THE CANCIONERO DE ROMANCES AS AN EDITORIAL PARADIGM FOR PRINTED SPANISH BALLADS OF THE 16th CENTURY: AN ANALYSIS OF MICRO VARIANTS

Abstract

In this article I analyse the conditions in which a new editorial formula was established, expressed first in Cancionero de Romances around 1547-1548, but which continued successfully in the Spanish printing offices belonging to Guillermo de Miles and Esteban de Nájera. Although the changes between each one regarding the order of the texts are well known, it was the micro variants that best expressed the printers’ enthusiasm for making corrections. Looking at the phenomenon from this perspective helps us better understand how some of the rules of dispositio textus were consolidated, from loose copies, the main source of Cancionero de romances, to the first Spanish romanceros and the edition published in 1550 by Nucio himself.