News & Updates

• University of North Carolina

  
  Date

  February 7, 2021
  Category

  Collection update

  Among academic libraries, the University of North Carolina has the largest holdings of comedias sueltas: more than 2,000 items. UNC’s collection of comedias sueltas was acquired over several decades with the last major addition occurring in 1949. These comedias sueltas are part of a larger grouping of Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan drama that includes the … Continue reading University of North Carolina

• Search Strategy

  
  Date

  February 6, 2021
  Category

  Building the database

  The briefest explanation of how we found comedias sueltas in academic libraries and independent research libraries around the country is that we executed FirstSearch searches in WorldCat. To expand on that a little more fully: Wikipedia defines WorldCat as “a union catalog that itemizes the collections of 17,900 libraries in 123 countries and territories.” We … Continue reading Search Strategy

• Bibliography

  
  Date

  February 6, 2021
  Category

  Bibliography update

  The aim of the Bibliography within RESOURCES is to include all references pertinent to the larger subject of the website. These comprise the disciplines of literature and history of books and printing as they relate to comedias sueltas.  Barbara Fuchs and Rhonda Sharrah of UCLA helped us enormously in gathering and preparing entries.

• Cervantes Virtual

  
  Date

  February 6, 2021
  Category

  Bibliography update

  The Catalogue of Comedias Sueltas in The New York Public Library, published by Bergman and Szmuk in 1980/81 (listed in Bibliography) has been fully digitized and is available on Cervantes Virtual: Comedias Sueltas in The New York Public Library: Volume 1 Comedias Sueltas in The New York Public Library: Volume 2

• A Fascinating Find at Biblioteca Nacional de España!

  
  Date

  February 2, 2021
  Category

  Scholars at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Universidad de Salamanca and Universidad de Valladolid have discovered a hitherto unknown pirated edition of Lope de Vega’s El castigo sin venganza. What makes this one-of-a-kind so interesting is the ending, a first draft that was discarded by Lope de Vega in his manuscript of the work. Click … Continue reading A Fascinating Find at Biblioteca Nacional de España!

• Boston Athenaeum

  
  Date

  October 10, 2020
  Category

  Collection update

  Discovering that the Boston Athenaeum library has a collection, among which is a factitious Moreto volume of previously uncatalogued sueltas, was a pleasant surprise. Special Collections head John Buchtel asked Will Evans, Chief Technical Services Librarian, to lead us on this project.  Under COVID conditions, Will has made several trips to the library to photograph … Continue reading Boston Athenaeum

• Duke University

  
  Date

  April 14, 2020
  Category

  Collection update

  Duke University library history sheds no light on the acquisition of the modest collection of comedias sueltas. These 100+ plays were most likely acquired over some decades and by various means and catalogued by different generations of librarians. It is likely that the bound volumes were originally bound by the previous owners, booksellers, or perhaps … Continue reading Duke University

• John Carter Brown Library & Brown University

  
  Date

  March 11, 2020
  Category

  Collection update

  The John Carter Brown Library collects across all genres that relate to the early Americas, and the comedias sueltas from the JCB’s collection include New World subject matter and/or were reprinted or sold in Lima during the colonial period. They have a small collection of 25 late 18th – and early 19th -century comedias sueltas … Continue reading John Carter Brown Library & Brown University

• Georgetown

  
  Date

  January 28, 2020
  Category

  Collection update

  John Buchtel, formerly of Georgetown University found for us the single they own. To date we have identified approximately 40 libraries that have 1-3 sueltas in their collection and sometimes these are quite interesting. We are counting these as well; we would like our census to be complete. We hope that proving that every single … Continue reading Georgetown

• Bowdoin College

  
  Date

  January 27, 2020
  Category

  Collection update

  Bowdoin College library’s Special Collections & Archives has assembled a small and representative collection of comedias sueltas to provide student contact with the some of the major Spanish playwrights from the early modern period: Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina. The suelta as a format provides rich material context for … Continue reading Bowdoin College

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