Los enigmas en El libro de los cuentos de Rafael Boira

Abstract

Rafael Boira’s El libro de los cuentos is one of many books published as entertainment in the 19th century. It is a collection of humorous minor compositions in prose, besides some other in verse. Among these writings, there are more than a hundred puzzles or riddles limericks whose authorship Boira didn’t reveal. The original author of the riddles is Cristobal Pérez de Herrera (1618). Although this author is generally original, imitates or reminds on of some existing puzzles in the oral tradition or writings. Boira imitates verbatim many riddles of this author, but also he wrote some others with major or minor alterations, perhaps by doing it from memory. “Las Enigmas” of Pérez de Herrera spread far anonimously: passed the written tradition but also were collected orally, and even today. It’s so that some Boira’s versions are also present in the oral tradition just as he established them in his 19th century work. Unquestionably, the literary puzzles were transmitted to the oral tradition over all this culture. Herrera and Boira are two marks on this path of popularization, as shown