Viator 46 No. 2 (2015) 357–374. 10.1484/J.VIATOR.5.105373 SIDNEY SCRIBBLED: THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF DEFFENSA DE LA POESIA Berta Cano-Echevarría * Abstract: A manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional de España contains a translation into Spanish of Philip Sidney’s The Defence of Poesy. This seventeenth-century document is possibly the first translation of Sid- ney’s treatise into any language as well as a very rare example in this period of cultural transmission from England into Spain, which was at the time isolating itself from foreign influence, especially from protestant countries. The mere existence of this manuscript invites a number of questions about the transmission of literary texts in early modern Europe, the relationship of the Sidney family to the Spanish court, and the possible readings a treatise on poetics could receive. This article explores some of the enigmas that surround Deffensa de la Poesia, and examines the puzzling marginalia contained in its pages, a facet of the text ignored by the few previous scholars who have discussed it. Keywords: Philip Sidney, The Defence of Poesie, manuscript, early modern translation, Anglo-Spanish relations, marginalia, Juan de Bustamante. Philip Sidney’s The Defence of Poesy was one of the first pieces of English literature ever rendered into Spanish. The translation contained in a manuscript in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (MS 3908) was not published until the 1970s and has remained a very obscure text despite its significance as possibly the first translation of Sidney into any language. In the decades of conflict between England and Spain that defined rela- tions at the end of the sixteenth century, and even after the signing of the peace in 1604, Spain kept its back turned to the cultural production of its nemesis and would remain impermeable to its influence for years to come. This antagonism gives such an early translation added value and most importantly poses questions with respect to the purpose of the text, the use made of it and the background of its author-translator, which still remain obscure today. In what follows I intend to explore some of the enigmas that surround Deffensa de la Poesia, as well as examine the puzzling margi- nalia that its pages contain, a facet of the text ignored by the few previous scholars who have studied the manuscript. 1 The first mystery of this document is that it exists at all, given the thorny relations between England and Spain at the time. It is well known that although there were numerous translations from Spanish into English in the early modern period the situa- tion was not at all reciprocal. From the second half of the sixteenth century on consid- erable translation activity took place in England and literature from Spain was widely circulated, providing motifs and sources for many English writers. Works such as La Celestina, El Lazarillo de Tormes, Amadis de Gaula, and Don Quixote were available * Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Plaza del Campus, 47011 Valladolid, Spain. Research for this essay was carried out under the auspices of the Proyecto I+D+I, “Libros, viajes, fe y diplomacia: interpretación del intercambio cultural entre España e Inglaterra en la Edad Moderna” (FF12009-10816), funded by the Spanish Government. I would like to thank Mark Hutchings for the revi- sion of the manuscript and his invaluable feedback, Mauricio Herrero for his help with the paleographic material, and the anonymous readers for their useful suggestions. 1 My particular interest in this text arose as I was translating Sidney’s treatise into Spanish in 2003: Philip Sidney, Defensa de la Poesía trans., introd. and notes Berta Cano Echevarría, Mª Eugenia Perojo Arronte, Ana Sáez Hidalgo (Madrid 2003). Ours was the first translation into modern Spanish to be pub- lished. The sonnets were translated by Fernando Galván Reula, Astrophil y Stella (Madrid 1991); and Sonia Hernández Santano, Astrophil y Stella (Huelva 2002) while Arcadia has not been translated to this day.