Theorizing the Production of 'Comedia Nueva': The Process of Play Configuration in Spanish Golden Age Theater

Project Information

TheaTheor

Grant agreement ID: 794064

DOI

10.3030/794064

Project closed

EC signature date 2 March 2018

Start date 1 May 2018

End date 1 October 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 180 277,20

EU contribution

€ 180 277,20

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TheaTheor (Theorizing the Production of 'Comedia Nueva': The Process of Play Configuration in Spanish Golden Age Theater)

Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2020-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

How was the process of writing and reviewing a play in the Spanish Golden Age Theatre? Was this process exclusively in the hands of the playwright?
The study of the creation of different national theaters has paid little -or no- attention to the establishment of the theatre text, i.e. the process of gestation and revision of the play.
The main objective of THEATHEOR project is to reconsider the traditional idea of the production of the Spanish Golden Age Theatre, also known as Comedia Nueva, witch is based on the individual creation of the theatre text, and explore the possibility of uncovering an active collaboration between playwrights and other agents of the theatre system.

The project has the following goals:
a) reconsider the traditional idea of the production of Comedia Nueva based on the individual creation of a theatre text;
b) theorize the intervention of autores de comedias in the plays;
c) propose a new model for the configuration of Spanish Golden Age Theatre which takes into account the participation of other agents in the creation of the theatre text.

To achieve these objectives it’s necessary to work with a corpus of authorized text: the 45 Lope de Vega’s autograph plays, an exceptional corpus for its quality and quantity.
In terms of methodology, this project joins the philological and palaeographic postulates with digital technologies and chemical methods. In this regard, another objective of the project has been to explore new instruments and techniques for manuscript analysis. In addition to studying autograph manuscripts with hyperspectral photography, the project has carried out tests with other instruments and techniques, has established collaborations with chemists and restorers and has experimented with spectroscopy (X-ray fluorescence and XRaman). These techniques have offered a lot of interesting information related to the chemical analysis of inks.

THEATHEOR’s results offer a faithful reflection of the creation process of Lope de Vega’s plays, from the prose abstract to the definitive text, allow to establish an active collaboration between playwrights and other agents of the Spanish Golden Age Theatre and provide a wide list of digital and chemical techniques and instruments to study Golden Age manuscripts.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Dr. Sònia Boadas has done the research under the supervision of Prof. Marco Presotto within the LILEC Dipartamento of Università di Bologna from may 2018 to October 2020. During the fellowship, Dr. Boadas has completed the objectives outlined in the proposal: a) reconsider the traditional idea of the production of Comedia Nueva; b) theorize the intervention of autores de comedias in the plays; c) propose a new model for the configuration of Spanish Golden Age Theater.

Next to this work, Dr. Boadas has also done additional research on the process of creation of Lope de Vega’s dramatic texts, discovering a draft autograph play, "Las bizarrías de Belisa". The draft autograph shows that the process of creating a text was complex and that required working documents, which preceded the final clean copy of the text. It also shows the doubts and corrections of the playwright, his way of working and how he was approaching to the definitive text.

During the fellowship, Dr. Boadas analysed manuscripts in many libraries and has notably expanded her knowledge regarding digital techniques and methodologies for the study of manuscripts. Beyond using hyperspectral photography, she has investigated and tested other instruments that exist in the market and that may be useful for the analysis of ancient texts. These are multispectral photography and spectrometry (X-ray fluorescence and XRaman). Tests have been carried out in different libraries and with different instruments. These tests have revealed the usefulness of some of these techniques, the information they can provide and the need for collaboration between restorers, photographers, chemists and philologists.

On the other hand, and together with Dr. Presotto, Dr. Boadas is developing an open access database dedicated to autograph manuscripts of the Golden Age (AUTESO). The database will offer a comprehensive analysis of the manuscript, focusing especially on the creation process and the hands involved.

In terms of publications, Dr. Boadas has published 4 peer-reviewed articles, one book chapter and is co-author of one critical edition. In 2021, she will coordinate a peer-reviewed journal special issue and she will publish a monograph.

Concerning dissemination, in December 2019, Dr. Boadas has organized an International Seminar and has co-organized another one. Dr. Boadas has also given 2 invited research talks and presented 8 research talks at international conferences.

Apart from the research, Dr. Boadas has been actively engaged in outreach activities, such as Las Jornadas sobre Teatro Clásico or the Researcher’s Night (MSCA, Bologna). She has also been the MSCA Fellow of the Week and her research has been published in the Journal El País Retina.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Dr. Boadas’ work on the configuration of Comedia Nueva during the period of the MSCA-IF has notably increased the knowledge of the creation process of the Spanish Golden Age Theatre.

This important progress was due to 1) a careful inspection of the Lope de Vega’s original manuscripts in European libraries; 2) a deep reflection about the process of composition and the autograph and non autograph annotations of the manuscripts; 3) the application of hyperspectral imaging and spectroscopic approaches to Lope de Vega’s manuscripts; 4) the accurate analysis of these results with the collaboration of photographers and chemists; 5) the presentation and discussion with world-leading experts in the field of these discoveries during two international seminars.

During the fellowship period, Dr. Boadas gained valuable experience working with other philologists and scientists in various libraries, and studying in detail the marks, corrections and annotations presented in Lope de Vega’s manuscripts. This careful analysis allowed her to delve into the process of creating plays and also the modus operandi of the Spanish playwright. Likewise, Dr. Boadas has acquired new knowledge of analytical tools and techniques for the study of manuscripts. This kind of pioneer analysis of the chemical composition of inks has allowed determining a much closer relationship between the playwright and other agents of the theatre system, which often implies a modification in the content and composition of the work. These results discover the reality and the complexity of the Golden Age Theatre market.

The project's most important contribution to the state of the art is the discovery of an autograph draft among Lope de Vega's comedies. This finding is fundamental to end the romantic theory that defended that the playwright wrote 3000 verses out of nowhere, and shows that he followed a very complex process to compose a play.

The new important results arisen from the MSCA-IF are having a significant impact on the Spanish scholarly community and may have important consequences even in other fields. The experiments performed on Lope de Vega’s autograph manuscripts, which have improved the legibility of many cross-out and corrections and have identified different inks in a document, represents an important step forward in the application of advanced diagnostic techniques to Spanish Golden Age Theatre.

Analyzing Manuscripts in the Spanish National Library

International seminar "Lope de Vega a través de sus Autógrafos"

MSCA Fellow of the Week

Some results of Hyperspectral Photography

Analyzing Manuscritpts in the Spanish National Library

Dr. Boadas in Congreso Internacional SEMYR

Melbury House Manuscripts'

Dr. Boadas in Jornadas de Teatro Clásico de Almagro (2018)