Acceso usuarios
Mario Garvin Barba
The history of the circulation of the printed versions of the Spanish Romancero begins in the 16th century with the appearance of the pliegos sueltos which are usually referred to in English as chapbooks, mostly four pages long and containing romances. In the middle of that century the Cancionero de romances a 275 page book containing more than 150 romances was published in Antwerp. The history of the printed circulation of the Romancero has been written with reference to these two basic dates and hence has been understood as a development from the pliegos sueltos to bigger collections of romances. Historically speaking, not much attention has been paid to the Libro de cincuenta romances. The accepted date of publication, i.e. ca. 1525, and the fifty romances mentioned in the title make this book very relevant to the history of publishing. The Libro de cincuenta romances reveals itself to be the product of a concrete situation in Valencia in the 1520’s. As such it demonstrates that the various forms of the Romancero are not to be understood as part of a homogeneous development.
