SOBRE LA DIFUSIÓ DE LES COBLES DE LA MORT AL SEGLE XVI

Abstract

Although the Cobles de la Mort were printed with the Peregrinacio del Venturos Pelegri from the first complete extant edition (1635) until the twentieth century, several witnesses and data analyzed in this paper suggest the Cobles were published independently of the Peregrinacio in the first half of the sixteenth century. A record in the manuscript catalogues of the library of Hernando Colon confirms that in 1536 this bibliophile had already acquired a chapbook containing the Cobles. In addition, a fragment of the Libre de Senequa, an Occitan work of the thirteenth century, is cited in one of the paratexts included in a mid-sixteenth century manuscript copy of the Cobles. The presence of this Occitan source seems to relate the Cobles with the medieval tradition more than with the early modern literature. By comparing these elements with other sources, we deduce the existence of incunabula or postincunabula editions, currently missing, in which the Cobles were printed independently of the Peregrinacio. The...