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AI discovers unknown play by Spanish master

ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI) has unearthed a previously unknown comedy penned by one of Spain’s greatest writers, Felix Lope de Vega. AI was being used by researchers to transcribe 1,300 uncredited manuscripts and books at the library to save many years of human work. Another aim was to find out the authors by checking each work against a selection of words used by different writers. After a year of verification, it

THREE small towns in the Spanish Pyrenees have staged the ancient festival of Joaldunak to ward off evil spirits and to waken up the ‘forthcoming spring’. The celebration is held on the last Monday and Tuesday of January in Ituren, Zubieta, and Lantz and is recognised by UNESCO as an invaluable part of Europe's cultural heritage. The event is believed to be con-

By Alex Trelinski

has been confirmed that an uncredited manuscript was a Lope de Vega work called La Francesca Laura (Frenchwoman Laura) - written some five or six years before his death in 1635. One of the people involved in the AI project, German Vega from Valladolid University, said that it was not an original Lope de Vega manuscript, but a copy - perhaps even of the original.

It also had notes for theatre companies intending to put

Spring beckoned

nected to the ancient rites of changing the seasonal cycle and celebrating the winter solstice. Bell wearers, or Joaldunak, as they are known in Basque, dressed up in thick sheepskins and tall colourful hats, clanging large cowbells tied to their backs to scare away the bad spirits and the witches.

A shepherd holding the chains of a huge carnival ‘bear’ with ram-horn ears accompanied the Joaldunak on their march, taking swipes at the crowd and ordering the sea of monsters to step aside to let them pass.