Francisco de Quevedo, the Spanish poet and satirist whose books were by far the most widely read in Spain in the 17th century, died unaware that his genius had created modern satire in Spanish, and that for the ensuing five centuries, as we now know, his name would be a household word wherever Spanish was spoken. Between 1605 and 1621, Quevedo wrote a sequence of five "Dreams" or "Visions" (Suenos y discursos ), in each of which he hilariously envisions Spanish society as populated by people rightfully condemned to Hell. These astonishingly witty and irreverent satires of contemporary Spanish culture, morality, prejudice, and religious fanaticism, were composed in a style so allusive, elliptical, and equivocal as to successfully entertain both those who barely understood their full range and import, and others who celebrated the poet's rebellious insinuations. Censorship prohibited the publication of such satire in its original form, but hundreds of copies were made by hand and circulated widely. In 1993, a critical edition of all of the surviving manuscripts was published. Today the Suenos are commonly read in modern editions of the first censored version, printed in 1627. The present book (La tradicion. . . ), compares this version with all of the 43 extant manuscripts, and for the first time identifies those groups of manuscripts from which the publishers of the first edition derived their text. This text can now be seen as a version not only censored, but corrupted successively by copyists and editors who did not understand Quevedo's satire, and did not hesitate to add entire clauses, omit others and transfer sentences from one place to another. The result is hardly what Spain's most famous satirist originally wrote.
Índice de láminas de manuscritos coetáneos
Índice de estemas de manuscritos relacionados con la primera edición
Lista de abreviaturas
Prólogo
Introducción: Autenticidad, imitación y corrupción
Capítulo uno: El Sueño del Juicio
Capítulo dos: El Alguacil endemoniado
Capítulo tres: El Infierno
Capítulo cuatro: El mundo por de dentro
Capítulo cinco: El sueño de la Muerte
Capítulo seis: Conclusión
Notas
Bibliografía citada
Índice onomástico
Índice de materias
Índice de láminas de manuscritos coetáneos
Lámina 1: Comentario de un lector del Alguacil
Lámina 2: Comentario humorístico al Alguacil
Lámina 3: Cinco anotaciones al Infierno
Lámina 4: Bella portada barroca (1613)