Ancient Ballads from the Civil Wars of Granada [by Ginés Pérez de Hita], and the Twelve Peers of France, Dedicated, by Permission, to the Right Honourable Lady Georgiana Cavendish [...]

Bookseller Notes

An unsophisticated copy of this book of ballads, by turns romantic and bellicose, translated from the Spanish by bookseller and antiquarian Thomas Rodd (1763-1822).The ballads are lifted from two Spanish authors. The first is the Spanish Golden Age poet, novelist and historian Gins Prez de Hita (c. 1544-1619). He is best known for one of the earliest historical novels, Historia de los bandos de los Zegres y Abencerrajes, which was also translated by Rodd and published in 1803. Both the novel and the present ballads are likely informed by Prez de Hita's personal experience in the the campaign against the 'Moriscos' in the Alpujarra in 1560. Also included are excerpts from Damin Lpez de Tortajada's Los doce pares de Francia (Twelve Peers of France), legends surrounding the Twelve Paladins of Charlemagne. The volume is prefixed with an original verse dedicated to Georgiana Howard, the Countess of Carlisle (1783-1858) eldest child of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. The errata page is headed with the somewhat imperious injunction that no-one is to attempt to set the ballads to music 'as they are already in the hands of an eminent composer [...]'.