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To those who have had no occasion to study such matters as these, the space of time which elapsed between the concession of the Privilegio and the despatch of the Tasa might seem considerable; and it is not surprising that this circumstance should be the basis of erroneous deductions on their part. Apparently for no other reason than the length of this interval, it has been concluded that, between February 22, 1584, and March 13, 1585, there was printed at Madrid an edition of the Galatea, every copy of which has—ex hypothesi—vanished. This assumption is gratuitous.

It is true that the first editions of certain very popular Spanish books—such as the Celestina,ssss1 Amadís de Gaula,ssss1 Lazarillo de Tormes,ssss1 Guzmán de Alfarache,ssss1 and Don Quixotessss1—tend to become exceedingly rare and are, perhaps, occasionally thumbed out of existence altogether. But the Galatea, like all pastoral novels, appealed to a comparatively restricted class of readers, and was in no danger of wide popularity. No doubt the princeps of the Galatea is exceptionally rare,ssss1—rarer than the princeps of Don Quixote; but rarity, taken by itself, is no proof that a work was popular, and, in the present instance, the rarity may be due to the fact that the Galatea was issued in a more or less limited edition. This is what we should expect in the case of a first book published in a provincial town by an author who had still to make his reputation; but, in the absence of direct testimony, the question cannot be decided. What can be proved by any one at all acquainted with Spanish bibliography is that there was no unexampled delay in publishing the Galatea. Similar instances abound; but, for our present purpose, it will suffice to mention two which are—or should be—familiar to all who are specially interested in Cervantes and in his writings. As we have just seen, the Tasa of the Galatea is dated thirteen months after the Aprobación. An exact parallel to this is afforded by Cervantes's own Novelas exemplares: Fray Juan Bautista signed the Aprobación on July 9, 1612, and Hernando de Vallejo signed the Tasa on August 12, 1613.ssss1 Here the interval is precisely thirteen months. A still more striking instance of dilatoriness is revealed in the preliminaries to another work which has been consulted—or, at least, quoted as though it were familiar to them—by almost all writers on Cervantes from 1761 onwards: namely, Diego de Haedo's Topographia e Historia general de Argel, published at Valladolid in 1612. Haedo obtained the Aprobación on October 6, 1604, but the licence was not given till February 8, 1610. In this instance, then, the legal formalities were spread out over five years and, at the final stage, there was a further pause of three years; in all, a delay of eight years.ssss1 There is no ground for assuming that the official procedure in these matters was more expeditions in 1585 than it was a quarter of a century later and, consequently, in the case of the Galatea, the interval of time between the issue of the Aprobación and the despatch of the Tasa cannot be regarded as calling for any far-fetched explanation.