to Gonzalo.

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