Philology and Troubadourian Editions

• Published in: Romance philology 1999-04, Vol.52 (2), p.133-143
• Main Author: Recio, Roxana
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• ISSN: 0035-8002

Lirica profana galego-portuguesa. Corpus completo das cantigas medievais, con estudio biografico, analise retorica e bibliografia especifica ([Profane Galician-Portuguese Lyrics. A Complete Corpus of Medieval Ballads, with a Biographic Study, Rhetorical Analysis, and Selected Bibliography] R. Magan Abelleira et al. [Eds] Santiago de Compostela: Centro de Investigacions Linguisticas e Literarias Ramon Pineiro, 1996) is reviewed, criticizing the editorial team's methodological choices, in particular (1) the reproduction of texts from previous critical editions deemed most reliable but without proper justification of the choices made, (2) the unspecified criteria applied in assessing the validity of critical editions utilized as sources resulting in a questionable selection of published material, (3) the arrangement of individual poems according to Giuseppe Tavani's (1967) repertory, which is unsuitable for a critical edition, (4) deliberate omission of critical apparatus leading to a scientifically unsupported presentation of the texts, (5) the adoption, without proper explanation, of symbols used in source editions, (6) an ad hoc textual criticism to emend editions deemed unsatisfactory, (7) questionable classification of genres, & (8) an annoying errata chapter. It is concluded that the collection is a product of political-economic expediency rather than scientific integrity as the editorial team is preoccupied more with justifying the public funding of their research center than contributing in any significant way to Galician-Portuguese critical philology. 32 References. Z. Dubiel