Glasgow: printed for the bookseller, [18–]

Here we find a pleasing mixture of both cultures, with the Spanish legend of Montilla and Isidora retold in nineteenth-century Glasgow. It takes the concept of ‘read all about it’ to the extreme with its sensational title page, promising an account of Montilla’s “hellish compact with the powers of darkness … [and] awful death”. The story itself involves bandits, supernatural powers and mystery, as Montilla saw off his enemies and forced the rich and beautiful Isidora to agree to marry him. It also points towards the Spanish focus on legendary stories rather than those set in the real past.

CCD.7.50.10