El manuscrito del 'Cancionero de Baena' (PN1): Descripción codicológica y evolución histórica

Abstract

The present article attempts to establish as accurately as possible the chronological trajectory of the unique codex of the Cancionero de Baena (PN1 in the Dutton nomenclature). It begins with a detailed examination of the codicological aspects of the manuscript, which serve to date its origin to around 1465. This origin, combined with the historical data, supports a conjecture that the manuscript probably belonged to Gonzalo de Beteta, an official of both Enrique IV and the Catholic Kings. It would have passed from him to his grandson, Jorge de Beteta y Cardenas, who gave it to the Real Biblioteca de El Escorial in 1576. The article then follows the vicissitudes of the manuscript from its disappearance from the Escorial at the beginning of the 19th c. until its sale in London in 1824 and its acquisition in 1836 by the Bibliotheque nationale de France, its current home. In passing, the article refutes the thesis that the manuscript would have belonged to the library of Isabel I in 1503 and would have been left by her, along with other books, to the Capilla Real of the cathedral of Granada, whence it would have passed to El Escorial.