Right Author but Wrong Text?: Towards a Critical Edition of Suero de Ribera's 'En una linda floresta'

Abstract

A classic early source for quotations of popular lyric, the poem 'En una linda floresta' (better known as 'Por una gentil floresta') was for long attributed to the Marqués de Santillana (1398–1458). Since the 1960s, however, scholars other than editors have convincingly assigned it to Suero de Ribera (born c. 1400, died 1446–60). Editors, however, have continued to attribute it to Santillana, accordingly printing a text that relies almost entirely on the sixteenth-century pliegos sueltos where the attribution occurs. Sources that assign it to Suero, cancioneros of nearly a century earlier, have correspondingly been somewhat neglected. This paper, while of course judging variants on their own merits, attempts to redress the balance. A text is offered which, differing from the received version, may, it is hoped, better reflect what the true author composed.