CC del Castillo de la Fama. Laberinto Contra Fortuna…

CC del Castillo de la Fama. Laberinto Contra Fortuna…

The full title of this compendium of literary and historic works concerning Spain reads Las CC. del castillo de la fama compuestas por el licenciado Alfonso Albares Guerrero jurista: dirigidas al muy alto y serenissimo y catholico Emperador don Carlos rrey de rromanos y de las Españas semper augusto or in English “The CC. of the Castle of Fame, composed by the lawyer and jurist Alfonso Albares Guerrero: directed to his Royal Highness the grand, serene, and always august Catholic Emperor Don Carlos, King of the Romans and of Spain”. In spite of this longwinded title, it does not effectively relate the contents of the codex, which also include a work dedicated to Charles V (1500–58), a genealogy of the emperors of Germany going back to Otto I (912–973), various notes and glossaries, and finally a curious text from a friend of the author who is a theologian. Alfonso Albares Guerrero (ca. 1502–76) wrote his work because it seemed to him that "our fame is almost obscured and covered with the veil of the darkness of oblivion: and anxiously the great and excellent facts of the strangers in the news and memory of a few, because of the diversity of the tongues and the confusion of so many actors that their lives and deeds were written in as many numbers and volumes of books ". The clearly printed text is accompanied by engraved initials, woodcuts, and the royal escutcheon of Emperor Charles V.