Las Coplas De Mingo Revulgo . Estudio Preliminar, Edicion Critica Y Notas

The Coplas de Mingo Revulgo is a brief anonymous poem composed in the second half of the fifteenth century which is meant to satirize certain political practices of King Henry IV who ruled Castile and Leon from 1454 to1474. Three different commentaries tried to explain the meaning of the allegorical verses of the Coplas. The most known gloss belongs to Fernando de Pulgar (1436?-1496?), for it is found printed after each stanza in almost all the editions of the work. During the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries the Coplas enjoyed great popularity, as attested by the extant manuscripts -at least six, from the fifteenth century- and by the number of sixteenth-century editions -some 25- that were printed in Spain, Portugal and Holland. This success, however, did not continue into the following centuries. One has to wait until the twentieth century for the Coplas to become again the object of study, a renewed interest that is still present today. Among the most recent editors only Marcella Ciceri presented a critical edition of the Coplas in 1977. More than 30 years have elapsed since Ciceri first attempted a critical study and edition of the Coplas. In the intervening years, others manuscripts and editions have been discovered. This is the reason why it seems absolutely necessary to provide modern students and literary critics with a new reliable critical edition.