La Celestina

For the lm, see La Celestina (1996 lm).

girdle o her and to x another meeting.

On her second visit, Celestina persuades the now willing Melibea to a rendezvous with Calisto, who rewards
the procuress with a valuable gold chain. The two lovers
spend the night together in her garden, while Sempronio
and Prmeno keep watch.

The Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea (Spanish: Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea), known in Spain as La
Celestina is a work entirely in dialogue published in 1499.
It is attributed to Fernando de Rojas, a descendant of converted Jews, who practiced law and, later in life, served as
an alderman of Talavera de la Reina, an important commercial center near Toledo.

When the weary Calisto returns home at dawn to sleep,

his two servants go round to Celestinas house to get their
share of the gold. She tries to cheat them and in rage they
The book is considered to be one of the greatest works kill her. Caught red handed, the two are executed that
of Spanish literature, and traditionally marks the end of day.
medieval literature and the beginning of the literary re- That night Calisto returns to the garden for another night
naissance in Spain. Although usually regarded as a novel, with Melibea but while leaving falls from the wall and
it is written as a continuous series of dialogues and can be
is killed. She, after confessing their aair to her father,
taken as a play, having been staged as such and lmed.[1] jumps from the top of the house and dies too.
The story tells of a bachelor Calisto who uses the old procuress Celestina to start an aair with Melibea, an unmarried girl kept in seclusion by her parents. Though the
two use the rhetoric of courtly love, sex not marriage
is their aim. When he dies in an accident, she commits suicide. The name Celestina[2] has become synonymous with procuress, especially an older woman used to
further an illicit aair, and is a literary archetype of this
character, the masculine counterpart being Pandarus.

2 Historical and social context

La Celestina was written during the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella, whose marriage took place in 1469 and
lasted until 1504, the year of Isabellas death, which occupies the last phase of the Pre-Renaissance for Spain.
Three major events in the history of Spain took place
during the union of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon
in 1492. These events were the discovery of the Americas, the conquest of Granada and the expulsion of the
Jews. It is also the year that Antonio de Nebrija published the rst grammar of the Spanish language, together
with Nebrijas own teachings at the University of Salamanca, where Fernando de Rojas studied, favoring the
emergence of Renaissance humanism in Spain. Thus,
1492 began the transition between the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance. It is precisely in the 1490s when the
rst editions of Comedy of Calisto and Melibea began to
appear.

Plot summary

While out hunting, the rich young bachelor Calisto enters a garden where he meets Melibea, the daughter of
the house, and is immediately taken with her. Unable to
see her again privately, he broods until his servant Sempronio suggests using the old procuress Celestina. She is
the owner of a brothel and in charge of her two young
employees, Elicia and Areusa.
When Calisto agrees, Sempronio plots with Celestina to
make as much money out of his master as they can. She
rewards him with Elicia. Another servant Prmeno mistrusts Celestina, warning his master not to use her. However she convinces Prmeno not to object but instead to
join her and Sempronio in taking advantage of Calisto.
His reward is Areusa.

The unication of all the territories of the Iberian peninsula, except Portugal and the Kingdom of Navarre, under one king and one religion, Catholic Christianity, took
place in this period. Claudio Snchez Albornoz highlighted the importance of being Christian in a society that
has warned against members of other religions, such as
Jews and Muslims, and even came to outright rejection.
Society was suspicious of converts, such as Christians
who had been Jews before or had Jewish ancestry, and
those who had to hide their conditions. Finally, those of
other religions were expelled from the kingdom and the
Inquisition would enforce orthodoxy among those who

As a seller of feminine knick-knacks and quack

medicines, Celestina gets in to see Melibea despite the
misgivings of Melibeas mother, telling her of a man in
pain who could be cured by the touch of her girdle. When
she mentions Calistos name, Melibea becomes angry and
tells her to go. But the crafty Celestina manages to get the
1

CHARACTERS

professed the Catholic faith.

In 1526 a version was published in Toledo that included

an extra act called the Acto de Traso, named after one
of the characters who appears in that act. It became Act
XIX of the work, bring the total number of acts to 22.
3 Editions
According to the 1965 edition of the play edited by M.
Criado de Val and G. D. Trotter, Its literary value does
There are two versions of the play. One is called a Com- not have the intensity necessary to grant it a permanent
edy and has 16 acts; the other is considered a Tragic Com- place in the structure of the book, although various anedy and has 21 acts.
cient editions of the play include it. [3]
Although most scholars admit that an earlier version by
an unknown author already existed, the rst known edition is credited to be the Comedy published in Burgos by 4 Characters
printer Fadrique Aleman in 1499 with the title Comedia
de Calisto y Melibea (Comedy of Calisto and Melibea). It
is preserved in the Hispanic Society of New York City. Rojas makes a powerful impression with his characters,
On its rst page it states: nuevamente revista y enmendada who appear before the reader full of life and psychologicon la adicin de los argumentos de cada un auto en prin- cal depth; they are human beings with an exceptional incipio (newly reviewed and amended with the addition of ternal characterization, which moves away from the usual
the synopses of each act at its beginning), alluding to a archetypes of medieval literature.
princeps edition prior to 1499.
Some critics see them as allegories. The literary critic
[4]
Some scholars wish to explain this discrepancy about the Stephen Gilman has come to deny the possibility of an1499 date, considering the version published in 1500 in alyzing them as characters, based on the belief that Rojas
Toledo to be the rst edition; however, there is no positive limited dialogue in which interlocutors respond to a given
situation, so that the sociological depth can thus be argued
proof of this, and there are some contradictions:
only on extratextual elements.
1. Acrostic verses are not in themselves proof Lida de Malkiel, another critic, speaks of objectivity,
enough that the 16th century edition is the Prnceps whereby dierent characters are judged in dierent manners. Thus, the contradictory behavior of characters
Edition.
would be a result of Rojas humanizing his characters.
2.If the 1499 version was published after the Toledo One common feature of all of the characters (in the world
version, it should contain as stated, additional mate- of nobles as well as servants) is their individualism, their
rial, whereas some of the verses are actually omitted. egoism, and their lack of altruism. The theme of greed
is explained by Francisco Jos Herrera in an article about
3.The phrase fernando de royas acabo la comedia envy in La Celestina and related literature (meaning immeans that a previous version existed and that Fer- itations, continuations, etc.), where he explained the monando de Rojas completed it by adding additional tive of the gossipers and servants to be greed and robmaterial.
bery, respectively, in the face of the motives of the nobles, which are raging lust and the defense of social and
The Toledo 1500 edition contains 16 acts, and also some family honor. The private benet of the lower-class charstanzas with acrostic verses such as el bachjller fernando acters forms a substitute for the love/lust present for the
de royas acabo la comedia de calysto y melybea y fve upper class.
nascjdo en la puebla de montalvan, which means the Fernando de Rojas liked to create characters in pairs, to
graduate Fernando de Rojas nished the Comedy of Cal- help build character development through relationships
isto and Melibea and was born in La Puebla de Montal- between complementary or opposing characters. In the
bn. (This is the reason it is believed that Rojas was the play in general there are two opposite groups of characoriginal author of the play.)
ters, the servants and the nobles, and within each group
A similar edition appeared with minor changes Comedia are characters divided into pairs: Prmeno and Sempronio, Tristn and Sosia, Elicia and Areusa, in the group
de Calisto y Melibea, Sevilla, 1501
of servants, and Calisto and Melibea, Pleberio and Alisa,
A new edition entitled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea in the group of nobles. Only Celestina and Lucrecia do
(Tragic Comedy of Calisto and Melibea) (Seville: Jacobo not have a corresponding character, but this is because
Cromberger) appeared in 1502. This version contained 5 they perform opposite roles in the plot: Celestina is the
additional acts, bringing the total to 21.
element that catalyzes the tragedy, and represents a life
Another edition with the title Tragicomedia de Calisto y lived with wild abandon, while Lucrecia, Melibeas perMelibea (Tragic Comedy of Calisto and Melibea) (Valen- sonal servant, represents the other extreme, total opprescia: ) appeared in 1514. This version contained those 5 sion. In this sense, the character of the rascal Centurino
additional acts, with the total of 21.
added in the second version is an addition with little func-

3
tion, although he has something to do with the disorder
that calls the attention of Calisto and causes his death.

4.1

Celestina

Celestina is the most suggestive character in the work, to

the point that she gives it its title. She is a colorful and
vivid character, hedonistic, miserly, and yet full of life.
She has such a deep understanding of the psychology of
the other characters that she can convince even those who
do not agree with her plans to accede to them. She uses
peoples greed, sexual appetite (which she helps create,
then provides means to satisfy), and love to control them.
She also represents a subversive element in the society,
by spreading and facilitating sexual pleasure. She stands
apart for her use of magic. Her character is inspired by
the meddling characters of the comedies of Plautus and
in works of the Middle Ages such as the Libro de Buen
Amor (The Book of Good Love) by Juan Ruiz and Italian
works like The Tale of the Two Lovers by Enea Silvio Piccolomini and Elega de madonna Fiammeta by Giovanni
Boccaccio. She was once a prostitute, and now she dedicates her time to arranging discreet meetings between
illicit lovers, and at the same time uses her house as a
brothel for the prostitutes Elicia and Areusa.

4.2

Melibea

Melibea is a strong-willed girl, in whom repression appears as forced and unnatural; she feels like a slave to the
hypocrisy that has existed in her house since her childhood. In the play she appears to be the victim of a strong
passion induced by Celestinas spell. She is really bound
by her social conscience. She worries about her honor,
not modesty, not her concept of what is moral. Her love
is more real and less literary than that of Calisto: her
love motivates her actions, and Celestinas spell allows
her to retain her honor.

4.3

Calisto

Young nobleman who falls in love with Melibea. In the

16-act version, Calisto dies as he falls while climbing
down a ladder after a sexual encounter with Melibea.

References

[1] Snow, Joseph; Jane Schneider; Cecilia Lee (1976). Un

Cuarto de Siglo de Interes en La Celestina, 1949-75: Documento Bibliograco. Hispania. 59: 61060.
[2] celestina in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Espaola.
[3] M. Criado de Val y G. D. Trotter, Tragicomedia de Calixto
y Melibea, Libro tambin llamado La Celestina, Madrid:

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientcas, 1965

(translation of text on page viii).
[4] In Memoriam: Stephen Gilman (19171986), by Constance Rose

6 External links
La Celestina -Edition 2008.

La Celestina at Project Gutenberg

La Celestina in English on Internet Archive.

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

La Celestina Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Celestina?oldid=739431115 Contributors: Snoyes, Error, Evercat, Andrewman327, Mcapdevila, Wolfe, Alex nihil, Sebbe, Habbit, Erolos, DcoetzeeBot~enwiki, Bender235, Mairi, Kusma, Woohookitty, Bluemoose,
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7.2

Images

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Contributors:
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7.3

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