Paratextual Deviations: The Transmission and Translation of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" in the Iberian Peninsula.

Author/Editor
Pérez-Fernández, Tamara.

Title
Paratextual Deviations: The Transmission and Translation of Gower's "Confessio Amantis" in the Iberian Peninsula.

Published
Pérez-Fernández, Tamara. "Paratextual Deviations: The Transmission and Translation of Gower's Confessio Amantis in the Iberian Peninsula." In Martha Driver, Derek Pearsall, and R. F. Yeager, eds. John Gower in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. Publications of the John Gower Society, no. 14. Rochester, NY: Brewer, 2020. Pp. 113-30.

Review
In this essay Pérez-Fernández assesses examples of variation in the paratextual materials of the manuscripts of the Portuguese and Castilian translations of Gower's "Confessio Amantis": Madrid, Real Biblioteca MS II-3088 and Madrid, Biblioteca del Escorial g-II-19. She focuses on the translations of the Latin summaries (generally thought to have been written by Gower) that preface the narratives of CA and on the table of content written in Castilian but found in each Iberian manuscript. Pérez-Fernández discusses details of these materials, contributing to what is already known about their transmission, and offering perspective on their cultural contexts. Some variations, she shows, "can be understood as a desire to cater to the concerns of the new Iberian audience" (119-20)--mention of Spain, for example, not found in the Latin original, or specific emphasis on the "wisdom" ("sabedoria") of Alphonse X, "commonly known as Alphonse the Wise" (120). Conversely, when the table of contents in MS Real Biblioteca omits reference to the wisdom of Alphonse, Pérez-Fernández surmises, it may reflect the "complicated relationship between the Trastamara rulers and Alphonse's legitimate and illegitimate heirs" (121). Other details invite "us to reconsider the relation of the Portuguese and the Castilian manuscripts both from a textual and a translatological point of view" (125): the tabulator's sensitivity to capital letters and spaces, for example, shows that he "used the Portuguese text itself to create the new entries where there was no summary available," an act of "conscientious labor of adaptation and improvement" (126). Details drawn from "external sources"--e.g., Tristan's origins in "leonjs" (Leonis) and Isolde's "brunda" (blonde) hair--indicate familiarity with the "Castilian version of the story, and not with the Castilian-Aragonese" and "help us draw a more defined portrait of the scribes and translators." Pérez-Fernández tallies, she tells us, "some of the most notable examples of deviations in the paratexts of the Iberian manuscripts" of CA in order to "reveal the processes of textual transmission and reception" of the work (129). [MA. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 39.2]

Date
2020

Gower Subjects
Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Confessio Amantis