Fernando de Rojas

1 Life and career

Rojas was born at La Puebla de Montalbn, (Toledo), to
a family of Jewish descent. Contemporary documents refer to Rojas as "converso", but scholarly opinion diers
on whether this means that he himself converted from
Judaism to Christianity or whether the term implied that
he was de linaje de conversos of convert descent.[2]
Jewish descent was not a bar to social advancement, and
Rojass family had been recognised as hidalgos for at
least three generations.[2] Nevertheless, converso families
lived under the shadow of the Inquisition and were vulnerable to accusations of secretly practising Judaism.[3]
Rojas studied law at the University of Salamanca, graduating around 1498.[1] While at the university he began
writing La Celestina (originally titled Tragicomedia de
Calisto y Melibea), which was published in 1499. The
work has been variously described as a drama, a dramatic
poem, a dialogued novel, a novel-drama, and as 'ageneric'
a genre entirely of its own.[4] It was never staged during Rojass lifetime, but the majority of modern scholars consider it a drama.[4] It describes a love aair, with
much bawdy and comic detail, before a tragic ending.
The scholar Dorothy Severin has written that it may be
considered as either the last Spanish work of the Middle Ages or the rst of the Renaissance.[1] As far as is
known it is Rojass only work of literature or drama. The
writer Keith Gregor calls La Celestina vastly inuential
but his only literary testament.[5]

Rojas by unknown contemporary artist

On returning to the family home after leaving the university Rojas found his relations under scrutiny from the
Inquisition; he himself was never suspected of Judaism.[2]
Many conversos chose to marry into families of unquestioned Christian descent, and by Rojass time many noble families were of mixed Christian and Jewish ancestry,
as was Toms de Torquemada, the rst Grand Inquisitor
of Spain.[2] Rojas, however, married into another converso family. His wife was Leonor lvarez de Montalbn. They had four sons and three daughters.[1]

Fernando de Rojas (La Puebla de Montalbn, Toledo,

Spain, c. 1465/73 Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, Spain,
April 1541) was a Spanish author and dramatist, known
for his only surviving work, La Celestina (originally titled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea), rst published
in 1499. It is variously considered the last work of the
Spanish Middle Ages or the rst work of the Spanish In about 1507 Rojas moved to the city of Talavera de la
Renaissance.[1]
Reina, where he practised law.[1] When his father-in-law,
Rojas wrote La Celestina while still a student. After grad- lvaro de Montalbn, was accused of secretly returning
uating he practised law and is not known to have written to Judaism in 1525, the Inquisition refused to allow Rojas
any further literary works, although La Celestina achieved to act as defending lawyer, but this was evidently on acwidespread success during his lifetime. Despite di- count of Rojass status as a converso rather than from any
culties with the Inquisition on account of his Jewish de- suspicion that he might be secretly practising Judaism.[2]
scent, Rojas was a successful lawyer and became mayor He was allowed to testify on Montalbns behalf, and the
of Talavera de la Reina, where he lived for the last three charge was dropped.[2] Rojas served as mayor of Talavera
decades of his life.
de la Reina in the 1530s.[1]
1

The writer Gordon Campbell observes that during Rojass lifetime La Celestina achieved rapid success: in the
course of the sixteenth century some 60 editions and six
sequels were published. Its sexual explicitness and amoral
pessimism did not trouble the Spanish Inquisition, which
was content simply to excise anticlerical passages.[6]

Notes

[1] Severin, Dorothy Rojas, Fernando de, Reference Guide

to World Literature, ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. 3rd edition, Volume 1, Gale Virtual Reference
Library, accessed 13 June 2012 (subscription required)
[2] Green, Otis H. Fernando de Rojas, converso and hidalgo, Hispanic Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (July 1947), pp.
384387, accessed 13 June 2012 (subscription required)
[3] Barbera, Raymond. Fernando de Rojas, Converso, Hispania, Vol. 51, No. 1 (March 1968), pp. 140144, accessed 13 June 2012 (subscription required)
[4] Beeson, Margaret. Fernando de Rojas, The Modern
Language Review, Vol. 72, No. 2 (April 1977), pp. 471
472 (subscription required)
[5] Gregor, Keith. Rojas, Fernando de, Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, ed. Dennis Kennedy.
Oxford University Press, 2003, accessed 13 June 2012
(subscription required)
[6] Campbell, Gordon. Rojas, Fernando de, Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance, Oxford University Press, 2003,
accessed 13 June 2012 (subscription required)

External links
Works by Fernando de Rojas at Project Gutenberg
Works by or about Fernando de Rojas at Internet
Archive

EXTERNAL LINKS

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