Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo

The Golden Canon in the 19th Century Press: Elements of a Discourse

Carlos M. Collantes Sánchez — 2025-09-10

Introduction to the dossier «El canon áureo en la prensa decimonónica: elementos de un discurso»

El Londres de Blanco, 1810-1832

Martin Murphy — 2025-09-10

El periodista y escritor español José María Blanco y Crespo se exilió en Londres en 1811 y desde entonces, bajo el nombre de Joseph Blanco White, desarrolló allí su vida y su obra. Este estudio presenta los trazos principales de la relación entre el escritor y Londres hasta el momento en que abandonó la ciudad.

Theater in the time of Bretón de los Herreros: dialogues between tradition and modernity (1820-1870)

Maribel Martínez López — 2025-09-10

Presentation to the monographic issue.

The idea of the Eighteenth-Century «melodrama» and the social utility of El ser noble es obrar bien (1736), by José de Ca´ñizares

Carlos González Ludeña — 2025-09-10

El ser noble es obrar bien (1736) is a «melodrama» by José de Cañizares and Francesco Corradini. It highlights the didactic will and the social relevance of merit reflected in the historical character of Agatocles, as well as an intention to approach classicist dramatic rules, even though the aurisecular tradition is at the heart of the piece. This work aims to contextualize the characteristics of this opera and its perceived merit within the intellectual and literary milieu of the 17th and 18^thcenturies. Methodologically, the paratexts and metatheatrical commentaries of characters in operas performed in Madrid during the 1730s and 1740s will be used as starting points for understanding the compositional strategies of the libretto. Therefore, this article examines an opera that aimed to cultivate exemplary citizens.

A social, professional and territorial conflict: the I marquis of Casa-Tilly in the spanish conquest and occupation of Santa Satalina (1776-1778)

Ana-Rosa Nieto-Cervantes — 2025-09-10

In 1776, after forty-nine years of service to the Crown in the Spanish Royal Navy, the 1st Marquis of Casa-Tilly was presented with one of the best opportunities to enhance his socio-professional career: the command of the squadron in the expedition. of conquest and occupation of the island of Santa Catalina. As the months passed, what began as the largest naval campaign that crossed the Atlantic from Spain almost became the reason for the volatilization of the honor, merit and virtue of one of the most illustrious sailors of the 18th century. In this study we analyze the multiple conflicts that the 1st Marquis of Casa-Tilly had with his superior, Pedro Cevallos, during the mission and the numerous accusations that encouraged the holding of a Council of War and put his future and that of his lineage in check.

On the written productions of alcaldes de barrio in the Río de la Plata: the case of Francisco Saguí (1784-1847)

Sandra L. Díaz de Zappia — 2025-09-10

At different times and in different places, the people who held some positions in the Hispanic American administration produced, in addition to the writings requested of them in the exercise of their respective jobs, several compositions ranging from poetry to those of a historical nature. As for those who occupied the alcaldía de barrio in Buenos Aires, there are only a few examples. This work proposes to analyze the biography of Francisco Saguí, with a focus on his position in the society of that time and his role in the political and economic life of the city. Likewise, the analysis of Saguí’s historical discourse and the ideas expressed therein will allow us to understand the circumstances of a character in his triple role of merchant, public agent and author, whose existence lasted from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century.

The witches of Barahona and Zugarramurdi in the 18th and 19th century Spanish press

Eva Lara Alberola — 2025-09-10

The witchcraft trial of 1527 against the women of Pareja (Guadalajara) and the one brought against men and women from Navarra that led to the Auto de Fe of Logroño (1610), left an important mark. In the first case, the fame of the fields of Soria as a meeting point for witches spread rapidly. In the second, with a higher «media» impact thanks to the reports published in 1611, witchcraft stories spread until the edict of silence was published in 1614. In 1811, the interest in this matter revived when Mongastón’s pamphlet was reissued with notes by Moratín. This work delves into the allusions in the 18th and 19th century press (using literary and newspaper sources) to these witches and the places where they met to establish how these locations settled in the collective imagination, becoming an obligatory reference on witchcraft which survived through the years.

español At the Boundaries of Reality: Music and Banditry Around the Figure of Diego Corriente(s)

Fernando Barrera-Ramírez — 2025-09-10

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, Spain was often idealized, portrayed as a land of ancient customs and colorful characters. It was a realm where the bandit figure stood out, inspiring romances and folk songs, many of them anonymous, which managed to turn these figures of dubious reputation into genuine heroes for the common people. Among the diverse group of bandits from the late 18th century, one figure stands out prominently: Diego Corrientes (1757-1781), whose adventures inspired numerous works throughout the 19th century. This article delves into the study of the musical compositions revolving around Corrientes, serving as a quintessential example of the noble bandit in Spanish music.

Of severed heads, love passions, and republican utopias: Charlotte Corday in the Spanish Romantic press

Rebeca Martín — 2025-09-10

The purpose of this work is to explore the recreation of the historical figure of Charlotte Corday in the 19th-century Spanish press. After reflecting on the representation of Corday in the French popular imagination between 1793 and 1850, this article deals with the treatment of the character in articles on pseudoscientific curiosities, biographical sketches and historical accounts, and especially in short stories published in magazines that were essential to the dissemination of Romanticism in Spain, such as Semanario Pintoresco Español, El Museo de las Familias and El Panorama. In a very significant way, the work examines the construction of Corday's portrait and, above all, the different motivations for exercising violence attributed to the character, as well as the bizarre association of her case with another famous French cause, that of Bernardin Fualdès, recreated by Louise Colet.

History and poetry in El juicio de Dios o la reina Ico by Graciliano Afonso

Antonio Becerra Bolaños — 2025-09-10

In this article we propose an analysis of the historical elements present in the 19th century Canarian author Graciliano Afonso’s adaptation of a legend referring to an episode prior to the conquest of the island of Lanzarote at the beginning of the 15th century. The introduction of aboriginal characters, events or terms, among other things, allows the author to make an expanded version of the story to insert the result into a broader project: to make the history of the Canary Islands accessible to the island’s young people of his time. In this way, The Judgement of God or Queen Ico will become a precursor example of novelized (or versified) history, influenced by what Walter Scott is doing in Great Britain with his novels. We intend with our study to address the connections that the author establishes between literary freedom and the historical reality that could be enclosed within the legend of Queen Ico.

The Hispanic mazurkas of Chopin/Viardot-García: cosmopolitan melting pot of cultured and popular genres

Marta Vela — 2025-09-10

After the intense relationship with Frédéric Chopin during the 1840s, Pauline Viardot-García arranged a series of twelve mazurkas for voice that she disseminated throughout Europe, especially after the death of the Polish composer, which were published late in 1864 with texts by Louis Pomey. However, the Pauline Viardot-García papers of the Houghton Library of Harvard University have shown that the arrangements of the first five mazurkas (from 1846) were with lyrics in Spanish, long before Pomey’s version, along with others such as the Jota de los estudiantes, from the same period, hence the Hispanic condition of this series of works. The only mazurka by Chopin/Viardot-García that has remained unpublished, La tortolilla triste VWV 4045 (1857), from Mazurka Op. 17 No. 2 (1833), could be inspired, in turn, by one of Bellini’s ariettas, with whom Chopin had a camaraderie between 1833 and 1835. Perhaps, for this reason, it has remained unpublished until February 2024, in the broad context of Romanticism, through a hybridization of cultured and popular genres, between Italian opera and Spanish song, which reinforce its importance during the era of cosmopolitan culture.

«Every trifle takes a grace from them, and every affectation a charm»: female models and material culture at Fernán Caballero’s works

Isabel Clúa — 2025-09-10

This article explores the relationship between models of femininity and material culture in Fernán Caballero’s work, specifically in the novels La Gaviota (1849), Elia o la España treinta años ha (1849) and Clemencia (1852), focused on the trajectories of the protagonists that give them their titles. The main aim is to show how the adjustment —or misadjustment— of the protagonists to the model of normative femininity, marked by the ideal of domesticity, is significantly determined by their relations with the objectual universe. On the other hand, these relationships convey certain anxieties about nationhood and modernity, that are also relevant in the construction of the gender ideal and that are not only fundamental in Fernán Caballero’s work, but also run through the whole century, spanning from costumbrismo to the realist novel.

Adela and Matilde. Post-imperial memories, pan-hispanism and liberal humanitarianism in a romantic novel (1843)

Rodrigo Escribano Roca — 2025-09-10

This article offers a historiographical analysis of the novel Adela y Matilde o los últimos cinco años de la dominación española en el Perú, a romantic fiction that aimed to intervene in the political debates surrounding the imperial past of Elizabethan Spain. My analysis will reflect how its author, Colonel Ramón Soler, conceived his work with three objectives. First, he proposed the vindication of the personal and group honour of the royalist soldiers who had participated in the Peruvian War of Independence and who, throughout Espartero’s Regency (1840-1843) and the Moderate Decade (1844-1854), were vilified by liberal-conservative propaganda as the culprits of the imperial schism. Secondly, the novel was postulated as an exercise in political thought. Soler was eager to defend the ideological principles of liberal pan-Hispanism, sifted here by humanitarianism and the vindication of female subjects. Finally, Soler’s account suggested a frustrated counterfactual horizon, according to which the transitional transformation of the Spanish empire into a family of parliamentary monarchies would have avoided the catastrophic geopolitical rupture of the Hispanic world. Adela y Matilde emerged in a liminal space between autobiographical memory, literature and historiography. It socialized highly refined ethical-political representation of the dynamics that had led to the decline of ties between Spain and Latin America. It also proposed keys to repair the links between them.

Intervenciones sobre el texto del Journal de Novalis en la edición original de 1846

Miguel Alberti — 2025-09-10

El texto del diario íntimo de Novalis de mediados de 1797 fue publicado por primera vez en 1846 con significativas modificaciones hechas por el editor, Eduard von Bülow. En este artículo se revisan dichas modificaciones y se aspira a brindar algo de evidencia de que con ellas se trató, en general, de moldear el texto de manera tal que ofreciera al lector una imagen de Novalis como un poeta incapaz de sentir no solo emociones o sensaciones indecorosas sino también tranquilidad o alivio durante su proceso de duelo por la muerte de su prometida Sophie von Kühn. Se analiza todo el conjunto de operaciones llevadas a cabo por Bülow, en particular dos asuntos: en primer lugar, los pasajes en los que puede advertirse un propósito concreto de sustraer determinada información del diario y, en segundo lugar, el tratamiento de la intrigante «determinación» a la que hace referencia Novalis y sobre la cual se han propuesto distintas interpretaciones, aún hoy en discusión.

«To instruct and delight.» The reading room of the bookseller José María Pérez from A Coruña

Concha Varela-Orol — 2025-09-10

This work analyses the reading room -cabinet littéraire- established in A Coruña in the 19th century by José María Pérez within the context of this new form of book trade that had arisen in Europe as early as the 18th century. Based on a catalogue from 1844, we study the strategies used in its layout, the general thematic composition of the reading room, and especially the novels, paying special attention to those written by female authors who were incorporated into the Spanish publishing market in these years. It is concluded by noting the backwardness in Spain of the new form of book commercialization represented by the reading rooms, the long periods of translation of European works in the first decades of the 19th century, especially of novels written by women, so the male and female authors who constituted the canon of popular literature.

The bretoniana recast of ¡Si no vieran las mujeres!, by Lope de Vega. The «lisura» in versification and staging effect

Ana Zúñiga Lacruz — 2025-09-10

: In 1828, Manuel Bretón de los Herreros recasts ¡Si no vieran las mujeres!, a senectute play by Lope de Vega, composed around 1631-1633 and published posthumously in La vega del Parnaso (1637). Bretón rewrites this palatine play maintaining and completing dialogues and scenes that provide dynamism and staging effect. In addition, he eliminates resources considered excessive on a formal basis and on content basis. Bretón seeks to simplify the play by Lope and adapt it to the interests and criteria of the nineteenth-century audience.

Honor, dueling, and the redefinition of bourgeois masculinity in Manuel Bretón de los Herreros’ plays

Francisco Javier Fernández Urenda — 2025-09-10

Manuel Bretón de los Herreros (1796-1873) used his plays to publicize an alternate bourgeois masculinity characterized by its rejection of violence, irrationality, and uncontrolled passion. The constant presence of plot motifs related to honor and the consequences derived from interpersonal violence reveals a particular interest in criticizing the practice of dueling. At the same time, his plays propose the need to address offenses against honor through rationalization and common sense. From a comic standpoint, it is possible to align his discourse with similar ideas expressed by contemporary authors like Larra and Lafuente, which clearly shows how dueling was a persistent concern throughout his entire career.

The musical narrative in Vellido Dolfos, by Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, and the premiere of the dama in Madrid

Marina Barba Dávalos — 2025-09-10

This paper attempts to fill a critical gap regarding Vellido Dolfos, by Manuel Bretón de los Herreros: its musical component is analyzed in connection with the rest of the dramatic elements. The circumstances surrounding the staging of its premiere in Madrid are also reviewed. Conclusions are drawn about how the performance may have affected the fact that the work did not have a reception similar to other historical dramas applauded at that time.

Bretón and Molière, the odd couple? Molière’s presence in 19th century Spain, in spite of Bretón

Francisco Lafarga — 2025-09-10

On August 28, 1831, the only known performance of Molière’s comedy El aturdido o Los contratiempos, translated by Bretón, took place. The premiere was a failure, for various reasons, and the translator decided to sever his relationship with the French playwright. The article raises and tries to resolve several questions: Bretón’s fleeting approach to Molière, his declared admiration for his work, his «renunciation» to translate him again after the fiasco of El aturdido and, consequently, the scarce presence of a comediographer of his stature among the authors translated by Bretón. Despite this «setback», Molière’s career in Spain continued throughout the 19th century with other translators, with fewer dramatic resources and even less familiarity with the translation of theatrical texts.

Keywords: Bretón de los Herreros, Manuel; Molière; Theater; xixth century; Translation; Presences

Bretón de los Herreros in the Press of Murcia and Cartagena (1832-1881)

Cristina Isabel Pina Caballero — 2025-09-10

Bretón de los Herreros (1796-1873) is one of the most important authors of Spanish theatre in the mid-19th century, both for his original contributions and for his work in the translation of European theatre. Far from the Madrid premieres, the cities of the periphery like Murcia and Cartagena had to wait for repertory companies to appear on the local stages to be able to access the theatrical novelties. And thanks to the local press we can know who brought and performed them, which were the most popular titles and what impact they had on the public. This work will cover almost half a century of performances in the two main cities of the Region of Murcia to answer these questions.

Las hijas de Gracián Ramírez (1831) in Hartzenbusch's authorial construction. Reworking an Eighteenth century play or adapting a traditional plot?

Alberto Escalante Varona — 2025-09-10

This paper examines the traditional categorization of the historical drama Las hijas de Gracián Ramírez by Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch (1831) as a refundición of the play La restauración de Madrid by Manuel Fermín de Laviano (1781). Through a comparative analysis of the textual corpus (17^th-19^th centuries) and the critical reception of the drama, it is argued that, at the level of textual formulation, Las hijas de Gracián Ramírez should not be considered a refundición but rather an adaptation of a traditional plot. Furthermore, its perceived connection to 18th-century theater is shown to stem from a historiographical prejudice tied to the professional and institutional strategies Hartzenbusch employed in constructing his authorial identity as a national writer, as well as to the 19^th-century debate on the moral and aesthetic propriety of refundiciones.

From Casarse por vengarse to El condestable de Sicilia: the story of a baroque text turned into romantic drama by José Zorrilla, through Lesage

José Luis González Subías — 2025-09-10

About ten years ago, a new play by José Zorrilla was discovered and published, the first printed by him, at the time when his figure was still unknown in Madrid. This article tries to demonstrate that this forgotten drama in three acts in verse, presented by Zorrilla under the title of El condestable de Sicilia, is in fact a stage adaptation of a previous text, inserted as a short novel by Alain-René Lesage in his work Historia de Gil Blas de Santillana, which the French autor had written taking as a reference the comedy Casarse por vengarse, by Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla.

Passion and temperance in Manuela Cambronero: the recensions of Safira as a key to interpretation

Iris Iglesias Segade — 2025-09-10

Manuela Cambronero made her literary debut in Valladolid with Safira (1842), an original drama in five acts and in prose which is nowadays as forgotten as its author, despite the recognition it received in the reviews after its premiere. These contemporary testimonies reveal which dramatic devices were accepted and censured by the critics, as well as the resources which were used to achieve a harmony between exaltation and didacticism. Thus, based on the reviews and some fragments of Safira, this balance is examined in order to demonstrate Cambronero’s ability to overcome the difficulties involved in combining virtue and passion, given that, although the values of contemporary society are not plausibly portrayed, the underlying moralising tone is unchronic and applicable to a teaching directed towards the nineteenth-century middle class.

David Prieto García-Seco y Elena Varela Merino (eds.), «Miscelánea de estudios filológicos. Homenaje a Pedro Álvarez de Miranda»

Teresa Bastardín Candón — 2025-09-10

Josep Artís i Balaguer, «Tres segles de teatre barceloní. “El Principal” a través dels anys»

Joaquín Álvarez Barrientos — 2025-09-10

Martín Zulaica López, «El largo intervalo. Historia de la recepción de El Bernardo de Balbuena (1624-1832)»

Virginia Gil Amate — 2025-09-10

Pelayo Fernández García, «El marqués de Santa Cruz de Marcenado (1684-1732). Cultura, milicia y redes sociales»

Francisco Precioso Izquierdo — 2025-09-10

Miguel Betti y Cristina Rosario Martínez Torres (eds.), «La máscara y el guante. Juegos autoriales en la literatura hispánica (siglos XVI-XIX)»

Emre Özmen — 2025-09-10

Jorge Martínez Montero (coord.), «Las Reales Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País. Nuevas aproximaciones (siglos XVIII-XXI)»

Pablo Ajenjo López — 2025-09-10

Fernando Durán López and Eva María Flores Ruiz (coord.), «Grises, sombras y reflejos de la Leyenda Negra en las letras españolas (siglos XVIII-XX)»

Emre Özmen — 2025-09-10

Marta Palenque, «La hemeroteca de Juan Pérez de Guzmán y Boza, duque de T’Serclaes. Catálogo y noticia de cabeceras inéditas sevillanas (1753-1932)»

Claudia Lora Márquez — 2025-09-10

Beatriz Sánchez Hita and Marieta Cantos Casenave (eds.), «Galería de periodistas de Andalucía en los siglos XVIII y XIX: Cien nombres del negocio editorial entre la política, la instrucción y la literatura»

Alberto Custodio Romero Vallejo — 2025-09-10

Miguel Amores Fúster, Pablo Martín González and María José Rodríguez Sánchez de León (eds.), «Cultura de Corte en el siglo XVIII español e italiano: diplomacia, arte, música y literatura. II Arte, literatura y música»

Miriam Cera Brea — 2025-09-10

Giulia Iannuzzi, Claudia Lora Márquez, Sylvie Moret Petrini and Brianna E. Robertson-Kirkland (dir.), «Credulity in the Age of Reason. Rhetoric, Epistemologies, Education / La crédulité à l’Âge de la Raison. Rhétorique, épistémologies, éducation»

Miguel Aguirre-Bernal — 2025-09-10

Elena Deanda-Camacho, «Ofensiva a los oídos piadosos. Obscenidad y censura en la poesía española y novohispana del siglo XVIII»

Eduardo San José Vázquez — 2025-09-10

Juan Díaz Álvarez (coord.), «Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes (1723-2023)»

Francisco Hidalgo Fernández — 2025-09-10

Sandra L. Díaz de Zappia, «“Para la buena administración de justicia y mejor policía de esta ciudad.” Los alcaldes de barrio de San Francisco de Quito (1729-1809)»

María Eugenia Petit-Breuilh Sepúlveda — 2025-09-10

Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, «Feijoo, poeta. Antología». Edition by Rodrigo Olay Valdés

Ignacio García Aguilar — 2025-09-10

José de Cadalso, «Los eruditos a la violeta». Edition by Joaquín Álvarez Barrientos.

Alberto Puntas Díaz-Malaguilla — 2025-09-10

José Nicolás de Azara, «Correspondencia confidencial con Manuel de Roda (Roma, 1768-1780)». Edition by Gabriel Sánchez Espinosa

Enrique Giménez López — 2025-09-10

Manuel Fermín de Laviano, «El Sigerico. Tragedia». Edition by Alberto Escalante Varona

Fernando Doménech Rico — 2025-09-10

Javier Muñoz de Morales Galiana (ed.), «Anastasia, de Antonio Marqués Espejo. Refundición literaria sobre un fragmento de Le Thévenon, de Jean-Élie Bertrand»

Álvaro Pina Arrabal — 2025-09-10

Rebeca Martín, «Crímenes pregonados. Causas célebres españolas de los siglos XVIII y XIX»

Fernando Durán López — 2025-09-10

Paulino Capdepón Verdú (2023) (study and edition), «Ramón Garay (1761-1823). Obra musical sacra en latín»

Germán Labrador López de Azcona — 2025-09-10

María Rosa de Gálvez, «Tres tragedias: Safo, Blanca de Rossi, Zinda». Edition by Fernando Doménech Rico

Elizabeth Franklin Lewis — 2025-09-10

Raquel Sánchez (coord.), «Hijos del siglo. Valores sociales y trayectorias masculinas en España, 1830-1890»

Gonzalo Butrón Prida — 2025-09-10

José Miguel Hué y Camacho, «El hombre de Tempul y Los gitanos de José Miguel Hué y Camacho (1803-1841)». Edición de Javier Muñoz de Morales Galiana

Celia Estepa Estepa — 2025-09-10

Marta Vela, «La jota, aragonesa y liberal. Zaragoza, Madrid y París»

Javier Cuesta Guadaño — 2025-09-10

Javier Muñoz de Morales Galiana, «El resucitador de la novela española. Vida y trayectoria del escritor sevillano Manuel Fernández y González (1821-1888)»

Juan Jesús Payán — 2025-09-10

An unpublished eclogue by José Iglesias de la Casa: a polemical case of bucolic in the 18th century

Noelia López-Souto — 2025-09-10

This article reveals a hitherto unknown eclogue by the poet José Iglesias de la Casa. The value of the text is highlighted, on the one hand, by its study, focused on its subversive interpretation of the previous golden-age version of the genre and on the classicizing element transmitted in the poem, which seems to defend the return of the bucolic to the rusticity and simplicity of its origins, as well as to its natural and honest portrayal of love (fictional Arcadian discourse whose truth, here, is made to depend on trust of the reader in the voice of a voyeur Poet). On the other hand, its value is highlighted in the critical annotation of its verses, which are edited at the end of this article and reveal the fertile intertextuality of this eclogue.

Advertising and subscriptions of European works in Spain (1773-1792)

Jean-Marc Buiguès — 2025-09-10

This paper analyzes the printed advertisements from the Gaceta de Madrid that were published outside Spain between 1773 and 1792. The work is completed with the study of the subscriber lists and the network of subscription posts.

Literary advertisements in the Diario de Madrid: new editions of the Golden Age (1801-1825)

Carlos M. Collantes Sánchez — 2025-09-10

This study aims to study which literary works by Golden Age authors were most widely advertised for sale in Madrid during the first quarter of the 19^th century. By this way, it pretends to offer a —partial— perspective on the reading preferences of the time regarding Golden Age literature and to determine whether these preferences followed the «canon that sells» based on the political and cultural trends of the period. To this end, all book advertisements published between 1801 and 1825 in Diario de Madrid have been reviewed to identify those related to the Golden Age. As for the selection of titles, we have included only literary books —dramatic, poetic and historical works as well as prose fiction—, excluding editions of books on religion, medicine and other related subjects.

Golden tradition and literary canon in the advertisements of the Eco del Comercio (1834-1849)

Ignacio García Aguilar — 2025-09-10

This article examines the presence of Spanish Golden Age literature in the advertisements of the Eco del Comercio. Data extracted from the newspaper are organized according to the three major genres of the Golden Age period: theater, novels, and poetry. The analysis reveals that the theatrical literary canon was composed of Lope de Vega, Calderón, and Tirso; Cervantes was the paradigm of the novel, while in the field of poetry, traditional Castilian lyric poetry was fundamentally valued. But beyond the data, the study of the advertisements suggests the existence of an advertising rhetoric that focuses on coded elements that are repeated to praise both the materiality of the print and the quality of the selection and implementation of the texts. All of this is based on liberal postulates that seem to pursue the literary monumentalization of the advertised canon.

The weekly Phoenix: the reception of Lope de Vega through the Semanario Pintoresco Español (1836-1857)

Ignacio Alba Degayón — 2025-09-10

The 19th century and, within it, the press which served as the carrier of the surrounding reality have yet much to contribute to the research on the reception of Lope de Vega among the authors of the Spanish Golden Age. On this matter, the extraordinary success of the Semanario Pintoresco Español (1836-1857) allows for the observation of the course of Lope’s image throughout a long period and its eclecticism brings together the most diverse aesthetic-ideological perspectives. In order to encompass such heterogeneity, we analyze five texts which represent three of the main contents published in the magazine, the biographical articles, the short stories and the bibliographic studies, revealing, despite their differences, a growing interest in approaching the Phoenix’s figure, on the basis of his literature and translating the author to contemporary coordinates.

Three visions of Lope in the press of Romanticism (1839-1851)

Raquel Gutiérrez Sebastián — 2025-09-10

Between 1839 and 1851, several articles appeared on Lope de Vega and his work. Its authors were Antonio Gil y Zárate, Javier de Burgos and Ramón Mesonero Romanos and the texts were published in very important newspapers of the time: Semanario Pintoresco Español, El Panorama and La Alhambra. The article focuses on the critical assessment that these writers, Burgos, neoclassical, Gil y Zárate and Mesonero, romantics, make of Lope de Vega, which coincides in fundamental values and with more negative than positive aspects. Lope’s fecundity and his inventiveness and creativity are admired. Improvisation, lack of respect for the rules, haste to write and lack of revision and correction in his work, as well as his search for popular success, are censured.

The count of Campo de Alange before Calderón and the Spanish Golden Age theatre in El Artista

María José Alonso Seoane — 2025-09-10

This article studies the attitude of José de Negrete, count of Campo de Alange, on Calderón and, in general, the Golden Age theatre, in El Artista. On the first part of the paper, some unknown pieces of news about the activity of the magazine promoters are analyzed through Federico de Madrazo’s notes in his diary of 1834. Also, some significant events related to the old Spanish theatre and their impact on the press are analyzed as well. The second part of the article is focused on Campo Alange’s ideas about Calderón and the Golden Age theatre in El Artista in relation to Romanticism, with some unpublished aspects found on the texts in the autograph manuscripts kept in the archive of the count and countess of Campo de Alange.

Image and literary canon in La Ilustración Española y Americana. About Cervantes

Rocío Cárdenas Luna — 2025-09-10

This article analyses two elements of Cervantes’ presence in La Ilustración Española y Americana in the first decade of its existence. Their common feature is their impetus to the extension of the iconography of the author and his work and, in doing so, they are situated at the intersection of two lines: the generic nature of the illustrated press and the construction of a national canon linked to an imaginary and an ideology. Taking both discourses into account, we analyse the treatment given to the portraits of Cervantes and the promotion of the figure of his most prominent character as part of the construction of valid icons for the affirmation of collective identity.