CHAPTER VII

M. Morel-Fatio's _L'Espagne au 16^e et 17^e siécle_ (Heilbronn, 1878) is invaluable for this period and the succeeding century. Dr. Adam Schneider's _Spaniens Anteil an der deutschen Litteratur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts_ (Strassburg, 1898) is a work of immense industry, containing much curious information in a convenient form. English readers will find an excellent summary of the literary history of this time in Mr. David Hannay's _Later Renaissance_ (1898).

Manuel Cañete, whose _Teatro español del siglo XVI._ (1885) is useful but ill arranged, included a single volume of Torres Naharro's _Propaladia_ among the _Libros de Antaño_ so long ago as 1880; the second is still to come, and those who would read this dramatist must turn to the rare sixteenth-century editions. Perhaps the best reprint of Gil Vicente is that issued at Hamburg in 1834 by José Victorino Barreto Feio and José Gomes Monteiro; a most complete account of Vicente, his environment and influence, is given by Theophilo Braga in the seventh volume of his learned _Historia de la litteratura portuguesa_ (Porto, 1898). Boscán's Castilian version of the _Cortegiano_ was reissued in 1873; the completest edition of his verse is that published by Professor Knapp (of Yale University), issued at Madrid in 1873. Professor Flamini's _Studi di storia letteraria italiana e straniera_ (Livorno, 1895) contains a very scholarly essay on the debt of Boscán to Bernardo Tasso. The poems of Garcilaso are in Rivadeneyra, vols. xxxii. and xlii.; but a far pleasanter book to handle is Azara's edition (1765). Benedetto Croce's study entitled _Intorno al soggiorno di Garcilaso de la Vega in Italia_ (1894) appeared originally in the _Rassegna storica napoletana di lettere ed arte_ (a magazine which deserves to be better known in England than it is). Croce's researches have been printed apart, and we may look forward to his publishing others no less important. Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen's biography and translation of Garcilaso (1823) are defective, but nothing better exists in English. Few poets in the world have been so fortunate in their editors as Sâ de Miranda. Mme. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos' reprint (Halle, 1881), with its very learned apparatus of introduction, notes, and variants, is a real achievement unsurpassed in the history of editing. A fine edition of Gutierre de Cetina has been published (Seville, 1895) with a scholarly introduction by D. Joaquín Hazañas y la Rua. Acuña's works appeared at Madrid in 1804; his _Contienda de Ayax_ is in the second volume of López de Sedano's _Parnaso Español_ (1778). Concerning Mendoza, the reader may profitably turn to Charles Graux' _Essai sur les origines du fona grec de l'Escorial_ (1880), published in the _Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études_. Professor Knapp edited Mendoza's verses in 1877: a creditable piece of work, though inferior to his edition of Boscán. Castillejo and Silvestre are exampled in Rivadeneyra, vol. xxxii. Of Villegas' _Inventario_ there is no modern reprint.

Guevara is sufficiently represented in Rivadeneyra, vol. lxv.; the English versions by Lord Berners, North, Fenton, Hellowes, and others, are of exceptional merit and interest.

The most important historians of the Indies are reprinted by Rivadeneyra, vols. xxii. and xxvi. Amador de los Ríos edited Oviedo for the Academy of History in 1851-55. Very full details concerning Cortés are given by Prescott in his classic book on Peru, and Sir Arthur Helps' _Life of Las Casas_ (1868) is a pleasing piece of partisanship.

_Lazarillo de Tormes_ should be read in Mr. Butler Clarke's beautiful reproduction of the _princeps_ (1897). M. Morel-Fatio's essay in the first series of his _Études sur l'Espagne_ (1895) is exceedingly ingenious, but, like all negative criticism, it is somewhat unconvincing. His guess that _Lazarillo_ was written by some one connected with the Valdés clique does not seem very happy, but even a conjecture by M. Morel-Fatio carries great weight.

Eduard Böhmer gives a very full bibliography of Juan de Valdés in his _Biblioteca Wiffeniana_ (Strassburg, 1874). Benjamin Barron Wiffen had for Valdés a kind of cult which found partial expression in his quarto _Life and Writings of Juan Valdés, otherwise Valdesio_ (1865). But it is impossible to give more minute references to the voluminous literature which deals with Valdés and his brother Alfonso. An historical essay by Manuel Carrasco, published at Geneva in 1880, is interesting as the work of a modern Spanish Protestant.