From the bibliotheca to the garden and the graveyard: Origins of the poiesis of the fantastic in late sixteenth-century miscellanea

A few years ago, Lina Rodríguez Cacho drew a suggestive picture of the trajectory of sixteenth-century miscellanea, from the early Silva de varia lección by Pedro Mexía, first published in 1540, to Antonio de Torquemada's Jardín de flores curiosas (1570), to Julián de Medrano's La silva curiosa (1583), and Varia historia, written by Luis Zapata around 1590. The critic noted that within the pages of Mexía's Silva, we never really get the impression of having left a medieval bibliotheca; yet, when it comes to Torquemada's Jardín, we may feel more like guests in a private backyard gathering than like readers at the library. In the case of La silva curiosa and Varia historia, Rodríguez Cacho imagines herself standing before a group of casual conversationalists at a café. For her part, Asunción Rallo Gruss looks at the development of the genre from the perspective of its evolution from the encyclopedic display of ancient erudition in the tradition of classical compilations, to the more personal or personalized miscellanea that will proliferate in the last three decades of the sixteenth century. Beginning with Torquemada's Jardín, miscellany literature will open the door to contemporary sources and folkloric material, as well as personal experience, in an effort to engage the new groups of readers that had emerged with the printing press. While most critics, including Rallo Gruss, focus on the works of Mexía, Torquemada, and Zapata, it is perhaps the protonovelistic second part of Medrano's La silva curiosa that best exemplifies the subjective impulse of late sixteenth-century miscellanies.