Centon epistolario Del Bachiller Fernan Gomez decibda Real Fisico del mui poderoso e sublimado Rei Don Juan el segundo deste nombre

4to. pp. [2], 162, 159-166 (pp. 163- called 159-). Signatures: A-I⁴ k⁴ L-U⁴ X⁶. Hard boards, quarter calf. Gilded spine and red panel, marbled pastedowns. Edges spread red. Woodcut title ornament. Plate of Charles Walker Andrews. On title page date "1499" in ink. Some marginalia.

First edition of a multiple forgery, probably by, or commissioned by, the Spanish diplomat, historian, and poet Vera Zúñiga y Figueroa (1583–1658), and given a deliberately fictitious imprint and date (see ISTC, ig00321000). The letters of the physician Fernán Gómez of Cuidad Real (Cibdareal) – alleged to have been a physician at the court of Juan II of Castile (reigned 1406-1454) – coincidentally glorify Vera Zúñiga y Figueroa’s own ancestry, as do several other independent publications edited by or for him in this period. The work has also been attributed to Gil González Dávila. Often regarded as a valuable historical resource, the present texts were questioned as early as the 1730s; for a persuasive account in English, see G. Ticknor, The History of Spanish Literature. New York, 1849, vol. III, pp. 397-403, who states that ‘the book is a forgery, from beginning to end.’ Ticknor endeavors to prove that it is both a bibliographical and a literary forgery.

See also F. R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census. Millwood (N.Y.), 1973, G-321; Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Leipzig [etc.], chapter VI, Sp. 499a; J.E. Walsh, A Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the Harvard University Library. Binghamton, 1996, vol. 4, S1-3983a; J. Martín Abad, Catálogo bibliográfico de la colección de incunables de la Biblioteca Nacional de España. Madrid, 2010, 2 vols., p. 244; V. Salva, A Catalogue of Spanish and Portuguese Books with occasional literary and bibliographical remarks. London, 1826, 2266; A. Palau y Dulcet, Manual del librero hispanoamericano. Second edition. Barcelona & Oxford, 1975, vol. 26, no. 359007.

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