BAL’MONT, Konstantin Dmitrievich, translator. CALDERÓN, Pedro.
[Half-title:] Sochineniia Kal’derona perevod s ispanskago [The Works of Calderon translated from Spanish].
[Moscow, M. and S. Sabashnikov, 1900-1902-1912].
Three vols. bound in two, 8vo, volumes I and III bound together (both with half-titles, none called for in volume II), folding table in volume II; a very good set, bound without the advertisements at the end of volume I, in Russian contemporary half brown morocco and pebbled cloth, lettered in Cyrillic ‘P. R.’ at foot of spine.
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[Half-title:] Sochineniia Kal’derona perevod s ispanskago [The Works of Calderon translated from Spanish].
First edition of all three volumes of Balmont’s translations from Calderon, comprising: El purgatorio de San Patricia (volume I); La vida es sueño, La devoción de la cruz, El príncipe constante and Amar despues de la muerte (volume II); and El médico de su honra (volume III).
Though the later translations by Pasternak are now better known, and there had been earlier translations into Russian, Bal’mont’s were of particular importance in his œuvre, testament to an abiding interest in the Spanish Golden Age that coincided with the period of his fascination with theosophy. La vida es sueño in particular he considered the highest acheivement in all Spanish literature. His long foreword in volume I provides a critical appreciation of Calderón, and volume II includes several essays (by Bal’mont and Max Krenkel) and a critical bibliography.
Because of the widely-spaced publication, complete sets are inevitably rare, volume III almost always wanting. OCLC shows no copies of volume III, within sets or separately; there is a complete set at the National Library of Russia.
Tiapkov, Bibliografia K. D. Bal’monta, 214, 263 and 657.
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