El precio de leer a los clásicos en el siglo XVIIIlos lectores españoles de versiones vendidas por suscripción

Resumen

The present study focuses on commercial and sociological features of the dissemination of classical texts in eighteenth-century Spain. It makes use of two types of source material: press advertisements detailing the sale of certain major works and subscription lists. The analysis of prices and retail methods in the press enables an initial calculation of purchase statistics for Spanish buyers achieved by new translations or re-editions (usually revised, amplified or annotated) of translations carried out in the sixteenth century. There follows an examination of subscription lists of four works sold by this method in the final decade of the eighteenth century. The data provided by such lists and the identification of those whose names they include permit a social and cultural profile of their purchasers to be constructed, providing a picture of the reading public for Spanish translations of classical authors in the final third of the eighteenth century.