Towards a Theory of Attribution: Is La conquista de Jerusalén by Miguel de Cervantes?

In the early 1990s, the late Stefano Arata published a transcription of a recently discovered anonymous manuscript of a play entitled La conquista de Jerusalén por Godofre de Bullón. Accompanying the publication was an article in which he states that this could be the lost La Jerusalén to which Cervantes refers in 'Adjunta al Parnaso' (1614). This article continues Arata's research by working towards a tailor-made theory of authorial attribution: it considers the plot, versification, construction of characters, dramatic devices and structure of the play within the context of pre-Lopean Spanish drama; it studies other possible authors, and takes into account the scholar who openly disagrees with Arata's attribution. Based on established criteria, core attributes of this play bear a striking similarity to Cervantes's other extant plays from this period