Published in Journal of Hispanic Philology, 6 (1982 [1983]), 163-164.
Daniel Eisenberg. Castilian Romances of Chivalry in the Sixteenth
Century. Research Bibliographies and Checklists, 23. London: Grant &
Cutler, 1979. 112 pp.
Eisenberg's bibliography fills an important need in an
area that has seen a remarkable growth of interest over the last two decades,
particularly among younger scholars in North America. Previous bibliographies
treating the subject--those of Clemencín, Gayangos, and Simón
Díaz--are now rendered virtually obsolete insofar as the sixteenth-century
Castilian romances are concerned, although, as Eisenberg explains in his
Introduction (p. 8), some nineteenth-century and other minor secondary items
are omitted if found in Simón Díaz or in Henry Thomas' Spanish
and Portuguese Romances of Chivalry. Eisenberg organizes his bibliography
in logical fashion: a listing of his principal sources, general works on
the subject, the individual romances themselves (manuscripts and imprints,
modern editions, and critical studies), followed by a selected list of texts
and studies concerning the subject of chivalry with special reference to
Spain (including Catalonia), and a similar but shorter, two-page list of
works treating chivalric elements in Spanish drama of the period, in particular
Gil Vicente. An index of names rounds out the volume.
The longest and most valuable section is that of the individual romances,
arranged in alphabetical order by short title. Here Eisenberg rightly excludes
sentimental and allegorical works, even though some have been characterized
in the past as romances of chivalry (e.g. Núñez de Reinoso's
Historia de los amores de Clareo y Florisea y de los trabajos de Ysea).
Also excluded are translations of foreign romances such as those of the Arthurian
and Carolingian cycles, the Italian Guerrino il meschino or the Catalan
Tirant lo Blanch, although Palmerín de Inglaterra (from
the Portuguese original by Francisco de Morais) is included because of its
place in the Spanish Palmerín cycle. Within the Amadís series,
the fifteenth-[p. 164]century Spanish manuscript fragments, now at the Bancroft
Library at Berkeley, properly receive the first entry (p. 28). Translations
of the Castilian romances into other languages fall outside the limits of
the volume.
Extremely useful to the specialist are the seemingly
comprehensive listing of library locations with call numbers and the extensive
remarks on lost, phantom or alleged-to-exist texts. One cannot fail to admire
Eisenberg for his patience and tenacity in sorting out the often erroneous
and jumbled information handed down by earlier investigators. One regrets,
however, the absence of the name of the printer, if available, for sixteenth-
and seventeenth-century editions. Also, in his Introduction (p. 7) Eisenberg
states that due to time and financial limitations he generally examined (either
directly or on microfilm) just one copy of an edition, usually the earliest
printing. Such a procedure is understandable and certainly justifiable, but
the use of a symbol (secondary materials not seen are preceded by an asterisk)
to indicate the copy or copies he actually did examine would have been helpful.
For example, in a recent article P. E. Russell cites three copies of
Policisne de Boecia (Valladolid: Herederos de Juan Íñiguez
de Lequerica, 1602) in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, R-10867, R-28840
and R-31567, referring to the first as the only perfect one; he also cites
a copy (apparently unknown to Eisenberg) in a private British library ("The
Last of the Spanish Chivalric Romances: Don Policisne de Boecia,"
in Essays in Narrative Fiction in the Iberian Peninsula in Honour of Frank
Pierce, ed. R. B. Tate [Oxford: Dolphin Book Co., 1982], p. 142, n. 2);
Eisenberg, on the other hand (p. 86), gives call numbers of two copies in
the Biblioteca Nacional, R-869 (not cited by Russell) and R-10867. Did he
examine either of these (he also mentions others in London, Paris, Cleveland,
and Barcelona), or did he base his information on one of his general sources,
such as Simón Díaz (cf. Bibliografía de la literatura
hispánica, III, 2nd ed., Pt. 2, p. 517b)? Are
there actually four copies in the Biblioteca Nacional? One of the advantages
of the Research Bibliographies and Checklists series is that the resolution
of such apparent discrepancies, together with the revelation of new discoveries
and the updating of other materials, is allowed for by the periodic publication
of supplements.
Among the secondary materials cited in the various sections
of the bibliography, Eisenberg includes books, articles, unpublished theses,
dissertations, important lectures and conference papers, as well as much
information on work in progress. For some items he provides insightful critical
evaluations as well as commentary on subjects worthy of future study (e.g.,
the need to reevaluate the influence of the Spanish romances of chivalry
in Sir Walter Scott). The total absence or paucity of studies on many of
the books of chivalry also shows that much remains to be done.
With this volume Eisenberg has clearly demonstrated
his vast knowledge of the Castilian romances and chivalric literature in
general. He is to be lauded for producing an invaluable reference tool, one
that should stimulate new research in a fascinating if still frequently
misunderstood area of study.
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