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Resumen:
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The Naturalis Historia (NH) can be listed among the most extensive works by a classical author that have survived – almost entirely – until the present days. It is not only the number of volumes in which it unfolds (thirty seven) what is impressive to the eye of the modern scholar, but also the amount of extant manuscripts and commentaries produced in regard to Pliny the Elder’s masterpiece. As far as we know, there are more than three hundred and fifty testimonies of different kinds with diverse segments of text, ranging from one page to the bulk of the NH, which have seen the light over a wide time frame. The first date back to the 4th century a. D., while the most recent appeared in the 15th century, some of which are contemporary with the newly printed editions. Given this outlook, it is easy to imagine what a complex task it would be to provide a stemma codicum for the NH. Commentaries and translations constitute another pillar for textual transmission and, as pointed out before, Pliny’s work provided a source of inspiration for a plethora of humanists willing to clear the text from the many obstacles that stood in the way of the reader. The NH is riddled with the so-called monstra Pliniana, sections where the meaning of the text remains obscured as a result of the presence of hapax or a, to say the least, intrincate syntax. Two Spanish commentaries have been chosen for the bases of this Thesis. In the introduction we provide an overview to clarify the status of the issue and offer a reasoned scheme of the research that has been carried out. The need to explain the causes that led us to choose no other than Francisco López de Villalobos and Hernán Núñez de Guzmán (El Pinciano) is dealt with afterwards. Villalobos produced the first commentary to the NH in Spain, although it only reaches the first two volumes, thus remaining as an incentive for others. El Pinciano criticised this work and offered his own version, a philological commentary driven by an emerging textual criticism.
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