Garcilaso’s sonnets, between copying errors and authorial variants. A provisional balance

Abstract

This article deals with the problem that has arisen in the poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega based on two studies by Oreste Macrì from the years 1965 and 1966, and which Alfonso D'Agostino has summarized with the following question: «In the varia lectio transmitted by the manuscripts and by the Brocense, can author variants be recognized?». Since Macrì's studies, the field of research on the Garcilasian textual tradition has been divided into two opposing critical lines: no one of these reached definitive nor forceful evidence in favor of one or another working hypothesis. A recent study by Tobia R. Toscano on the sonnet «Mario, el ingrato amor» tips the balance in favor of the hypothesis that contemplates the existence of authorial variants, and forces scholars to reconsider the issue. This is what this article proposes, taking up the exemplary case of the sonnet «Como la tierna madre»