Techniques and Instruments for Studying the Autograph Manuscripts of Lope de Vega

Abstract

Lope de Vega’s autographs allow us to approach the genesis of a play, analyse the cross-outs, changes and additions of the playwright and understand his modus operandi . Moreover, these documents also contain annotations and corrections of other agents involved in the Golden Age Theatre market that could substantially modify the text. On many occasions, the philological and codicological analysis only allows making hypotheses about what happened and does not offer reliable solutions to questions about the composition of theatrical text. Through this paper, we present the results of the analysis of several of Lope de Vega auto-graph manuscripts done with techniques and instruments related to photography and spectroscopy ranging from spectral photography to X-ray fluorescence. We shall demonstrate that the application of these techniques to the study of manuscripts from the Spanish Drama of the Golden Age will also make it possible to obtain information that is relevant to and valuable in delving into the development and circulation of a particular work, but also in gaining a much more complete understanding of the formation of Spanish classical theatre.