CELESTINA, LA

This article appears in Volume V05, Page 599 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: CAU-CHA

CELESTINA, LA , the popular alternative title attached from 1519 (or earlier) to the

anonymous

ANONYMOUS

Comedia de Caliste y Melibea, a Spanish novel in dialogue which was celebrated throughout Europe during the 16th century. In the two earliest known editions (Burgos, 1499, and Seville, 1501) the Comedia consists of sixteen acts; the reprints issued after 1501 are entitled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, and contain twenty-one acts. Three of these reprints include a twenty-second act which is admittedly spurious, and the authenticity of Acts xvru.-xx1. is disputed. The authorship of the

Celestina

CELESTINA, LA

and the date of its composition are doubtful. An

anonymous

ANONYMOUS

prefatory

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

in the editions subsequent to 1501 attributes the book to Juan de Mena. or Rodrigo Cota, but this ascription is universally rejected. The prevailing

opinion

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

is that the author of the twenty-one acts was Fernando de Rojas, apparently a Spanish Jew

resident

RESIDENT

at the Puebla de Montalban in the province of Toledo; R. Foulche-Delbose, however, maintains that the

original

ORIGINAL

sixteen acts are by an unknown writer who had no part in the five supplementary acts. Some scholars give 1483 as the date of composition; others hold that the book was written in 1497. These questions are still unsettled. Though profoundly

original

ORIGINAL

in treatment, the

Celestina

CELESTINA, LA

has points of analogy with the

work

WORK

of earlier writers, such as Juan Ruiz (q.v.), the archpriest of

Hita

HITA, GINES PEREZ DE (1544?-16o5?)

; his rapid sketches of Trota-conventas, Melon and Endrina no doubt suggested the finished portraits of Celestina, Calisto and Melibea, and the closing scene in the Celestina recalls the suicide in Diego Fernandez de San Pedro's Cartel de Amer. Allowing for these and other debts of the same kind, it cannot be denied that the Celestina excels all earlier Spanish works in tragic force, in impressive conception, and in the realistic rendering of characters

drawn

DRAWN

from all classes of society. It passed through innumerable editions in Spain, and was the first Spanish book to find acceptance throughout western Europe. At least twenty works by well-known Spanish authors are derived from it; it was adapted for the English stage as early as 1525-1530, and was translated into Italian (1505), French (1527) and other European languages. A Latin version by Caspar Barth was issued under the title of Porno boscodidascalus latinus (1624) with all the

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

apparatus of a recognized classic. James Mabbe's English rendering (1631) is one of the best translations ever published. The original edition of 1499 has been reprinted by R. Foulche-Delbose in the Bibliotheca Hispanica (1902), vol. xii.
18991900). (J. F.-K.)

End of Article: CELESTINA, LA

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/CAU_CHA/CELESTINA_LA.html">
CELESTINA, LA
</a>

(Previous)
CELESTIAL, OR STELLAR

(Next)
CELESTINE (CAELESTINUS)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email