Lectura estival, Baroja La Feria de los Discretos, en el cual Quintín Roelas se encuentra secuestrado por error por una banda de gitanos en la Córdoba de 1868: – Yo le diré a usted quién soy, y si después de saberlo no le parece mal, seremos amigos. – Y antes también. – No, antes no.…
“Before [1898], without a doubt, it was quixotic country, which thought of itself differently from what it really was,” Baroja wrote in 1927. “Before, in the period of adventures, Spain was led by Don Quixote. From now on, it would be directed by Sancho Panza.” (Via learned.english.dog, source?)
RAE 2.0 is a cool little gadget if you’re sick of the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española’s clunky interface: append the word you’re after to the URL and http://rae2.es/abracadabra or http://rae2.es/abraxas or whatever. (Via JPQ)
The story of the Moroccans with keys to houses in Granada is well known. La Cruz, The Cross, a Catholic periodical carried what sounds like a variant of this in 1854, claiming that Prussian Jews were about to petition the Spanish court to abolish the 1492 expulsion decree. Léon Carbonero y Sol wrote: In truth…
I continue to think “mystifications” is a better translation than “hoaxes” of mixtificaciones. Gerald Howson in The flamencos of Cadiz Bay writes of a 1950s carnaval pregonero preaching against the use of “mixtifications, modernisms and orfeonic banalities” in carnival songs. He wouldn’t have liked Silvester Paradox either.
It may not have worked, but nineteenth century medicine often sounds rather fun. This from An Epitome of Braithwaite’s Retrospect of practical medicine and surgery (1860): M. Lallemand, of Montpellier, has great confidence in aromatic bitters, to which a small portion of brandy has been added, followed by active friction of the loins… As internal…
MJ suggests that “adventures, devices and hoaxes” is a better translation of “aventuras, inventos y mixtificaciones” than “adventures, inventions and mystifications.” I think that’s a bit hard on C19th Spain’s greatest scientist ;o)
