Una comedia áurea inédita sobre el beato moro Antonio de Noto: primera aproximación a El negro del Seraphín de Rodrigo Pacheco

This article proposes a first approach to the play El Negro del Seraphín by Rodrigo Pacheco, of which the only handwritten copy is preserved in a codex with signature Ms. 14824 at the Biblioteca Nacional de España. It will be studied the value of the unpublished piece, not only because it is the only dramatic work, found to date, that dramatizes the life of the blessed moor Antonio from Noto, but also because the comedy is clearly inscribed within the Golden dramatic tradition, started by Lope de Vega, which aims to enliven devotion to Islamic African slaves converted to Christianity throughout the 16th century, with the purpose of celebrating them as models of holiness.