Fabula Burlesca
Spanish satyrical poem by Antonio Marques, 18th century copy.
Fabula Burlesca / de Xpto y la / Magdalena compuesto por / Frai Antonio Marques Cathedra / tico de vispera en la univer / sidad de Salamanca el qual passan / do grandes Tormentos en la In / quisicion, escribio en Londres es / te discurso en el / anno 1623.
The text is an anti-Christian poem. Contrary to what the title might suggest, only a small part of the poem is related with the love story between Jesus Christ and Magdalene. Antonio Alatorre says that the intention of the author might be to give a “sensational” title to the poem in order to attract more readers.
According to Alatorre, Antonio Marques was a pseudonym of the poet Miguel de Barrios. However, Brown and Den Boer proved that the real author of Fabula burlesca was Abraham Gómez Silveira. The date in the title may be fictitious. A copy of the same text in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, with a different title, indicates a more likely date, 1723: “Relación de la Inquisición y de lo que padeció en ella Antonio de Fonseca, con más dos historias, una de Jesucristo y de la Madalena, y una del famoso Don Sabatay Seví Anno 5483 [1723]” (HS 581). Alatorre tells that the Madrid’s manuscript shows some evidence that it had been written by a Portuguese copyist. Some of the evidence pointed to by Alatorre are also present in this manuscript.
Antonio Alatorre, “La fábula burlesca de Cristo y la Magdalena”, Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, 41, 1993, pp. 401-458. Kenneth Brown, Harm den Boer, El barroco sefardí: Abraham Gómez Silveira (Arévalo, prov. de Ávila, Castilla 1656 – Amsterdam 1741), Reichenberger, Kassel, 2000. Harm den Boer, “Le «contre-discours» des nouveaux juifs. Esprit et polémique dans la literature des juifs sépharades d’Amsterdam”, Les sépharades en littérature. Un parcours millénaire. Ed. Esther Benbassa, Paris, Presses de l’Universite Paris Sorbonne, 2005, pp. 47-65. Kenneth Brown, “A propósito de un estúdio de Antonio Alatorre (Un nuevo poemário de y documentación adicional sobre Abraham Gómez Silveira, Arévalo, España, 1656 – Amsterdam, 1741)”, Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, 60 (1), 2012, pp. 235-256.
Another copy of the same text reposes in the National Library of Madrid (ms. 17687). It was published by Antonio Alatorre (1993).
Cf. Kayserling, Bibliotheca, p. 65.
Belonged to the collection of Ets Haim Library at the end of the 19th century.
Spanish / Paper / 26,3 x 19,6 cm. / [1] + 14 ff. (first and last 3ll. blank) / 22 lines to a page / Current 18th century writing / Title written in engraved frame / Catchwords at the bottom of each page / Contemporary gold-tooled leather binding.
Fuks 221. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.