Lot 48
Viada, Antonio
Manual del Sport
Auction: Books & Manuscripts | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 1 to 78
Description
Con un prologo de Alejandro Saint-Aubin. Madrid: Adrian Romo, 1903. First edition, 8vo, original yellow cloth lettered in blue, edges dyed red, xi 776 [4] pp., wood-engraved and halftone photographic illustrations throughout the text
Footnote
A landmark work in the history of sport in one of the world's great sporting nations, identified as the first encyclopaedia of sport written in Spanish, the first systematic classification of sport in the language, and the first Spanish book to include a dedicated chapter on football, appearing in the same year as both the standardisation of the Spanish game via the introduction of the ‘Estatutos de la Asociación Clubs de Foot-ball’ and the first Copa del Rey, won by Athletico Bilbao against Real Madrid, who had been founded the previous year. The work describes some 25 sports in total, including many that were fated not to catch on in Spain, including cricket, with one of the illustrations depicting W. G. Grace (misnamed as ‘El Doctor W. A. Grace’), and baseball, called ‘Pelota Yanki’ ('Yankee Ball').
Further reading: Antoni Nomdedeu Rull, ‘The First Football Anglicisms in the Spanish Language (1868-1903)’, Alicante Journal of English Studies 32 (2019): 187-215.