New · The illustrated hardcover

Spain’s lost fairy tales, restored — and in English for the first time.

Tales from Calleja: An Illustrated Treasury, Volume I

All ten tales in one hardcover — the restored covers and engravings from the old Calleja booklets of Madrid, newly translated into English. A keepsake for reading aloud.

Buy the hardcover on Amazon See all ten tales

Hardcover · $49.99 list price

Cover of Tales from Calleja: An Illustrated Treasury, Volume I — three young brothers in a gilded frame on a blue board Hardcover · Volume I
10 tales now in English First English translations Restored cover to cover Originals preserved & documented

Editorial Saturnino Calleja · Madrid · c. 1900s

A century of wear, undone plate by plate.

A handful of brittle Calleja booklets, mailed from Peru to a daughter in America and rediscovered decades later, is becoming a library again: preserved, repaired plate by plate, and translated for readers who never had a way in.

See the books Follow the restoration

Drag the cover to see the restoration →

The original El Palacio Subterráneo booklet cover as found: stained, chipped, with a pencilled shelf mark
The same cover restored and relettered in English as The Underground Palace
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Restored · English As found · 1900s

Front cover, El Palacio Subterráneo, Tomo 43 — the pencilled shelf mark and a century of wear on one side, the finished English edition on the other.

How the books were found

A plastic bag, a grandfather in Peru, and a private rescue.

This series began when my mother, cleaning out her closet, found a group of fragile Calleja booklets. She brought them to me in a plastic bag and asked whether there was any way to restore them so that she could read them again.

The little books were a gift she had treasured for decades. After she first immigrated to America, her father in Peru took the time to mail them to her. He marked them by hand and kept them in the best condition he could before sending them across an ocean — small pieces of home, and of him.

Before restoring anything, we searched for other copies. The booklets proved to be scarce — few surviving copies anywhere, and no English translation we could find. What began as a private repair for my mother became this larger restoration: preserving the Spanish originals, repairing the artwork, and translating the stories so that new readers could finally meet them.

“Tienes más cuento que Calleja.” — a saying still heard in Spain: “You have more stories than Calleja” — the publisher whose little books taught generations to read.

The method

Preserved, restored, translated.

I · Preserve

The originals stay untouched

Every booklet is scanned at archival resolution before any work begins. The Spanish originals — wear, shelf marks, and all — are kept and documented inside each edition.

II · Restore

Covers revived, plates kept honest

The chromolithograph covers are cleaned and repaired from the surviving scans. The interior engravings are restored conservatively, preserving their original composition, linework, and period texture.

III · Translate

English editions, faithfully made

Each tale is newly translated from the Spanish text, verified line against line, with notes on where each story came from — Grimm, the Thousand and One Nights, or Calleja’s own workshop.

The plates

Engravings from The Underground Palace.

Six plates accompany the first tale. They are cleaned and repaired from the surviving scans, preserving the original engraver’s composition and linework a century on.

Restored engraving: figures in a grand interior
“He received me with great demonstrations of affection.”
Restored engraving: two men discover a couple seated in a subterranean hall
“We arrived at a great hall.”
Restored engraving: a dramatic scene before an executioner
“The genie raised the scimitar…”

From the first tale

The Underground Palace

An elderly king, surrounded by his children, one day told them his story. He said: “My father had a brother who, like him, ruled over a neighboring state. This brother had two children: a prince and a princess… The last time I saw my cousin, he received me with great demonstrations of affection.

‘Can you guess what I have been occupied with since your last departure?’ he asked. ‘I have had a building constructed that is already finished and ready to be inhabited. It will not displease you to see it — but first you must swear to me that you will keep silent about whatever you witness.’”

Keep reading: The Underground Palace on Amazon ↗

The books

Ten tales in English, and one hardcover that holds them all.

Each tale is a slim paperback with its restored cover and engravings, and each is also on Kindle. Tap a cover to open its Amazon page.

Cover of Tales from Calleja: An Illustrated Treasury, Volume I

New · Hardcover · all ten tales

Tales from Calleja: An Illustrated Treasury, Volume I

The ten English tales below, gathered in one illustrated hardcover. $49.99 list price.

Buy the hardcover on Amazon

The tales in paperback and Kindle

En español

Two tales are also published in the original Spanish as Kindle editions.

  • Portada de El rey Midas Vol. 02 · Kindle El rey Midas (Edición anotada) Kindle ↗
  • Portada de La Cenicienta Vol. 30 · Kindle La Cenicienta (Edición anotada) Kindle ↗