In search of the identity of the hand that completed the missing pages of the only known copy of "The three offices of the Virgin" by Harizmendi

• Published in: Anuario del Seminario de Filología Vasca "Julio de Urquijo." Vol. 52; no. 1/2; pp. 207 - 236
• Main Author: Javier Etxagibel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: UPV/EHU Press 01-09-2018
• EISSN: 2444-2992
• ISSN: 0582-6152

In the XVIIth century the Basque priest Harizmendi published a prayer book dedicated to the Virgin Mary called Ama Virginaren Hirur Officioac. In the XIXth century the only known copy of that book, of which some pages were missing, was purchased by the prince Louis Loucien Bonaparte. In 1901 the Basque scholar J. Vinson prepared an edition of Harizmendi's book using Bonaparte's copy and a entire handwritten copy of the book that he had found. When the edition was about to be printed, he had news of another copy found in the Bodleian Library of Oxford. Having compared his reconstructed text with that of the original copy he found some pages did not match those of the original, that is to say they were written by a second hand that until now remains unknown. As it would appear nobody has tried to unravel this enigma, our intention in this paper is to throw some light on the identity of this mystery second author.