A first approach to the interaction between text and image in the Mexican edition of 1900 of El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha

Abstract

Don Quixote arrived in the Spanish colonies in 1605, the same year in which its first part was published. For more than two centuries, Cervantes’ novel circulated widely thanks to copies produced in Spain and the numerous stagings of the work in the Americas. However, it was not until the first third of the 19^th century that the novel was published on the continent. More precisely, the first edition would see the light of day in Mexico, 1833. Years later, in 1900, another edition was published, also in Mexico, which stands out for its magnificent engravings. This study will focus on this adornment and the rich text that it accompanies as well as the resulting interaction between images and text.
Of the first eight editions published in Latin America, six were produced in Mexico (in 1833, 1842, 1852-1853, 1868-1869, 1877 and 1900) and two in the Southern Cone subregion; one in Chile (1863) and one in Uruguay (1880). In this article, I will transcribe the text annexed to the illustrations before investigating possible links between the images and text. Given the huge amount of material, on this occasion I will only give a general overview of the photo-texts found and highlight their most notable characteristics. For example, I will consider whether there is a direct relationship between the illustrations that contain text and other illustrations without text that are placed before or after them. I will also look at whether text included within illustrations has been modified when compared with the novel’s text and if there are any spelling mistakes or other linguistic inaccuracies. In a future article, I will examine some of the phraseological units in illustrations, focussing particularly on idiomatic locutions, which are by far the most numerous of the various types of unit found. In this way, I hope to succeed in the difficult task of discovering whether the enormous conceptual richness hidden in fixed expressions is reflected in the images to which they are attached.