A CERVANTES ITEM FROM EMMANUEL COLLEGE LIBRARY: BARROS'S 'FILOSOFÍA CORTESANA', 1587

Cambridge Bibliographical Society

A CERVANTES ITEM FROM EMMANUEL COLLEGE LIBRARY: BARROS'S 'FILOSOFÍACORTESANA', 1587Author(s): EDWARD M. WILSONSource: Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Vol. 4, No. 5 (1968), pp. 363-371Published by: Cambridge Bibliographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41154470 .

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VOL. IV, PART V

A CERVANTES ITEM FROM EMMANUEL COLLEGE LIBRARY: BARROS'S 'FILOSOFÍA CORTESANA', 1587

EDWARD M. WILSON

of Cervantes's complimentary poems had to wait more than three centuries before they were reprinted. Among these is a sonnet to Alonso de Barros, whose Filosofía cortesana moralizada

was printed in Madrid in 1587. In 1819 Don Martín Fernández de Navarrete printed it in his life of Cervantes. He apparently took it from the original edition, though he modernized its spelling and punctuation. He added that Alonso de Barros also wrote a series of versified proverbs which went through several editions in the early seventeenth century.1 After his time no other Cervantine scholar has seen the Filosofìa cortesana of 1587. Some supposed that it was the title of an early edition of the versified proverbs. Fitzmaurice- Kelly doubted the identity of the two books, but added that, as no copy of the early edition was known to survive, the case could not be decided.2 His doubts might have been solved had he looked up the early editions of Barros's Proverbios morales^ and the Bibliotheca hispana sine hispanorum of Nicolás Antonio.4 After telling us that Barros was born in Segovia in about 1552, that he was a metatus [billeting officer] to Philip II and to Philip III and that he died in 1604, Antonio listed three editions of the Proverbios; he added two other works :

Memorial sobre el reparo de la milicia, in 4. Filosophia Cortesana moralizada. Ma tri ti apud Alphonsum Gomez 1587. in

8. [sic] Haec duo postrema Opera tribuit В arrio nostro D. Thomas Tamaio de Vargas in Collectione M.S. Librorum Hispana lingua conscriptorum; quae quidem Didacus Colmenares in Elogiis Scriptorum Segobiensium omisit; saltim de vitimo constat ex Matthaei Alemán Elogio in laudem auctoris in libro Proverbiorum excusso.

Mateo Alemán (i547-?i6i3) was the author of the great picaresque novel, Guzman de Alfarache (1599, 1604), translated into English by James Mabbe

1 D. Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Vida de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, escrita e ilustrada con varias noticias y documentos inéditos pertenecientes a la historia y literatura de su tiempo (Publícala la Real Academia Española. Madrid en la Imprenta Real Año de 18 19), pp. 69, 404-5. 2 James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Reseña documentada de su vida (Oxford, 1917), p. 94.

3 Madrid, 1598. Madrid, 1608. Baeça, 161 5. Lisbon, 1617 (two editions, one entitled Perla de los proverbios morales). Saragossa, 1664. With French translation, Paris, 16 17.

4 Tomus primus, Rome, 1672, p. 9.

363



TRANSACTIONS OF THE CAMBRIDGE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, IV

with the title The Rogue (London, 1622). The following words occur in his preface to the first edition of Barros's Prouerbios morales:

His many elegant works proclaim their author; among them shines brightly that Filosofia cortesana which he composed, a worthy title for such a work, though we might as well call it The Disillusion of an Office-Seeker. For in it are portrayed in lively fashion all that is endured in this and other courts by the wretches who come to them and the route that they must take to arrive with happiness at the haven of their desires. [It is] a most studious work, worthy of its author.1

Alemán's words were enough to convince sceptical readers that the Filosofía cortesana was not the same work as the Prouerbios morales. Un- fortunately there was also another source of confusion: Nicholas Antonio's declaration, quoted above, that the former work was printed in Madrid by Alonso Gómez. The translators into Spanish of George Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature gave the date of the Filosofía cortesana as 1567, not 1587. Some colour was given to this supposition because Alonso Gómez is known to have died in 1584. In fact the volume to be described was not printed by Gómez but by Pedro de Madrigal, who worked between 1586 and 1598 or 1599. Cristóbal Pérez Pastor pointed out that Barros is hardly likely to have composed such a work at the age of 15. The mistake made by Tomás Tamayo de Vargas in the early seventeenth century, copied by Nicolas Antonio, bedevilled scholars until the early 1920s.2

When in 1922 Rudolph Schevill and Adolfo Bonilla printed the sixth volume of their edition of Cervantes's plays and farces they included in it his minor poems including our sonnet. This appeared in a new text, copied from a previously unrecorded edition of the Filosofía cortesana, printed at Naples by Josep Cacchij in 1588. The editors found this book in the Imperial Library at Vienna.3 Apparently the Italian printer had no ñ in the fount in which the poem is set; so the reader is faced with some barbarous spellings:

1 * Y aunque sea este lugar el de las alabanças, donde los amigos deuen empeñarse, no me es necessario : pues al autor publican sus escritos, tantos, y tan elegantes, entre los quales resplandece aquella Filosofia cortesana que compuso, digno titulo de tal obra, no obstante que también la pudiéramos llamar desengaño de pretensores: porque alii representa viuamente, quanto en esta Corte (y en todas) padecen los miserables que a ellas vienen, y el camino que han de tomar para llegar con felicidad al puerto de sus desseos; obra estudiosissima, meritamente suya qual esta.' Prouerbios morales de Alonso de Barros, criado del Rey nuestro señor. . .Año 1608 . . .En Madrid Por Alonso Martin. A costa de Miguel Martínez. Fol. тгб.

2 Ticknor's translators were Pascual de Gayangos and Enrique de Vedia; the translation appeared in three volumes between 185 1 and 1856. The passage referred to may be found in in, 556. See also Cristóbal Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña, i, pp. xx-xxii, xxvi-xxvii, 13 1-2. J. Fitzmaurice-Kelly, loc. cit.

3 ' Seguimos el texto de la edición de la Filosofia cortesana moralizada, impresa en Nápoles, por Josep Cacchij, el año 1588, del cual se conserva ejemplar en la Biblioteca Imperial de Viena. El libro va dedicado a Mateo Vázquez de Leca, y lleva una aprobación de Alonso de Ercilla y un soneto de Liñán de Riaza. Consta de 63 páginas en 12o/ Obras completas de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Comedias y entremeses, tomo vi (introducción), Poesías sueltas (Madrid, 1922), p. 47 -

second pagination. 364



'filosofìa cortesana', 1587

sennaíarse, pequenna. But at last the question of the separate identity of Barros's early work was settled.

There is a copy of the Madrid 1587 edition of Alonso de Barros's Filosofía cortesana in the Library of Emmanuel College (326. 6. io8=Adams B. 253). It formerly belonged to John Breton, who was admitted as a pensioner in 1629 and took his M.A. in 1636. He was recalled to Emmanuel from his prebendai stall at Worcester to become Master in 1665 and died on 2 March 1676. The book is bound in vellum and measures 11-4 x 6-7 cm. On the front pastedown are written the words: 'Coll. Eman: Cam:' and under them three classmarks, the first two of which are crossed through: 'E. 6. 28', '15. 3. 70' and '26. 8. 37'. On the guard-leaf opposite the titlepage: 'Coll. Eman: Io. Breton, S.T.P. huj'9 Coll: Mr moriens legavit.' An inscription at the head of the titlepage is hard to read and interrupted by a tear; perhaps the words are: 'Missionis . . . soc. Iesv.'

Titlepage: see Fig. 1. Collation: I2mo. A-D12. Foliated: [1-6] 7-48. Verso of the titlepage blank. A2r-A4r: Privilege, headed 'El Rey' and dated at Madrid, 9 February 1587,

signed 'Por mãdado del Rey nuestro señor. luán Vazquez/ A4V. 'Aprobación', dated 13 January 1587, signed by Don Alonso de Ercilla. See

appendix below. A5r. 'De Liñan de Riaça. | SONETO/ See appendix below. A5V. 'De Miguel de Ceruãtes. | SONETO/ See Fig. 2. A6r-A7v. ťAl Lector/ A8r-A9v. 'A Mateo Vazquez de Leca, del consejo de su Magestad, y su secretario,

y de la santa general Inquisición, arcediano de Carmona, y canónigo en la santa yglesia de Seuilla/ Dedication.

Аюг. [Ornament] 'Comiença la Filosofia Cortesana de Alonso de Barros criado del Rey nuestro señor/

D5V. 'Declarado del juego, y orden de jugarle/ Di2v. Colophon: Laus Deo. | [rule] | En Madrid, | Por Pedro Madrigal. | 1587. There are ornamental initials, each of which takes up three lines of type, as follows :

P on A2r, M on A6r, L on A8r and Dsv, E on Aior. Running headlines on A6V, A7r and A7V: Al Lector. Running headlines on all versos of text but Di2v: Filofofia. Running headlines on all rectos of text but Aior: Cortejaria. Running headline on Di2v: Filo/. Corte fana. Block on Ci2r: see Fig. 3.

Mateo Vásquez de Leca, to whom the book was dedicated, was born in Algiers, where his mother was a Christian captive, in 1542. He later served several Spanish nobles and, in 1573, became Secretary of State to Philip II. He probably helped to bring about the disgrace of the notorious Antonio Pérez. He was also the addressee of a verse-letter supposed to have been

365




Fig. I

De Miguel de Ceruâtc«. SONETO.

Pernos del rafado y ri- ы co OnentCy

La blSca^dur a piedra fenalarfe^ T en todo ( aunque pequenada-

uentajarfe щА lamdyor dclCaucafo entínete. Tal eße humilde al parecer pre-

fente Puede^y deue mirar/ê y y admi-

rarfey No por la cantidad , mas por

mojlrarfe Ser en fu calidad tan excelente. El ¿[nauega por el golf o infuno Del mar de pretensiones , Уегл

al punto Vel corte fano laberintio el hilo. Felice ingenio^ "ïeturofa memo

qel deleyte^y prouecho pufo juto En juego alegre) en dulce y cUrê

ejìilo. Fig. 2

Fig- 3

366

FILOS Ö fi Щ Corťcfa na, moraliza da poť Alonfode Barros, criado del:

Rey nueftro fefior.^

Dirigida a Mateo Vazquez dt Leca, del confejo de fu Mageftad . y fu fecretario, y de la fanta gehe» ral Inquificion> arcediano de Cat ,

тола, y canónigo en la fan» Щ

у yglcfia^dcS^Ua^ ^ Ц

Та [fado en medio Real

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'filosofia cortesana', 1587 written by Cervantes while he was a slave in Algiers. The authenticity of this work, printed first in 1863, is doubtful; all trace of the manuscript is lost. According to R. B. Merriman, Vásquez was 'a miserable orphan of Seville, who had made a name for himself as an informer'. He died in 1591.1

Pedro Liñán de Riaza was a well-known poet in Madrid who died in 1607. Many of his works survive, though problems of attribution are formid- able, because most of his poems appeared in the Romancero general of 1600 in which the names of authors were not given. A tentative and inaccurate edition of poems attributed to him was published in Saragossa in 1876.

Don Alonso de Ercilla (1533-94), who signed the aprobación, was the author of the great Spanish colonial epic, La Araucana. He approved many books after he returned to Spain from Chile.

The Filosofía cortesana moralizada helps a little to fill out the picture of Cervantes's literary circle in the late 1580s.

The king's privilege gives more than a hint of the purpose of the book : ťAs you, Alonso de Barros, our servant. . .have made up a drawing called Filosofía cortesana, with different figures and verses that are contained on a large sheet of paper, and as you have moralized it in a separate treatise . . . >z The drawing has disappeared; this book is the separate treatise, which moralizes, and gives some account of, the lost drawing. From our text we can see that the sheet contained a board game, divided into 63 squares, to represent the years of a man's life, appropriately decorated with emblematic en- gravings and verses, which depicted the progress of an ambitious man at Court. It was played with tokens and dice. The numbered squares represented different stages in a courtier's career. Some contained hazards that put him back; others benefits that helped him on. Not all the squares are described, but none the less we can find the main features of the game, though I, at least, cannot follow every detail in it. The game resembles in one way 'Snakes and Ladders', in another 'Monopoly'. As the book is rare I shall give a short summary of it.

You enter by the gate of reputation (Opinion). Your idea of yourself is shown by a peacock with fanned-out tail and ugly feet. A swan blows the trumpet of fame and rests his foot on a death's head. You should have good credit, but you must also be aware of death and human weakness.

Eight random squares represent labours. Apparently square 4 was one of them; the others were distinguished by their emblem: oxen plough, but they are joined by strings of fruit, the rewards of hard work. When your

1 See Schevill and Bonilla, op. cit. vi, 21. Cervantes's epistle is printed on pp. 21-31. It was supposedly written from Algiers in 1577. R. B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire, iv, Philip the Prudent (New York, 1934), p. 328. 2 'Por quanto por parte de vos Aloso de Barros, nuestro criado, nos ha sido hecha relación, q vos aueys côpuesto vna pintura intitulada Filosofia Cortesana, con ciertas diferencias de figuras y letras que se contiene en vn pliego grade, y la aueys moralizado en vna relación a parte. . .' A2r.

367




throw puts your token on one of these squares you may go again by the amount of your throw.

Square 7. Prodigality. A pelican pecks his breast, and a cat licks up his blood.

Square 10. Adulation. A siren holds in one hand a looking glass, in the other a chameleon.

Square 15. The step of hope. Pay the pool and go on to square 26. Square 20. Diligence. A beetle rolls and pushes a ball of dung. Square 26. The house of the favourite. Pay again. Square 32. The well of forgetfulness. Pay the others to remind the favourite

of your existence, and pay twice what you pay them into the pool. Lose a turn.

Square 36. Fear of censure (el qué dirán). Go back to square 28. Square 39. False friendship. A fox shams sleep. Go back to square 7. Square 43. Change of ministers. Go back to square 10. Square 46. Your patron dies. Go back to the start. Square 51. Fortuna. See Figure 3. Play twice. The Spanish here is obscure

and I cannot follow it: ťco dos suertes se gana la polla, y con las de mas se pierde, o se dilata/ With two throws the pool is won and with what is in excess it is lost or delayed? If the two throws were to reach an exact total of twelve the player would win the game. If the two throws came to more than twelve he would have to go back and feed the pool again. But the expression is difficult, and I am not sure that this is its exact meaning.

Square 55. *I thought that. . .' (Pensé que). An ass lying down. Square 60. Poverty. Leafless trees on a barren land. Go back to square 53.

The others give you alms. Square 63. The palm of success. A man is raised by a palm-tree from his

lowly fortune. He has caught his fish in the sea of troubles, but his fishing has cost him his shoe. Nothing can be won without effort !

If your throw lands your token on a square already occupied by another's, his token goes back to where yours came from. If you throw a number greater than that needed to reach square 63, count the remainder back from it and pay the pool, unless, of course, you land on square 60.

Unfortunately the only emblem reproduced is that of Fortuna on fol. 36% our Fig. 3. Earlier Barros had given the orthodox explanation that Fortune does not really exist; that God wills all that befalls us, so that we may learn to be patient under hardships and to make a virtue of necessity (2ÓV). Here, however, Fortune appears on a globe representing the universe, where she shows how easily all may be turned upside down. Her nakedness typifies her frivolity in her actions. Her arms support the weak, raise the fallen and over- throw the proud. She is always young and vigorous. Her wings help her to flee from those she had hitherto favoured. Her two faces represent good and evil. Like Occasio her hair is confined to a forelock. In her right hand she bears

368



'filosofìa cortesana', 1587 the palm of victory and the ox-yoke of defeat; in her left a timbrel for rejoicing and a sword for destruction. Many of these attributes are to be found in the mythological textbooks of Pérez de Moya and Baltasar de Vitoria; the yoke and the timbrel, however, seem unusual.

Thanks to the investigations of Pérez Pastor, we know more about Barros than Nicolás Antonio told us. He was the son of Diego López de Orozco, manservant to Charles V, and of Doña Elvira de Barros. Alonso was probably born before 1552, for he served at the taking of el Peñón de Vêlez de Gomera in 1564, in Corsica and in the relief of Malta (1565). He became aposentador (billeting officer) to Philip II in 1569. He was granted a legal post (as an absentee?) at Santo Domingo de Silos near Burgos in 1587. In 1583, however, Philip refused to appoint him assay er at the Segovia mint. In 1600 he tried to transfer his duties as aposentador to another; Philip III refused to sanction it. He knew at first hand the excitements and disillusions of seeking favours from monarchs. He died on 18 August 1604.1

His book is ingenious, amusing and sententious. He saw clearly how men are moved by ambition, friendship and interest, that diligence and patience are as important as good luck or as flattery of the great, that courts were often corrupt but sometimes human. So he invented his game, which humorously reflected the trials and successes of court life, adorned it with emblems and made it didactic with gnomic couplets. The book that moralizes the game also tells you how to play it. You improve yourself morally while you gamble. Its blend of humour, edification and description is more note- worthy than the fact that it contains an early sonnet by Miguel de Cervantes.

APPENDIX

Aprobación. Yo He visto esta obra, que se intitula Filosofia Cortesana, moralizada por Alonso de Barros, criado del Rey nuestro señor, obra de mucho ingenio, y que sera vtil a la Republica: por ser (como es) de gustoso y honesto entretenimiento, y en este genero la mejor que he visto: por lo quai me parece que se puede muy bien im- primir, y que sera muy aceta, y bien recebida de todos. A treze de Enero, de mil y quinientos y ochenta y siete años.

Don Alonso de Ercilla. [A4V] De Liñan de Riaça.

SONETO. Reduzir a plazer la pesadübre De pretësiones, q cõsumê vidas, Aprender a ganar, y a ver perdidas Las esperanças co incierta lübre. Mirar como arrojadas de la cubre

1 Cristóbal Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña, n (1906), 3-4; ш (1907), 331-3.

24 3 69 CBS




Quãto mas leuatadas, mas caydas Esta nuestras vëturas reduzidas Al fallo de ãbiciosa seruidübre: Esta filosofia no hallada Enel discurso déla edad primera Que tuuo sus desseos limitados. Estaua a vuestra pluma reseruada, Como si de Platon regida fuera, Para norte de gusto, y de cuydados. [^5r]

Cristóbal Pérez Pastor noted that Don Gutierre Marqués de Careaga, in his

Desengaño de Fortuna (Madrid, 1612, fol. 225), quoted with approval the

eight couplets that Alonso de Barros put against the squares of labours.1 As Pérez Pastor's work is well known and as the transcriptions are accurate

though modernized, I quote only the other gnomic couplets for the benefit of those interested in proverbial wisdom.

[Entrada] A los pies mira razo, Y a la rueda la opiniõ. [i3v] [Labour] Nunca se siente el trabajo, Sino quando el premio es baxo. [i5r] [Hope] Ninguna esperança es buena, Que esta en voluntad ajena. [i8r] [The House of the Favourite] No pidas la mano ajena, Si la tuya no va llena. [i8v] [Forgetfulness] El ingrato echa en oluido, Quanto bien ha recebido. [i9r] [Censure] El que sirue al que dirán, Tome el pago que le dan. [20v] [Square 28] Si no ay dicha en negociar, La suerte se buelue azar. [2ir] [False friends] Dando gracias por agrauios, Negocian los hombres sauios. [22r] El prodigo tiene amigos, Quanto come con testigos. [23 r] 1

Bibliografía madrileña, 1, 132.

370



'filosofìa cortesana*, 1588

[Change of ministers] Quien limita su esperança, Sufre el golpe de mudança. [23V] [Adulation] Muestra fina, y falso paño, Vende adulación, y engaño. [25 r] [Your patron dies] El hombre que en hombres fia, Queda qual ciego sin guia. [25V] [Fortuna] Yo trueco, y mudo el cõsejo. [26*] Todo esta a dispusiciõ, De fortuna y pmissiõ. [27T] [I thought that. . .] Del Penseque huye ventura, Y la que tiene no dura. [28V] [Diligence] Quanto trabaja y procura, El mundo todo es vasura. [29'] [Poverty] Pobreza seca el vmor De la rayz del fauor. [зоу] En la casa do ay pobreza, Qualquier suerte es de tristeza. [3ir]

[The Palm] Quando tengas mas fortuna, Mira que es como la luna. [3¿r] Nunca subira gran cuesta, Quien mirare lo q cuesta. [33V] Quien pretêde ha de sufrir, Como quien nace morir. [34r] No seria Fortuna, Si fuesse siempre vna. [35V]

371 24-2



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A CERVANTES ITEM FROM EMMANUEL COLLEGE LIBRARY: BARROS'S 'FILOSOFÍA CORTESANA', 1587

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