f “La Esfinge de pies de lagarto: texto subyacente y concepto de ‘original’ en la edición de la sección tebana de la General estoria”

The article deals with two questions relating to an edition of the Theban section of the General estoria. The first question is concerned with the “original” of the work. The second with the extent to which recourse can be made to the underlying text. Given that the Alfonsine “Estoria de Tebas” is a translation into Spanish of the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, the comparison of the Spanish text with the French source is a valuable instrument for the clarification of interpretative problems in the Spanish text. This employment of the underlying text varies in usefulness depending on two basic factors. Firstly, whether the error was produced during the manuscript transmission of the work, or, secondly, whether the error derives from problems produced in the process of translation. This procedure is principally useful in establishing the text where an error of transmission is concerned, since it allows the editor to evaluate existing variants. The situation is very different if the error derives from the translation itself. The underlying text allows the editor to reconstruct the translated sentence and the process which produced the error. So the procedure allows the editor to identify the problem, clarify its origins and even “virtually restore” the reading to its original form. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the procedure is limited as far as emendation is concerned, since the translated sentence is subject to a process of change, and often of enrichment, which prevent the editor making any intervention which would alter the Alfonsine “original”.