Transition of the correspondence and autobiographical compositions of Antonio Fernández Morales to Mariano Cubí: an inaugural Bierzo legacy of the Galician Rexurdimento

Abstract

This transcription accompanied by a brief commentary form part of the process of the recovery and circulation of a correspondence between 1847-1848 by the author Antonio Fernández Morales. It was undertaken to celebrate his bicentenary and seeks to highlight the value of its contents for contemporary Galician literature, especially for studies on the Rexurdimento. Indeed, these letters, written to the Catalan philologist Mariano Cubí e Soler, display a strong literary bent and allow us in a surprising way to observe in detaile the creative process behind the Ensayos poéticos en dialecto berciano (1861), and the distinctive role played by the Bierzo in a literary movement with scarce texts of this kind during its early phases. These letters, poetic compositions and annotations included in them represent an exceptionally important inaugural legacy for a complete study of that movement, if we take into account that it was unpublished and unknown until 2017. The transcription presented, together with the brief introduction that is included, are a first step towards greater research that will contribute to a full and fair inclusion of Bierzo Galician in the history of Galician language and literature.