Isaías Lerner: de polianteas y silvas

Abstract

This paper aims to review one of the areas of production and research of Isaías Lerner: that one dedicated to the study of polyantheae and scholarly edition of Renaissance silvas. These kinds of works resemble what today means Google, Wikipedia and blogs on what they mean democratization and dissemination of knowledge: they helped writers, speakers and priests to find sources of information and learning with which to adorn his speech. Miscellaneas served to divulge anecdotes, exempla and a variety of knowledges destined for a wide audience with enough money to buy books and certain culture to enjoy the varied content gathered in Spanish language, not in Latin. Long time forgotten by critics, such repertoires of humanist knowledge are crucial to understand how the authors of the Golden Age worked. The magnum opus of Lerner was a scholarly edition (2003) of the Spanish archetype of miscellanea, the Silva de varia lección written by Pedro Mexia. Here also we review some other important contributions of Lerner to better knowledge of these materials.