Dicenda. Estudios de lengua y literatura españolas

Between spelling rules and usage in official writing in the 18th century: a study of graphic variation in three subcorpora

Elia Puertas Ribés — 2026-05-18

Until recently, the Spanish language of the eighteenth century had been neglected because it was considered a period of stabilisation, as it coincided with the founding of the Royal Spanish Academy (1713) and its concern for the standardisation of spelling. Within this framework, the present study aims to analyse some spelling conventions attested in the consonant system of mid-18th-century documents found in the Municipal Archive of Castellón and included in the INCOM corpus. These manuscripts are compared with others from the central and southern areas of the peninsula with the same typology and dating. Thus, it is possible to verify the extent to which the Academy's orthographic standardisation had an effect on official writing in the Kingdom of Valencia. In these documents, therefore, it is possible to observe the coexistence of different spelling trends that were socially accepted at a given time, which allows us to conclude that we are dealing with a moment of standardisation in progress (Ramírez Luengo 2013).

The Italian Editions of Antonio Agustín's Diálogos de medallas: A History of Rewritings and Literary Manipulations

Giulia Lucchesi — 2026-05-12

The study of the Italian publishing tradition of Agustín's Diálogos de medallas reveals a fascinating web of editions, translations, and collaborations among Italian printers. Despite the original Spanish work seemingly having limited diffusion in Italy, the Italian translations (both printed in Rome, 1592) enjoyed notable popularity.

The mystery surrounding the possible existence of an anonymous Venetian translation raises questions about the editorial practices of the period, including the possibility of proof copies or even pirated editions. The intricate relationship between Roman printers and potential collaboration with Venetian printers reflects a complex landscape where the boundaries between authorship, translation, and printing were not always clear.

This case underscores the importance of continuing research to resolve uncertainties about the anonymous edition and to better understand the editorial dynamics in Renaissance Italy, which involved culturally significant works such as Antonio Agustín's Diálogos.

Women as social mediators in the courtly literature of medieval Castile: lineage and social ascent

Erica Janin — 2026-05-04

Considering that the most representative texts of the courtly love tradition propose characters of powerful women who fulfil the function of assimilating the second-class members of noble families to the royal court, in this paper, we will deal with the theme of noble heiresses as social mediators, that is, as articulators who act as liaisons between the beloved and the kingdom. Our study, due to its panoramic character, includes Castilian texts of different genres from the 13th to the 17th centuries, which will allow us to see the particularities of the Castilian works and the development of the courtly model, from the first formulation in the Cantar de Mio Cid, through the apogee in the Libro del Caballero Zifar, to the tragic projections of the sentimental novel and the parodic ones proposed in both Celestina and Don Quixote.

Mari Jose Olaziregi Alustiza and Ana Gandara Sorarrain (eds.), Gernika(k)/Guernica(s). Resemanticizations of a Historical Trauma, Berlin, Peter Lang, 2025. ISBN: 978-3-631-92707-6, 487 pp.

Andrés Segura-Amancio — 2026-05-26