Axularren Gero liburuaren ale kasi birjinaleko “M” pleguaz

Abstract

Basque literature from past centuries has had few opportunities of dealing with the process which books undergo at the printers and fewer still of looking into the versions taken to printers by writers and the corrections made to them afterwards. In the case of classical works from Basque literature and of these, in general, those which were practically lost in the time abysm of the XVI and XVII centuries, we can, as a rule, speak of little more than copies already printed. Unfortunately, on more occasions than one would wish, such testimony is limited to mere reference by somebody or, in the best of events, to reference in an odd copy from the edition. And in this respect, there would appear to be little difference between great and lesser authors because apparently the work of most of our classics was futile. Nevertheless, in this article, I wished to use the work provided by the main author of Basque literature to demonstrate that it is possible to make precious discoveries in the books we have hidden away and, making use of the occasion, to speak about the process prior to printing and other matters. In fact, of the mere dozen copies known to us of the first edition of Axular’s Gero, there is one not particularly valued copy, belonging to Julio de Urquijo, which contains many interesting things which fail to appear in the other copies. The booklet “M” is one of the most remarkable and important of these.