Seudo Apontes en Wayne State University
In 1963, B. B. Ashcom published an article in the Bulletin of the Comediantes in which he describes an unusual set of volumes found in the holdings of Wayne State University’s comedia collection. Ashcom concluded that the 6 bound volumes, with spines reading Calderón de la Barca. Comedias, “represents some collector’s attempt (or what is left of some collector’s attempt) to assemble the edition of Calderón published by Juan Fernández de Apontes (11 vols. in 10, Madrid, Viuda de Manuel Fernández, 1760-1763) or its equivalent”.1 Aschom’s suggestion for the existence of this unique set created for personal satisfaction differs radically from the reasons we know for the creation of the many pseudo Vera Tassis (fake) Calderón editions with the sole purpose of fooling book buyers into thinking they were purchasing authentic, original printed volumes.
The Vera Tassis Calderón collection of 9 partes printed in 1682-1691 (with an additional reprint of the Quinta parte in 1694) by Francisco Sanz and subsequent editions in 1715-1731 by Juan Sanz, Viuda de Blas de Villanueva, and Juan Garcia Infanzòn all comprise the same components across the editions. Each volume includes: frontispiece portrait of Don Pedro, a collective title page, preliminary material, table of contents indicating pagination, 12 plays with continuous pagination, and plays which appear in a consistent sequence amongst those produced by these printers. By contrast, the thorough examination of the many pseudo-Vera Tassis editions found in North America, revealed the following: lack of frontispiece portrait of Don Pedro, a false collective title page, an abbreviated set of preliminaries, table of contents omitting pagination, and 12 sueltas (loose) plays each separately paginated bound together mirroring the order of the true editions. In addition, several of the plays in these pseudo-Vera Tassis volumes do not have colophons but as indicated by D.W. Cruickshank “most of the sueltas are undoubtedly late reprints of the earlier editions (especially of the genuine Vera Tassis editions)”.2 As stated before, the obvious purpose of these cheaply assembled pseudo-Vera Tassis editions was to dar gato por liebre, as the saying goes.
We support Ashcom’s thesis that the unique set of 6 volumes represents a collector’s attempt to gather and recreate Partes de Calderón published by Juan Fernández de Apontes from 1760-1763, as opposed to being an attempt to fool a prospective buyer. The Apontes Calderón edition was published with the same titles as the Vera Tassis edition but in a different sequence and in a collection of 11 vols. in 10 (with partes 10 and 11 bound in one volume); the collector who attempted this recreation completed only 6 volumes, combining both sueltas and desglosadas. As a result of Aschom’s description of the volumes in his article and the images supplied by Wayne State University at our request, it is evident that these 6 volumes hold no corresponding qualities of a pseudo edition. The photographs and table are included to visually attest to this statement and offer a virtual examination of this unique set.
1Ashcom, B.B. (1963). The WSU-Apontes. Bulletin of the Comediantes 14(2), 19-20. doi:10.1353/boc.1963.0002.
2Cruickshank, Don W., and E. M. Wilson. “A Calderón Collection in Dr Steevens’ Hospital Dublin.” Long Room, vol. 9, 1974, pp. 17-27. (Digitized by Cervantes Digital)
