Reviewed by: Comedias Parte XVI by Lope de Vega Anthony J. Grubbs Lope de Vega. Comedias Parte XVI. Edición crítica de Prolope, coordinada por Florence d’Artois y Luigi Giuliani.GREDOS, 2017, 2 VOLS. 1006 PP. (VOL. 1) Y 978 PP. (VOL. 2). PROLOPE HAS CONSISTENTLY OFFERED exemplary critical editions of Lope de Vega’s Partes and this one, the sixteenth volume, is no exception. In this collection, the primary editors Florence d’Artois and Luigi Giuliani include twelve comedias in two volumes. The individual dramas are prepared by the following editors: Florence d’Artois and Héctor Ruiz (El premio de la hermosura), Mercedes Blanco and Felipe Joannon (Adonis y Venus), Victoria Pineda (Los prados de León), Enrico Di Pastena (Mirad a quién alabáis), Guillermo Gómez Sánchez-Ferrer and Óscar García Fernández (Las mujeres sin hombres), Roland Béhar (La fábula de Perseo), Sònia Boadas (El laberinto de Creta), Eugenio Maggi (La serrana de Tormes), Anne-Marie Lievens (Las grandezas de Alejandro), Florence d’Artois (La Felisarda), Alejandro García-Reidy (La inocente Laura), and Luigi Giuliani (Lo fingido verdadero). The introduction to the collection offers information about the unique publication history of Parte XVI and examines the idiosyncrasies of this compilation of plays. The editors distinguish Parte XVI from its predecessors as the most cohesive and coherent collection. D’Artois and Giuliani mention several formal and thematic connections between the works, suggesting a deliberate process on the part of Lope for selecting the dramas. They argue that the inclusion of different genres—tragedia, tragicomedia, and comedia—added a degree of refinement that would have appealed to the courtly public. Furthermore, the inclusion of mythological, chivalric, hagiographic, or historiographic themes held great appeal. As Lope struggled with personal and professional attacks as well as the changes in the royal court, the editors suggest that he felt compelled to further establish himself as the predominant poet in Spain. But d’Artois and Giuliani propose that Lope’s aspiration to fill the vacancy as court chronicler in 1620 served as the greatest motivator for the organization [End Page 183] and contents of the collection, which was first published on 9 September 1621, albeit with a publication license dating from 24 September 1620. His strategies included addressing carefully composed dedications to all the power brokers in the Court at a time of transition from the reign of Philip II to that of Philip IV and including mythological and chivalric topics in the plays that were meant to both entertain and celebrate the Crown. The comedia editions have been carefully researched and prepared. Each is preceded by a critical introduction, a summary of the piece, details of the versification, and Lope’s dedicatoria. All of the plays are followed by a nota onomástica and in two cases, Mirad a quién alabáis and La fábula de Perseo, an additional appendix of variantes lingüísticas. The works benefit from ample footnotes that provide explanations of the cultural allusions and the rhetorical strategies present in the play. In addition to noting variants in the texts, the editors make definitive corrections to clarify ambiguities. For example, Luigi Giuliani’s edition of Lo fingido verdadero is a much-needed addition to early modern Spanish theater studies. Indeed, Lope’s dramatic version of the conversion and martyrdom of St. Genesius has a long history of highquality scholarly analysis, and the recent edition by Maria Teresa Cattaneo and translation into English by Michael McGaha provide general information and analysis in their introductions, but Giuliani’s version demonstrates a philological rigor that will prove even more useful to experts in the field. His corrections to the text result from a careful comparison of previous versions. As expected, the abundant footnotes guide the reader by offering context and information about references in the play. The supplementary information is comprehensive and addresses such topics as the omission of certain characters in the preliminary listing, allusions to obscure coplas, and erudite explications of intercalated sonnets, to name a few. Similarly, Mercedes Blanco’s and Felipe Joannon’s preparation of the first critical edition of Adonis y Venus is meticulous...