For the text of "Vejamen de la luna": critical tradition, versions, and analysis of variants

Abstract

The Vejamen de luna by Anastasio Pantaleón de Ribera is an eminent example of the textual production from Golden Age literary academies, as well as a testimony of Baroque comic prose and the vejamen as a literary genre. There are two versions of the Vejamen de la luna: the one included in the manuscript Cuaderno de versos (composed by 1626) and the one from the printed works (the Obras, published between 1631-1634) edited by Josef de Pellicer. During the twentieth century it was customary to publish the printed version of the vejamen, until Kenneth Brown (1980) published the Cuaderno de versos. Since then, critics usually work with the manuscript version, since it is considered closer to the author’s purposes. This article analyses the variants from the two versions to assess the literary value of the printed version, which is, after all, the version that consolidated Pantaleón’s artistic prestige during seventeenth century and the following centuries.