A study of the works of Juan De Flores, with a critical edition of La Historia de Grisel y Mirabella

Abstract

My thesis is intended to throw new light on the biography of the late-fifteenth-century writer Juan de Flores and to elucidate various aspects of his role in the development of the Spanish sentimental romance. To this end, I have prepared a critical edition of his romance La hiatQri. a sie Gr i. Bel y Mirak-elle (ca. 1480) in the three distinct versions in which it is known to have circulated: (1) an original text (preserved in MS 5-3-20, Biblioteca Colombina, Seville, fos. 69r-86r), (2) a revised version (preserved in MS 940, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milan, fos. 1r-76v), and (3) a second revision, probably anonymous (preserved in the eight extant printed editions, which range in date from ca. 1495 to 1562). The edition contains a full corpus of variants for the printed witnesses, along with linguistic, exegetical and textual notes. Accompanying this edition is a textual study (Chapter 3) in which I establish the relationship to one another of the surviving witnesses and discuss in detail the work's genesis. The remaining chapters concern the attribution to Flores of two works hitherto regarded as anonymous. In Chapter 1, I argue that the known as La ==na-WQn da la zel a GTaniBla is modelled on GI, 1, Bgl y Mirabelle, and I adduce stylistic and other circumstantial evidence to show that Flores is probably -2- its author. Employing a similar methodology, I demonstrate in Chapter 2 that Flores can be identified as a royal chronicler to the Catholic Monarchs and author of the GjQai-Qa i. nQQIp1at de 14a Ray! aa Qat4j -Q4a" Drawing on information in the chronicle, I provide a plausible reconstruction of his life at the ducal court of Alba and illustrate the importance of his historiographic work for our understanding of his fictional output. This thesis provides a revaluation of Juan de Flores as a far more prolific, versatile and influential author than has previously been recognized.