The first edition of Don Quixote that the collector Franz Mayer wanted to buy was one published by the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) in 1780. It is a luxury edition bound in leather and green paper with gold details.

Inside, it has 33 engravings by prominent artists of the time, such as Antonio Carnicero, comments that precede the work, and a brief portrait of the author, Miguel de Cervantes. “It only interests me in the way that all beautiful things interest me,” Mayer wrote to his art dealer in 1942 and he got it for him. Without intending to, the collector thus began to form one of the most important collections of Quijotes in America.

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