Two Romances: A Study of Medieval Spanish Romances and an Edition of Two Representative Works

Carlos Maynes and La enperatrís de Roma

by Anita Benaim de Lasry

The lost genre of Spanish literature, as Alan Deyermond calls this type of medieval fiction, is no longer lost, thanks to Professor Benaim de Lasry's important study and edition.

Her study begins with a survey of the state of scholarship on the romances in general, and specifically on the state of scholarship on the two romances that she edits—the Noble cuento de Carlos Maynes de Roma and the Fermoso cuento de una santa emperatrís que ovo en Roma.

There follows an important chapter which evaluates the characteristics of the fourteenth-century Spanish prose adaptations of their twelfth-century French verse sources.

In the final chapter of her study, Professor Lasry analyzes and characterizes the "typical romance" by synthesizing various romances, and has identified twelve major characteristics of the romance, each one documented and illustrated.

The book ends with the edition of the two "textbook" romances, Carlos Maynes and La enperatrís de Roma. These are followed by a glossary and a bibliography.

"Readers of medieval romances will be grateful to Dr. Lasry for her initiative in making available important texts which had remained in antiquated or difficult to obtain editions."

Israel Burshatin, Speculum

" An excellent edition of the romances and an interesting and useful study of the 'new' genre ."

Dorothy Severin, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies

Ediciones criticas, No. 1

x + 234 pp.

ISBN: 0-936388-13-7 (paper)

Price: $12.95 (paper)