Portal de Murcia
www.portaldemurcia.com
That the books speak, is something well known by any fan of the world of letters.
But to maintain a fluid dialogue with your reader is something more rare, only reserved for the copies that have passed through the hands of avid readers and lovers of exposing their thoughts in the publications they read, as a symbolic conversation with the author.
And it is even more rare that, 400 years later, a student repairs this conversation and studies it carefully.
And what ceases to be rare to become absolutely exceptional is that the student, a retired professor of Latin Philology at the University of Murcia since 1972, was, no less, that the first professor of the UMU- repair in a finding as unexpected as fascinating: that the enlightened and sagacious reader, original owner of the publication and author of the numerous underlining and comments of the book had been none other than Francisco de Quevedo and Villegas.
It was not the first important finding of books made by Francisca Moya del Baño, but probably the most unexpected and the most valuable.
It is a copy of the Aeneid, which Virgil wrote in the first century BC, one of the classics of universal literature, in an edition of 1612, in which the author of "Life of Buscón called Don Pablos" made numerous underlines , and included notes that, for an experienced reader and prominent researcher on the subject, Professor Moya del Baño, provide invaluable information: "In his notes we have been able to see his wit, his thoughts, his culture 'his tastes' ...".
The issue is the first volume of the edition and commentary of the Juan de la Cerda's Aeneid, which saw the light in 1612. It belonged to the Convent of Carmelitas Descalzos de Criptana, and, as the professor of the UMU assures, "In it Don Francisco put fingerprints that testified that he had been in his hands. "
Such traces are underlined, referrals to pages and annotations, which provide valuable information about the tastes and interests of the genius of the Golden Age, such as grammatical, stylistic and curious things.
The writer left a mark of his cultural baggage and of the books of his belonging, which he knew and had read.
"Everything interests him and stops a lot" comments Moya del Baño, including certain misogynistic notes (such as the "wickedness of women", against which the gods said Euripides- they found no remedy, although they did against snakes and vipers, or some other "Quevedoan evil", like the pleasure of revenge or that, according to the philosophers, "death is a gift from the gods".
The book in question had fallen into the hands of Francisca Moya more than thirty years ago, a gift from his mentor, also a professor at the University of Murcia, Manuel Muñoz Cortés.
To him and to this book, the professor assures, there is a lot of interest in the Spanish humanists "because I was absolutely amazed at the erudition and clarity of Father La Cerda", being the origin of several important works carried out from the Department of Classical Philology of the UMU.
The unit had been in that department for four years, in order to support a doctoral thesis, to return later to the shelves of the home of Francisca del Baño until, in November 2012, looking for an illustration to serve as a cover of a work on Virgil that Editum was going to publish, the Publications Service of the University of Murcia, took it in his hands, and passed the pages of the old and deteriorated copy.
"I pressed the sheets - as Professor Lasso de la Vega taught me", stopping before an entry.
Then he found another, and another ... The teacher could not believe what she saw: there was Quevedo's handwriting, and she jumped for joy and happiness assures-, which she recognized for having seen her in other books.
He went to an expert, who corroborated it.
And he realized that fate had given him an unusual play: after spending a good part of his time looking for editions of the writer, chance had been used as a common friend and also, in some way, by Quevedo, the teacher Muñoz Cortés to wait in his own home for the right moment to make himself known and engage in a juicy and exciting conversation separated by four centuries.
Now, this copy, along with eight others, also of special historical interest, has just become part of the important bibliographic heritage of the University of Murcia, including "The Transformations", Ovidio, printed in Valladolid in 1589, or a copy of Antonio de Nebrija dated 1795, donated by Professor Francisca Moya.
All of them are already in the Old Fund section, in the María Moliner Library of the UMU.
Source: Universidad de Murcia
Privacy policy
- Legal notice
- Cookies