El Generalife y las ruinas árabes de sus contornos. Un capítulo inédito de los Nuevos Paseos de Simón de Argote

Abstract

Simon de Argote’s Nuevos paseos (1806-1807) is one of the most remarkable works written on the Alhambra. It offers an Enlightenment response to the distortions of the Roman past of Granada of the cleric and Arabist Velazquez de Echeverria. Unfortunately, the work was unfinished because it did not cover all the “Arabian antiques” located outside the Nasrid city. In this article, an unknown chapter about the Generalife and the ruins around is presented, accompanied with critical notes. It was given by the author to King Joseph Bonaparte during his stay in Granada and it was kept among the papers the king had lost at the Battle of Vitoria. The study of the documents found in different archives and publications of that time sheds some light on the mysterious personality of Simon de Argote and deepens in the knowledge of his relationship with General Horace Sebastiani, a military who was embassador in Istanbul and other cities of the Middle East under Napoleon’s order, before he ruled the Kingdom of Granada.