Author: Mellado, Francisco de Paula (1849)

Title: El Papamoscas de Burgos (Recuerdos de un viaje por España)

Genre: short story

Age: Contemporary Age

Description: Published in Recuerdos de un viaje por España (Madrid, Establecimiento Tipográfico de Mellado, 1849: 31-34). The legend of the Papamoscas is a popular story, with various variants, which is manifested in verses and orally transmitted advice. Their common link is the relationship between the Papamoscas and Henry III. The nineteenth-century literary texts that write this tradition are published in travel books, historical portraits and artistic panoramas that proliferate around half a century. The first version appears in L'Espagne pittoresque, artistique et monumentale: moeurs, usages et costumes (Paris, Librairie Ethnographique, 1848: 212-123), published by Manuel de Cuendias and Victor de Féréal (pseudonym of the French poet Victorine de Suberwick ). Mellado's version starts from this French. Later the same legend will be rewritten by Spanish writers (José Muñoz Maldonado, La novicia de las Huelgas, Madrid, Manini, 1876: 9-15) and foreigners, such as Edmondo de Amicis, in España, trans. by Augusto Suárez de Figueroa, Madrid, Imprenta y Estereotipia de El Imparcial, 1877: 97-99 (1st ed .: Spagna, Firenze, Barbera, 1873: 92-94). The Burgos automaton was also incorporated into string literature in the 19th century and starred in one of the aleluyas published by the Marés, Minuesa and Hernando press. It is kept in the catalog until well into the 20th century.

Key characters: Enrique III. A woman.

Resources:

• • • • • • Text (Biblioteca Digital de Castilla y León).
          • Studies:
            • Amores García, Montserrat (2019), “El cuento como señuelo: la firma de Francisco de Paula Mellado en el Museo de las familias”, Anales de Literatura Española, 31, 33-48.
            • Martínez Martín, Jesús A. (2018), Los negocios y las letras: el editor Francisco de Paula Mellado (1807-1876), Zaragoza, Prensas Universitarias.
          • Specific bibliography.
          • Media:
            • Ribao Pereira, Montserrat. Henry III in the short stories of the 19th century.
            • Ribao Pereira, Montserrat. The Romantic interest in the first Castilian Trastámara.
          • Links:
            • Arte y Cultura. El Papamoscas de la catedral de Burgos. Su historia e historietas.
            • Biblioteca Digital de Castilla y León. Vida del Papa-moscas. Aleluya.
            • Real Academia de la Historia. Enrique III.
            • Web Blog El viaje de Sofi. “La leyenda del Papamoscas en los tiempos del Whatsapp”, 07/02/2018.