La traducción de la Divina Comedia de Villegas: problemas de datación y filiación de testimonios

Abstract

The first printed translation of the Divine Comedy, which was composed by Pedro Fernández de Villegas and circulated in Burgos in 1515, is a rather forgotten text that has not been much studied by the critics. The only conserved manuscript (ms. B2183, Hispanic Society of America) is considered autograph according to Dutton, who arrives at this conclusion based on the inscription in its cover. Moreover, Faulhaber dates this manuscript towards the end of the fifteenth century, and assumes that this was the source text used for the printing. The data provided by these critics has not been much discussed, possibly due to the lack of a thorough study of the manuscript and its ecdotic problems. In the present study we will try, on the one hand, to redefine the terminus a quo of the translation, basing our work on the study of the historical context of production and on some references found in the prologue as well as in certain passages of the commentary that, on the printed version, surrounds every stanza. On the other hand, through a comparison between the verses of the manuscript and the printed version, especially those verses that has been emended, we will try to discuss the assumed filiation bond between both texts. As a preliminary conclusion we may state that, on the one hand, the translation cannot be dated before 1502; on the other, the text transmitted in the manuscript corresponds to a second phase in the translation process, whereas the text transmitted in the printed version to a first.