De copistas y censuras. Una versión íntegra del memorial de 1637 del Conde Duque de Olivares

Abstract

The critical edition of original texts is still one of the lesser developed fields in Early Modern historical scholarship. In this regard, the work of J.H. Elliot and J.F. de la Peña in editing some letters and memos of the Count-Duke of Olivares can be considered a milestone. In this article, we present the edition of a memorial dated in 1637 previously edited by Elliot and de la Peña but which departs from several copies of the document. Our source, instead, has been the original manuscript, unknown to these authors, which points out several issues missing in the copies. A thorough analysis of this document has led us to conclude that the missing parts may correspond with an act of censorship, which facilitated the response to Olivares’ policy. This clearly shows how the manipulation of texts can distort historians’ vision of reality.