De custodios y valedores: dedicatorias y dedicatarios en las ediciones del teatro de Moreto en el siglo XVII

Abstract

The work analyzes, through the study of the dedications, the “social utility” that the editions of the Moreto’s plays had during the seventeenth century. This methodological approach places the focus of the research on the dedications of the volumes and on the social, political and cultural context that involved that process. In the case of the edition of the First part of the works of Moreto (1654), the volume seems to be inserted in a general program of self-promotion of the VIII Duke of Alburquerque connected with other works and other authors that could be part of their cultural patronage. A different approach is observed when analysing the work of the editors of the Moreto’s plays after his death. These publishers dedicate the work to “new nobles” and even to other characters of lower social status, who could subsidize all or part of the edition, so that in the text of the dedication, their family origin will be improved, assimilating thus more easily to his new superior social status.