La desordenada codicia de los bienes ajenos

Abstract

The subtitle runs: “la antigüedad y nobleza de los ladrones” and indicates the scope of the work. The author,¹²⁵ “El Doctor” Garcia, gives an account of his conversation with a prisoner, probably in some prison of Paris, who tells him of his experiences as a thief and proves that, to begin with Adam, everybody who has attained renown was a thief in some respects. The little volume is a noteworthy contribution to our knowledge of members of this class and of the characteristic vocabulary belonging to them and to their tricks. It is a clever composition, written in pleasant style, and contains much information and many jokes not easily found elsewhere, while the author’s extensive reading is frequently apparent in his allusions to literature. The little work might still have gained in value had the author seen fit to institute a comparison between Spanish and French thieves, as in another¹²⁶ and more popular treatise he compared the two nations in their habits of life.