Los testimonios únicos en manuscritos-copia
Vivir en variantes
Abstract
In this paper I examine the problematic nature of unique testimonies in non-autograph manuscript copies of Spanish Golden Age theater. These unique testimonies exist in an ‘unstable provisionality’, as demonstrated by the case of Cepeda’s La española, which went from a single known witness to three in just three years. Through the examples of two unpublished loas from the Arxiu de la Ciutat de Barcelona, as well as of the play San Ginés, I stress how these manuscripts require careful editorial work due the variety of phenomena that can appear in them and that require a solution: copying errors, cultural misunderstandings, metrical problems, textual gaps, and alterations in verse order. I also highlight the importance of the materiality of manuscripts (tears, stains, defective bindings) in textual transmission and the value that the interventions of contemporary hands can serve as potentially valid corrections. In short, editing a Golden Age dramatic text with a single witness requires meticulous philological work that considers both the specific characteristics of the manuscript and the theatrical context in which it was generated and circulated, always remaining alert to the ‘living in variants’ that characterizes Spanish Golden Age theater.
Submitted: June 3, 2025 | Accepted: July 1, 2025 | Published Dec. 15, 2025 | Language: es
Keywords Theatrical manuscripts • Single textual witness • Prologues • Textual materiality • Manuscript copies • Editing
Copyright © 2025 Alejandro García-Reidy. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-949-8/006