Un manuscrito de El político de Gracián

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper aims to give notice about the existence of an unknown manuscript dated in the 17th century, which contains the text of Baltasar Gracián’s El político. It belongs to a factitious volume, catalogued in the library of the Real Academia Española. It is a clean, full copy, whose handwriting differs from that of the author’s only manuscript preserved at the present time: the autograph of El héroe. However, there are significant similarities in certain strokes and spelling features. The new testimony is valuable due to the almost total absence of manuscript sources of Gracián’s works, but also because it has a large number of variants, which could reflect a relevant moment during the course of the drafting process, prior to its arrival at the printing press. With regard to the princeps of 1640, which lacks sections, the manuscript includes a heading of section located between the end of the dedication and the text of the treatise itself. In addition, it omittes four paragraphs, as well as it changes numerous words, expressions, and even syntax in many places.