First part, in which is told and recounted the most terrible wickedness and brutal action carried out by Lorenzo de Texado, who, spurred on by the Devil, killed his wife, and their four children, cutting off their heads to give them to the Devil: and how the head of his wife spoke four times, being separated from her body, and the happy outcome that ensued, as the curious reader will see.

Barcelona: Herederos de la Viuda Pla, 1833.

The text produces a far-fetched tale, more extreme than just the series of atrocities noted in the lengthy title; Lorenzo cut off the heads of his wife and four children, a crime of the type we have seen described elsewhere. What makes this story unusual is that his wife’s head then supposedly spoke to him. Lorenzo’s bizarre and violent crime is explained by his being seduced by the Devil in the form of a woman: he commits the murders at her request. This is ultimately a tale of redemption, in which Lorenzo is saved by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, and he emerges from the tale as rather weak, instead of evil.

8743.b.13(14)