Libro de los Engaños
The Old Spanish version of the Book of Sindibad, titled El libro de los engaños e asayamientos de las mugeres (The book of the deceptions and trials of women), represents a unique link between the 'Eastern' version of the narrative and the literary traditions in European languages. The Libro was composed in 1253, commissioned by don Fadrique, son of King Fernando III and the brother of King Alfonso X 'el sabio' (the wise). The translation of the Libro into Castilian from an Arabic source was part of a larger project of literary translation in thirteenth-century Spain, and the court of Alfonso X in particular; just a year or two before the composition of the Libro, for example, the translation of Kalilah wa- Dimna into Old Spanish was completed (see Keller 1975, Lacarra 2009).
The sole suriving manuscript that contains the Libro, found in the Real Academia Española in Madrid, was composed sometime in the 14th century. It is usually referred to by the title of the first text in the manuscript, El Conde Lucanor, by Juan Manuel. It is worth noting that El Conde, which is also a collection of exempla, contains a version of the story Vulpes - a story found in several of the 'Eastern' versions, but not included in the Libro. According to Ramos (2005), this may explain its absence from the end of the Libro - the scribe had already copied a version of the narrative earlier in the same collection and did not wish to repeat it. However, that absence may also be incidental, as Vulpes only occasionally appears in the Arabic 'Seven Viziers' narrative found in the One Thousand and One Nights, and is not found in the One Hundred and One Nights — the Libro's closest analogue, and possibly its source (Lacarra 2009).
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version