Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma
From The Seven Sages of Rome
The fifteenth- and sixteenth-century prints titled La Historia de los Siete Sabios de Roma represent one of the three distinct Spanish branches of the tradition (along with the Libro de los Engaños and the Spanish Scala Coeli, not to mention the Spanish Erasto). The Siete Sabios prints follow the Version H (Historia Septem Sapientum) pattern of embedded tales, probably drawn from a Latin Version H text, and were frequently illustrated with elaborate woodcuts (Aranda García 2021a; 2023).
The Spanish Siete Sabios prints offer a window into the movements of texts and - critically - printers in the late medieval period. For example, the earliest surviving print comes from the workshop of brothers Juan and Pablo Hurus, German printers working in Zaragoza in the late 15th/early 16th centuries; the brothers, who tailored the narrative to fit the interests of their Zaragoza audience, were reportedly converts to Christianity from Judaism. Later prints (from 1510, 1534, and 1538) were produced in Sevilla by a different German printer, Jacobo Comberger (Aranda García 2021a, Lacarra 2014). The dissemination of the Siete Sabios was part of a boom in the printing of prose fiction - including popular translated texts - in the early part of the sixteenth century; shorter chivalric and sentimental texts were particularly popular (Cañizares Ferriz 2011).| General Information | |
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| Language within Version | |
| Narrative / Scholarly Group | |
| Parent Versions | H (Historia Septem Sapientum) |
| Child Versions | Spanish Prints (H) |
| Author | |
| Title | Libro de los siete sabios de Roma |
| Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages | Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma |
| Version Number | |
| Branch of the tradition | West |
| Language & Composition | |
|---|---|
| Original language of version | Spanish |
| Translated into (languages) | |
| Place of composition | Spain |
| Date of composition | 1475 - 1491 |
| Source for date of composition | Aranda García (2021a) |
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| Adaptations | |
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| Adapted from (version) | Latin Version H |
| Adapted into (version) | |
| Source for composition and adaptation information | |
| Languages in Use | |
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| Language of text | Spanish |
| Regional or specific language of version | |
| Notes | |
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| Note | |
| Notes on motifs | |
| Notes on the frame | |
| Pattern of embedded stories in this version |
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No connected manuscripts |