El licenciado Alonso Fernández de Zapata. Trayectoria y entorno de un personaje singular en la sociedad abulense de los Siglos de Oro

Abstract

The name and the surname of the author of Avellaneda's Quixote, published in 1614, coincides with the identity of Alonso Fernández de Zapata, parish priest of La Avellaneda (Ávila). According this coincidence and considering the social and historic context of Ávila in the Golden Age, in the current thesis we study the biography of this controversial priest basing the research in documentary sources. Alonso Fernández de Zapata was an erudite priest, in a good relation with Dominicans, who probably was able to elude a lot of serious trials because of his nearness with the house Bracamonte Dávila, particularly praised in the Avellaneda's Quixote. In addition, we must consider the probable coincidence of Alonso Fernández de Zapata with Lope de Vega, whose influence in the Avellaneda's Quixote is admitted. Another interesting coincidence is the name of the protagonists of the two inserted tales of the book ("El rico desesperado" y "Los felices amantes"), Antonio de Bracamonte and the Dominican nun Luisa Dávila, which refers to real persons who lived very relevant events in that time. This thesis insists on the investigations of Arsenio Gutiérrez Palacios (1901-1980) and suggests a new possibility which could be considered in relationship with the interpretations of the authorship of the Avellaneda's Quixote.