El Robespierre Español. Amigo de las leyes. Núm XI.
(Cadiz): Imp. de Antonio de Murguía:, (1811). pp. 161-176. 4 x 6 inches (11.5 x 15 cm). Stitched self wrappers. First edition. Very good, removed, edge worn, light soiling, ink stamp to title page. Palau 271048. Item #45938
First Spanish periodical edited by a woman, María del Carmen Silva, and an important document for freedom of the press in Spain.
Maria del Carmen Silva (Lisbon, later third of the 18th c- London, after 1829) became the first woman to edit a periodical in Spain on 27 September 1811 when she took over the radical publication, El Robespierre Espanol, with this issue, Num 11, upon the arrest of her later-to-be husband, Fernández Sardinó weeks earlier, beginning with the striking declaration in that issue that she was "Spanish by Choice."
She had originally burst onto the political scene in 1808 by helping to free Spanish soldiers commanded by General Carrafa, who had been imprisoned by Junta in Lisbon, an action later recounted in the Diario Mercantil de Cádiz (5/6-IX-1811), which exalted her courage. She was forced to flee to Badajoz where she met the military doctor Pedro Pascasio Fernández Sardino, but after the capitulation of Badajoz (March 11, 1811) they fled to the Island of León, where Sardino would practice in the San Carlos hospital and where he began to publish the controversial El Robespierre Español ( 21-III-1811/VIII-1812). From its first installment, the newspaper adopted a clearly combative tone and, among other issues, in numbers VI and VII, the actions of the soldiers involved in the taking of Badajoz and Carrafa are openly criticized for the events in Lisbon. Later, in issue num. X, the Minister of Justice, José Antonio de Larrumbide, was criticised. Issues were declared subversive and Sardino was arrested in July. A month later Carmen Silva argued in a letter addressed to the August Congress of the Courts, that the guidelines set by the Freedom of the Press Decree had not been followed since Fernández Sardinó had not been able to defend himself and in September, with issue num XI she took charge of El Robespierre Español and would publish letters from the imprisoned editor and from readers supporting Silva; eventually her campaign paid off and on the 15th of February 1812, Fernández Sardinó was allowed to go free.
This is the first edition of this issue, with subsequent printings in Madrid and Valencia. Rare. OCLC locates only one copy of the first edition at the BN Spain. other editions are at Univ. Valencia, Berkeley, Yale, and Harvard (which only has issue no 1).
References: Cantos Casenave, Marieta y Sánchez Hita, Beatriz “Escritoras y periodistas ante la Constitución de 1812 (1808-1823)”, Historia Constitucional. Revista Electrónica, nQ 10, 2009, pp. 137-179; Sánchez Hita, Beatriz “María del Carmen Silva, la Robespierre española: una heroína y periodista en la Guerra de la Independencia”, en Irene Castells, Gloria Espigado y Má Cmz Romeo (eds. ), Heroínas y patriotas. Mujeres de 1808. Cátedra. Madrid, 2009, pp. 399-425; Beatriz Sánchez Hita: “María del Carmen Silva. Mademoiselle Robespierre” in Andalucía en la Historia ( 2013) No. 42, pp. 17-19.
Price: $750.00