In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Prologue Julia C. Hernández A Suelta State of Mind A stroll down early eighteenth-century Seville’s short but bustling Calle de Génova, a long-disappeared market street that had linked the Plaza de El Salvador and the Plaza de San Francisco since the city’s Castilian conquest in 1248, would bring the comedia enthusiast to the heart of

Abstract: Despite the derivative plotlines, crude characterizations, and prioritization of performance over posterity for which scholars have criticized his Cuatro comedias, Lope de Rueda (1505?–65?) received great acclaim among contemporaries. To reconcile this disconnect between abiding popular acclaim in the late sixteenth century and critical dismissals in literary histories, this article draws

Abstract: An examination of the layered, dual meanings of the term maravilla in El semejante a sí mismo shows the hand of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón navigating his own criollo identity. The double meanings of maravilla reflect a conflict between the inclination to adopt the dominant views and rhetoric of the Spanish Empire and the counterbalancing impulse to undermine this colonial agenda. This article observes

Abstract: This article examines the connections of El gran teatro del mundo with heterodox intellectual traditions that the Spanish Inquisition targeted for scrutiny or censorship. While many critics have considered El gran teatro del mundo a prominent example of Calderón de la Barca’s Catholic orthodoxy, this study ponders discursive elements that link the auto sacramental to Neoplatonic natural philosophy

Abstract: Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the philosopher Baruch Spinoza manifested, each in their own way, that profound interest in the intricacies of the human being that was so characteristic of early modern mentalities. The playwright and philosopher each delved into the exploration of passions and affections, construed as being in constant conflict with reason. These pages analyze the common ties

Abstract: This article examines an almost completely unexplored element in Jerónimo de Cáncer’s comic interludes (entremeses)—the music. Through analysis of his own works as well as comparative examinations of Cáncer’s theatrical practice with those of other dramaturgs who cultivated the entremés genre, including Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Luis Quiñones de Benavente, we find Cáncer at the forefront

Abstract: Szilvia Szmuk-Tanenbaum, lifelong bibliophile and the creator of the Comedias Suelta USA website, welcomed Associate Editor Julia Hernández into her book-filled Upper East Side apartment in New York City. In their conversation, Szmuk-Tanenbaum discussed her journey as a scholar and librarian; her inspiration for developing online bibliographic databases; her service to the Bulletin of the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage: Agency, Theatricality, and the Innamorata by Pamela Allen Brown David J. Amelang Pamela Allen Brown. The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage: Agency, Theatricality, and the Innamorata. OXFORD UP, 2021. 302 PP. “‘FOR WHAT Is A PLAY WITHOUT A WOMAN IN IT?’” The epigraph that launches

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Poesía y música en la Roma barroca. El cancionero español Corsini 625 by Patrizia Botta Sebastián León Patrizia Botta, coordinadora. Poesía y música en la Roma barroca. El cancionero español Corsini 625. LIGUORI EDITORE, 2023. 532 PP. EL LLAMADO CANCIONERO CORSINI 625 es un manuscrito copiado en Roma a principios del siglo

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Early Modern Spanish Literature and Culture ed. by Rodrigo Cacho Casal and Caroline Egan Richard Rabone Rodrigo Cacho Casal and Caroline Egan, editors. The Routledge Hispanic Studies Companion to Early Modern Spanish Literature and Culture. ROUTLEDGE, 2022. 639 PP. THE GENRE OF THE

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Entremeses by Miguel de Cervantes Javier Rubiera Miguel de Cervantes. Entremeses. Edición de Adrián J. Sáez. CÁTEDRA, 2020. 296 PP. LOS OCHO ENTREMESES PUBLICADOS POR CERVANTES en 1615 reciben nueva edición en Cátedra, que desde 1982 tenía en su colección de Letras Hispánicas la realizada desde una orientación bien diferente

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla Imogen Choi Alonso de Ercilla. La Araucana. Edited by Luis Gómez Canseco. REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA–ESPASA, 2022. 1488 PP. WHILE ALWAYS A PROMINENT TITLE OF THE GOLDEN AGE canon, La Araucana has been the object of a steady growth in scholarship over recent decades, which shows no signs of abating

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Dramaturgas del Siglo de Oro. Guía completa by Juana Escabias Victoria Jane Rasbridge Juana Escabias. Dramaturgas del Siglo de Oro. Guía completa. EDICIONES ANTÍGONA, 2022. 170 PP. IN COMEDIA STUDIES THERE HAS LONG BEEN an imbalance in favor of the work of male dramatists, but in recent decades there has been a concerted effort

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Pasiones mitológicas: Tiziano, Veronese, Allori, Rubens, Ribera, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velázquez by Miguel Falomir et al. Oliver Noble Wood Miguel Falomir, Sheila Barker, Javier Moscoso, and Alejandro Vergara (coords.). Pasiones mitológicas: Tiziano, Veronese, Allori, Rubens, Ribera, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velázquez. MUSEO DEL PRADO

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Drawing the Curtain: Cervantes’s Theatrical Revelations ed. by Esther Fernández and Adrienne L. Martín Melanie Henry Esther Fernández and Adrienne L. Martín, editors. Drawing the Curtain: Cervantes’s Theatrical Revelations. U OF TORONTO P, 2022. 392 PP. CERVANTES’S DRAMATIC OEUVRE HAS LONG BEEN CONSIDERED a failed endeavor

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: El aire español. Usos musicales de la nobleza española en Italia (1580–1640) by Ignacio Rodulfo Hazen Adriana Beltrán del Río Sousa Ignacio Rodulfo Hazen. El aire español. Usos musicales de la nobleza española en Italia (1580–1640). CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS EUROPA HISPÁNICA, 2023. 320 PP. EN ESTA INTERESANTE MONOGRAFÍA derivada

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Literature and Historiography in the Spanish Golden Age: The Poetics of History by Sofie Kluge Alberto Villate-Isaza Sofie Kluge. Literature and Historiography in the Spanish Golden Age: The Poetics of History. ROUTLEDGE UP, 2022. 234 PP. THIS NEW CONTRIBUTION BOTH CEMENTS our understanding of the Golden Age’s treatment of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Business of Conquest: Empire, Love, and Law in the Atlantic World by Nicole D. Legnani Ruth Hill Nicole D. Legnani. The Business of Conquest: Empire, Love, and Law in the Atlantic World. U OF NOTRE DAME P, 2020. 300 PP. ATLANTIC (OR TRANSATLANTIC OR CIRCUMATLANTIC) studies has experienced such enormous growth in the past

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: La monja alférez, famosa comedia atribuida a Juan Pérez de Montalbán ed. by Gabriel Andrés Renales Marta Albalá Pelegrín La monja alférez, famosa comedia atribuida a Juan Pérez de Montalbán. Edición crítica de Gabriel Andrés Renales. METAURO EDIZIONI, 2020. 151 PP. LA MONJA ALFÉREZ (ca. 1626) is a theatrical rewriting of the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race by Noémie Ndiaye Sarah J. Adams Noémie Ndiaye. Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race. U OF PENNSYLVANIA P, 2022. 376 PP. THIS BOOK TRACES AND EXAMINES the performative praxes used in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Melancholy Void: Lyric and Masculinity in the Age of Góngora by Felipe Valencia Ignacio Navarrete The Melancholy Void: Lyric and Masculinity in the Age of Góngora. Felipe Valencia. U OF NEBRASKA P, 2021. 335 PP. FELIPE VALENCIA HAS WRITTEN a remarkable book, a wide-ranging study of early modern poetry, in the manner of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Prologue Elizabeth R. Wright THIS DOUBLE ISSUE OF VOLUME 74 of the Bulletin of the Comediantes, featuring Nicholas R. Jones as guest editor, emerged from the colloquium devoted to Recovering Black Performance in Early Modern Iberia, held at Yale University on 29–30 April 2022. We are grateful to Jesús Velasco, chair of the Department of

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Guest Editor IntroductionOn Recovery and Reparation Nicholas R. Jones FOLLOWING IN THE TRADITION of ethnologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, I have always been keenly aware of and compelled by—perhaps blindly, to a fault—the richness of black culture and its materiality, speech acts, and verve. Hurston comments on this in her oft-cited

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: James A. Parr, sin par (1936–2022)Editor, Bulletin of the Comediantes 1973–98 PART I Sharon D. Voros WHILE LOOKING OVER THE BOOKS I had in my library from Jim Parr (1936–2022), I came across one that he had given me, Don Quixote, Don Juan, and Related Subjects. Form and Tradition in Spanish Literature, 1330–1630. He handwrote this dedication:

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: James A. Parr, sin par (1936–2022)Editor, Bulletin of the Comediantes 1973–98 PART II Edward H. Friedman I ALWAYS WILL CHERISH MY CONTACT with James Parr. He was a revered colleague, mentor, and friend for over forty-five years. As I was completing my graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, I submitted an essay on Calderón's El mayor

Abstract: This note on teaching explores counter-storytelling, a practice that gives voice to marginalized communities and confronts the narratives of benevolent meritocracy and color-blind power dynamics that have long shaped the hierarchies, hiring practices, and opportunities for advancement within institutions. I provide an experiential reflection on my use of counter-storytelling to teach early

Abstract: Emphasizing the role of audiences in shaping the meaning and social function of performance, this essay presents some suggestions for deepening the discussion of race in our undergraduate classes on "Golden Age" theater. These suggestions include enticing students with recognizable names and accessible texts—Cervantes's El retablo de las maravillas is one of my choices—and then nudging them

Abstract: The roundtable "Listening for Black Voices: A Conversation on Musicology Today" for the colloquium devoted to "Recovering Black Performance in Early Modern Iberia" invites a reflection on silence and listening, especially when attending to the life of New Spain's only known Black nun, Juana Esperanza de San Alberto (?–1679).

Abstract: This essay is a reflection on the performance of the villancico de negro in an early modern Ibero-American context as well as on the musical subgenre's contested meaning in present-day concert programs. The first part examines the coro, a privileged space within a viceregal cathedral where ecclesiastical ritual devotion enacted a collective sensorial experience. This was a site where male

Abstract: I examine the first performance of Los empeños de una casa in the context of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's experiences with finance and investment, arguing the centrality of the enslaved Juana de San José to her namesake's engagement with concepts of debt, worth, and price. I analyze these entanglements by considering economic historians' discussions of accounting's role in the formation of

Abstract: Sung inside and beyond the confines of cathedrals during the principal religious celebrations, the musical-poetic genre of the villancico took on a special vibrancy in the viceregal city of Santafé (today, Bogotá, Colombia) from the later sixteenth century onward. The singers themselves not only played (sung) the roles of angels and shepherds, but also of others, often adapted from stock

Abstract: The Entremés de los compadres en celebridad del nacimiento del niño Dios and the Entremés gracioso—short comic pieces from the eighteenth century preserved in manuscripts from the Convent of Santa Teresa, Villa Imperial de Potosí (present-day Bolivia)—invite scrutiny of the comic characterization of the Black- and Africandescendant populations in the Andes region during the later colonial

Abstract: This study of theatrical performance in Portuguese America examines the prevalence of Black and African descendant performers onstage, whether enslaved or free. On the one hand, I consider the artistic implications of these performers' prominence in terms of how their performances fused European theatrical elements, for instance, with plays being staged in opera houses and featuring works

Abstract: This study examines and recontextualizes the anonymous Entremés segundo del negro, whose Black protagonist is a courageous swordsman and a poet skilled in sonnet writing. Comic intrigue focuses on the marriage his enslavers arrange to Francisca, a Black woman. To date, scholars have relegated this entremés to secondary importance by contemplating it as a sequel to another entremés, Luis Quiñones

Abstract: This article considers how Bartolomé de Torres Naharro's Comedia Trofea (1517) represents the process of global colonization of the African and Southeast Asian coasts initiated with the Portuguese imperial expansion of the mid- to late fifteenth century. This drama, in essence, maps an emerging empire, highlighting key protagonists and places. Analysis here concentrates on the drama's parade

Abstract: Drawing from critical race theorists and focusing on premodern ideas of race, inheritance, and hereditary imprinting, this essay explores the alternative possibilities for governance suggested by Luis Vélez de Guevara in Virtudes vencen señales through his conceptualization of race, inherited traits, gender, and exemplarity. As the play's semiotic argument is anticipated by its title, an

Abstract: In plays such as Los melindres de Belisa, Lope de Vega's characters pretend to be enslaved people who have been branded on the face. Their cosmetic brands or fingidos hierros act as signs within a system of figuration I call typeface. In Lope's typeface plays, hierros are removed easily but are undetectable as fake. These simulated brandings do not disfigure the characters pretending to be

Abstract: Andrés de Claramonte's El valiente negro en Flandes (ca. 1620) reframes the representation of Blackness in Spain, presenting the possibility for Black people to reproduce themselves in freedom. This essay, through a reading of Frantz Fanon, addresses how, in Juan de Mérida's journey to overcome the social inferiority of his Blackness, he faces the threat of sodomy. Sodomy conjures the Black

Abstract: This essay examines how Lope de Vega's Los melindres de Belisa, a comedia urbana composed circa 1608, represents the intersection of different types of slavery in Habsburg Spain. This play is especially pertinent to these questions as its composition coincided with the intense debates that culminated in Philip III's Order of the Expulsion of the Moriscos from the Iberian Peninsula (1609)

Abstract: In 1690, Capeverdean freedman and servant Patrício de Andrade was sentenced to exile by the Portuguese Inquisition for putting on performances of bodily invulnerability so convincing that no one could believe he had not made a pact with the devil. These performances, which he called experiências (from experientia meaning both experience and experiment), had a purpose: to demonstrate the protective

Abstract: This article draws new attention to El negro del serafín, by Luis Vélez de Guevara, a hagiographic drama focused on the struggle for freedom and the rise to fame as a Franciscan friar of a Black protagonist. Despite evidence of enthusiastic reception at its time of composition and staging (ca. 1642–43), the comedia has remained obscure in recent times. In considering the historical and cultural

Abstract: Developments in computational analysis, corpus construction, and text editing have opened exciting new areas of inquiry in comedia studies. The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a swell of stylometric studies dedicated to comedias of unknown or disputed authorship. This essay gives an account of stylometry, or the quantitative analysis of textual evidence, and appraises

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Arte y localización de un culto global Virgen de Loreto en México by Luisa Elena Alcalá Donegani María José del Río Barredo Luisa Elena Alcalá Donegani. Arte y localización de un culto global Virgen de Loreto en México. ABADA EDITORES, 2022. 462 PP. ESTE MAGNÍFICO LIBRO estudia las complejas dinámicas artísticas, sociales

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Mirando desde el puente. Estudios en homenaje al profesor James S. Amelang ed. by Fernando Andrés Robres, Mauro Hernández Benítez y Saúl Martínez Bermejo Miguel Martínez Fernando Andrés Robres, Mauro Hernández Benítez y Saúl Martínez Bermejo, editores. Mirando desde el puente. Estudios en homenaje al profesor James S. Amelang

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Transoceanic Animals as Spectacle in Early Modern Spain by John Beusterien Emily Kuffner John Beusterien. Transoceanic Animals as Spectacle in Early Modern Spain. AMSTERDAM UP, 2020. 254 PP. THIS BOOK HIGHLIGHTS the fundamental role nonhuman animals played in the culture of early modern Spain and its empire by tracing the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: El universo de una polémica. Góngora y la cultura española del siglo XVII ed. by Mercedes Blanco y Aude Plagnard Ana Garriga Mercedes Blanco y Aude Plagnard, editoras. El universo de una polémica. Góngora y la cultura española del siglo XVII. IBEROAMERICANA / VERVUERT, 2021. 747 PP. TAN SOLO UNOS MESES DESPUÉS del fallecimiento

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Épica y conflicto religioso en el siglo XVI. Anglicanismo y luteranismo desde el imaginario hispánico ed. by Javier Burguillo y María José Vega Aude Plagnard Javier Burguillo y María José Vega, editores. Épica y conflicto religioso en el siglo XVI. Anglicanismo y luteranismo desde el imaginario hispánico. TAMESIS, 2021. 238

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: El gran teatro del mundo by Pedro Calderón de la Barca Rasmus Vangshardt Pedro Calderón de la Barca. El gran teatro del mundo. Edición de Ignacio Arellano. Estudio preliminar de Enrique Rull y Ana Suárez. EDITION REICHENBERGER, 2021. 296 PP. "CORTA FUE LA COMEDIA" (v. 1255), Mundo exclaims in apparent despair when the play-within-a-play

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain by Esther Fernández Pedro Reula Baquero Esther Fernández. To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain. VANDERBILT UP, 2021. 284 PP. ESTE LIBRO es un reflejo de las múltiples motivaciones académicas de su autora en torno a la historia

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Poetics of Friendship in Early Modern Spain: A Study in Literary Form by Donald Gilbert-Santamaría Shai Zamir Donald Gilbert-Santamaría. The Poetics of Friendship in Early Modern Spain: A Study in Literary Form EDINBURGH UP, 2020. 248 PP. THIS STUDY explores literary representations of ideal friendships and friends. The

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Ser y vivir esclavo. Identidad, aculturación y agency (Mundos mediterráneos y atlánticos, siglos XIII–XVIII) ed. by Fabienne P. Guillén y Roser Salicrú i Lluch Miguel A. Valerio Fabienne P. Guillén y Roser Salicrú i Lluch, editoras. Ser y vivir esclavo. Identidad, aculturación y agency (Mundos mediterráneos y atlánticos, siglos

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain by Faith S. Harden Luis F. Avilés Faith S. Harden. Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain. U OF TORONTO P, 2020. 188 PP. THIS BOOK analyzes a select number of autobiographies written by soldiers in early modern Spain, with a special emphasis

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: The Arts of Encounter: Christians, Muslims, and the Power of Images in Early Modern Spain by Catherine Infante Lisette Balabarca-Fataccioli Catherine Infante. The Arts of Encounter: Christians, Muslims, and the Power of Images in Early Modern Spain. U OF TORONTO P, 2022. 264 PP. IN THIS EXHAUSTIVE STUDY, Catherine Infante

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Performing Conversion: Cities, Theatre and Early Modern Transformations ed. by José R. Jouve Martín and Steven Wittek Benjamin Easton José R. Jouve Martín and Steven Wittek, editors. Performing Conversion: Cities, Theatre and Early Modern Transformations. EDINBURGH UP, 2021. 216 PP. THIS COLLABORATION connecting the fields

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Sonido y afecto en Calderón. Un estudio de las asonancias by Simon Kroll Fausta Antonucci Simon Kroll. Sonido y afecto en Calderón. Un estudio de las asonancias. EDITION REICHENBERGER, 2022. 290 PP. EN ESTA DENSA MONOGRAFÍA, resultado de muchos años de estudio y de un constante interés por la recurrencia de sonidos en la poesía

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Conversaciones en verso. La epístola ética del Renacimiento y la construcción del yo poético by Clara Marías Gáldrick de la Torre Ávalos Clara Marías. Conversaciones en verso. La epístola ética del Renacimiento y la construcción del yo poético. PETER LANG, 2020. 372 PP. EL LIBRO DE CLARA MARÍAS es fruto de la revisión de la

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Comuneros. El rayo y la semilla (1520–1521) by Miguel Martínez Ruth MacKay Miguel Martínez. Comuneros. El rayo y la semilla (1520–1521). HOJA DE LATA, 2021. 368 PP. ON 23 APRIL 1978, busloads of leftists and activists and ordinary fairgoers from throughout Castile converged upon a large field outside the town of Villalar to

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: A Companion to Calderón de la Barca ed. by Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker Sofie Kluge Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker, editors. A Companion to Calderón de la Barca. TAMESIS, 2021. 414 PP. THERE ARE ANTHOLOGIES of scholarly essays on Calderón in various languages; there are biographies of his life and monographs on specific

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Diego Velázquez, Apeles de su siglo: historia y ficción en la obra del pintor de Felipe IV by Héctor Ruiz Soto Jeremy Roe Héctor Ruiz Soto. Diego Velázquez, Apeles de su siglo: historia y ficción en la obra del pintor de Felipe IV. BELIN ÉDUCATION / HUMENSIS, 2021. 182 PP. THE PUBLICATION of a new monographic study of the

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: Reviewed by: Playing and Playgoing in Early Modern England: Actor, Audience and Performance ed. by Simon Smith and Emma Whipday Jennifer Ruiz-Morgan Simon Smith and Emma Whipday, editors. Playing and Playgoing in Early Modern England: Actor, Audience and Performance. CAMBRIDGE UP, 2022. 350 PP. THIS VOLUME is a fundamental contribution