The John Carter Brown Library collects across all genres that relate to the early Americas, and the comedias sueltas from the JCB’s collection include New World subject matter and/or were reprinted or sold in Lima during the colonial period. They have a small collection of 25 late 18th – and early 19th -century comedias sueltas including some of the best authors of the Spanish Golden Age literary period (Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca, and Pérez de Montalbán). We know that Ruiz de Alarcón was from Mexico; the other playwrights have written comedias with the Americas as a theme.
Brown University Special Collections has a slightly higher number of items with no discernible focus. While the JCB titles have all been digitized, COVID interrupted the digitization process a third of the way through.
Support and cooperation from cataloguer Allison Rich have been one of the remarkable bonuses of this project. Allison not only proofed the JCB and Brown records but volunteered to proofread the Bibliography (see under RESOURCES) to make sure we followed the MLA form of entry. She has a deep understanding and love for cataloguing rare books—most of which are far more complicated than comedias sueltas.
