Published in Journal of Hispanic Philology, 3 (1979 [1980]), 305-306.
Fernando González Ollé, Manual bibliográfico de
estudios españoles. Pamplona: Ediciones Universidad de
Navarra, 1976. xlv + 1377 pp.
This is the largest general bibliographic
work dedicated to Hispanic studies; furthermore, since the author is a
philologist, the work is oriented toward words that would be useful to students
of Spanish literature, history, and culture. Thus, while there are sections
dealing with law, medicine, and agriculture, the emphasis is less on books
directed to present-day practitioners of these professions than it is on
the history of each of them: its broad concentration on all types of technology
and practical arts throughout Spanish history is its most novel aspect, and
a very welcome contribution.
The arrangement of the work is by subject
matter, arranged into large general headings (sociology, education, history,
art, etc.), and then into topical or chronological subheadings. The arrangement
seems carefully done, though there are some arbitrary decisions: Judaism
is found under sociology rather than under religion, for example, and there
is no section dealing with foreign influence on Spain to counterbalance that
on Spain’s influences abroad. It is unfortunate that all Spanish authors
of all periods have been mixed together under one subheading (“Literatura.
Autores.”), making it difficult to locate specific authors, particularly
if one is not sure under what forms of their names they are alphabetized.
These are two extensive indices, one of authors of works cited, and one of
subjects. The only flaw is that, again, the indices refer to section numbers
rather than page or item numbers, making it sometimes time-consuming to locate
individual works or subjects.
In some ways the bibliographic information
could be more thorough: it would have taken little effort to supply publishers,
which are not given, and references to original editions of translated studies
(Irving Leonard’s Los libros del conquistador, for example) and
to the original publication date of reprints and article collections. Less
serious to the advanced scholar but more so to the beginner is the author’s
elimination of first names, which combined with his scrupulous use of second
surnames produces some rather unfamiliar scholars. How many will rapidly
recognize all of the following: M. Riquer Morera, A. Castro Quesada and E.
Asensio Barberín (the fact that Asensio wrote on Castro’s theories
is found nowhere in the book), G. Marañón Posadillo, A. Blecua
Perdices, D. Ridruejo Jiménez, J. Marías Aguilera, F. Rico
Manrique?
The work is weakest in dealing with the
contemporary period, and with works published outside of Spain. Salvador
Dalí receives only three entries, half of the references supplied
on the seventeenth-century Alonso Cano. We are missing such basic works as
Blanco Aguinaga’s El Unamuno contempla[p. 306]tivo, [Marie
Laffranque’s]* Les idées
esthétiques de Federico García Lorca and Ian Gibson’s
The Death of Lorca. Because the cut/off date for inclusion of works
is 1973, and because few studies published outside of Spain are included,
the result is a treatment of the Spanish Civil War which is markedly
franquista: we find Arraiz’s Historia de la cruzada
española without any mention of Southworth’s El mito de
la cruzada de Franco. There are numerous errors in citations of foreign
works: Columbia and Virginia are cities of publication in this bibliography,
for example.
Some omissions noted: María Rosa
Lida, “La Garcineida de García de Toledo” and “Tres
notas sobre don Juan Manuel,” Marañón’s study on
the Don Juan theme; García Matamoros’ Pro adserenda hispaniorum
eruditione; Stimson’s Orígenes del hispanismo
norteamericano. Doublets noted: P. Russell and P. Russell-Gebbett, Marius
Sala and Mario Sala, J. Solá and J. M. Solá-Solé. Typos
noted are mainly in foreign words, and too numerous to list.
The most useful aspect of the work is
in local history and history of culture. Each province of Spain, including
Spanish colonies and plazas de soberanía, receives treatment
in a separate section. I know of no other source to which one can turn for
references to 13 bibliographical items dealing with the province of Lérida,
or for references to towns which are not provincial capitals. There are 18
entries on the legal history of the publishing industry.
In conclusion, this bibliography will
not supplant the more specific bibliographies which are devoted to a single
subject (literature, history). Nevertheless, for information on parts of
Spanish culture not commonly studied by literary scholars, and for references
to medieval and Golden Age knowledge and practices, it is a very valuable
contribution.
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| * [In the published text, the author of this book was erroneously given as María Rosa Lida.] | |||||
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