The fame and influence of the Lazarillo is well known, it has been translated into most European languages and has gone through hundreds of editions, early editions are all rare, and the one we discuss here is particularly so: La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y sus fortunas y adversidades was first printed in 1554 in Antwerp by Martin Nucio. It is an extremely rare early edition of the Lazarillo de Tormes, the founding work of the literary genre, the picaresque novel.
Heredia, 2551 “…Nous aurions ici la veritable et rarissime edition originale de cette prémiere partie…”
The edition: there are four editions of the Lazarillo printed in 1554, with priority not clearly established: Alcala, Burgos, Antwerp and Medina del Campo (one known copy). According to Alberto Blecua “las ediciones del Lazarillo posteriores a 1554 descienden de la edición de Amberes y no de textos perdidos” (Fortuna de España. Centro Virtual Cervantes), which would position this edition as the first. There are bibliographical references to a 1553 edition, which doesn’t seem to exist, or at least no copy is known.
The Lazarillo is one of the most important pieces of Spanish literature of the Golden Age, to some, as important as the Quijote; it’s importance for the development of modern literature transcends the Spanish frontiers, credited as the founding work of the picaresque, a genre which exposes injustice whilst amusing the reader; more recent literature of the same genre includes Fielding’s Tom Jones and Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The authorship remains to-date unknown, despite several attempts to an attribution, in recent times the name of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza has been given often as the author, however Rosa Navarro, an academic from the University of Barcelona has published two well-received articles granting authorship to Alfonso de Valdes, a secretary to Charles V, of Jewish ascent, and dating from 1520-1530 for the material included, and previous to the Council of Trent. She, in turn, gives the second part as the produce of Hurtado de Mendoza’s pen, inferior in quality and overall different.
Historically, the Burgos edition has been treated as the first, following the long-lost original of 1553, which may well be a ghost; however, the arguments supporting this claim are not confirmed (see Observaciones sobre el Lazarillo de Tormes hallado en Barcarrota, Luisa López Grigera, University of Michigan).
The Lazarillo, as did the Quijote a half century later, suffered from imitations, in this case a second part, published in 1555, most likely from a different writer; this second part can be treated as a different book altogether. This second part did not have the same welcome the first had, as one would expect, which eventually lead to the publication of a different second part, in 1620 by Juan Luna. Despite these facts, of the few known copies of this Antwerp edition, a few have the second part bound in; the copy Heredia procured lacked the title page and a couple more folios; it has to be said though, that modern editions of the Lazarillo not often include the second part, which is treated as a lesser and apocryphal text.
