Fernando de Rojas is known for his tragicomedy La Celestina, a prose work, but entirely written in dialogue. Despite the fact that he entitled it comedy and tragicomedy, it is not a representable work, given its great extension. It belongs to a characteristically medieval genre, called humanistic comedy, created by Petrarca, which reached great diffusion in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Two socially different worlds coexist in La Celestina, the one of Calisto and Melibea, rich lovers who sometimes mask their passion with a concealing spirituality, and the one of Celestina, full of whores and ruffians. The main character is the old bawd Celestina, who ends up giving the work its name. This character has deep roots in Spanish Medieval literature, such as the character of  Trotaconventos from the El libro del buen amor, from Arcipreste de HIta. 

Roja's depiction of the different characters captures the world of social marginalization in a remarkable way. The old woman Celestina thrives on the wisdom that a sinful life has given her. She is well aware of the weaknesses of others and takes advantage of them, always maintaining her lucidity when others are blinded by passions. The untruthfulness of her character and her greed ultimately makes her victim her own vices. Callisto, Melibea's suitor,  is portrait the manner of a lover from the medieval Cancionero poets. He seems to be possessed by an exalted love, combined with foolish and amoral behavior. In contrast, Melibea demostrates greater spirituality, but as the story progresses, passion pushes her to lose control of her will, just like Calisto.

Different styles correspond to the two worlds that coexist in tragicomedy. The dialogues between Calisto and Melibea reflect the courtly and university conversation of the time of the Catholic Monarchs (15th century), especially in Calisto's parliaments, which follow the model of humanistic comedy. The tone is exaggerated in a rhetorical and cultured way, so much so that servants sometimes scoff at this artificial language. Cultisms, parallels, and all sorts of geometric combinations abound. In contrast, the conversation in which Celestina, the whores, and the ruffians take part are lively, sharp, and salacious, with sayings, insults, short and interrupted phrases of popular language sprout. The frequent insertion of sayings reflects the consolidated opinion by authors of the Golden Age that this language is typical of the speech of the humble (Don Quixote himself will reprimand Sancho for using them so much).

La Celestina is an extraordinary and complex literary experiment. For the first time in a romance work, the disinherited and socially marginalized ones acquire as much importance as the noble characters. It is a sample of the realism that will become a mark of the Spanish literature over time. On the one hand, the idealism represented by Calisto and Melibea, on the other, the realism, pictured on the interest for the prosaic, ordinary, and vile aspects of the life of Celestina and her henchmen. It is true that the idealism of the young lovers is only apparent and formal varnish, consisting only of its most rhetorical expression, a product of a more refined education. Deep down, his passions are identical to those of the less sophisticated characters.

Cervantes described the work as 'divine if it concealed more of the human'. Indeed, it is a very crude work, both for the passions described and for the unfolding of the language. The book, in the transition to the Renaissance, describes a medieval society with a moralizing intention, as Rojas stated the intention of his book was to warm 'of the danger of disorderly appetites and the danger of the deceptions of pimps and bad and flattering servants'. The book is the testimony of a disenchanted writer, who trusts little in the virtues of those who, by lineage in instruction, should possess them. The intense knowledge of these two worlds, in need of each other because of the intrinsic human frailty, builds one of the most perennial monuments of universal literature. 

La Celestina

La Celestina shows the tragic loves of Calisto and Melibea and the bad arts used by the pimp Celestina to make them fall in love.

Drama

Fiction

The Baroque is period characterized by a cultural development unwind due to the Counter-Reformation and the Council of Trent. In many respects, Baroque supposes a  return to the Middle Ages, ceasing the clear Renaissance separation between the natural and the supernatural. The Inquisition watches over any intellectual activity that does not highlight or otherwise avoids the transcendental. Scientific research and rational philosophy practically end in Spain, with Theology taking their place. Superstition supplants religiosity in people's minds and so-called miracles ubiquitously flourish. 

In this context, the Spanish genius, unable to create intellectually in other areas, takes refuge in the aesthetic task, with an impressive list of painters, sculptors, and architects who live in this era. The literature demonstrates the same splendor. When Cervantes was still alive,  other outstanding authors such as Lope de Vega, Góngora, and Quevedo wrote their literary masterpieces. Shortly after this giants of the Spanish literature history died, began his careers the last genius of the Baroque era, Calderón de la Barca and Gracián. Somehow, the limitation in freedom of expression is offset by an increase in artifice and exaggeration in style, subjecting the language of the Renaissance to an intense elaboration that gives rise to the two great movements of the time: the 'culteranismo' and the 'conceptismo'.

Middle Ages

Crónica Najerense

Guía de Perplejos, by Maimónides

Poema del Mio Cid

Batalla de las Navas

Fernando III, King of Castile and León

Libro de Apolonio

Historia Gothica, by Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada

Alfonso X crowned king of Castile, León and Galicia

Alfonso X crowned king

Universidad de Valladolid

Estudios Generales de Alcalá

Libro del Caballero Zifar

Libro de Buen Amor

El conde Lucanor, by don Juan Manuel

Fratricídio de Montiel

Historia universal, by Ibh Jaldún

Rimado de palacio, by López de Ayala

Compromiso de Caspe

Debete on the Talmud

Cancionero de Baena

Corbacho, by Arcipreste de Talavera

Cancionero de palacio

Coplas de Ay, panadera

Isabel la Católica crowned queen

Inquisition is stablished in Castile

Conquest of Granada

The Jews are expeled from Spain

Treaty of Tordesillas

Cancionero, by Juan del Encina

La Celestina, by Fernando de Rojas

De amore, by Andreas Capellanus

Saladino recovers Jerusalen

Third crusade

Harmonia Mundi, by Kepler

Novum Organum, by Bacon

University of Bologna

IV Council of Letrán

Frederic II crowned emperor

Canticle of the sun, by Francis of Assisi

University of Montpellier and Toulouse

Carmina Burana

Roman de la Rose, by Guillarme de Lorris

Chronicon Mundi, by Lucas de Tuy

Seventh crusade

Tractatus, by Étiene de Bourbon

Opus Maius, by Roger Bacon

Tractatus, by Humberto de Romans

Eighth crusade

Roman de la Rose, by Jean de Meun

Marco Polo writes a manuscript about his travels 

Travels of Marco Polo

Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri

Poems from Petrarca

One Hundred Years War starts

Black Death

The Decameron, by Boccaccio

Canterbury Tales, by Chaucer

Benedict XIII pope

Council of Constanza 

End of the Western Schism

Council of Basilea

La Celestina (1499)

Spanish Bites

About

Book Club

Library

Premium

La Celestina (1499)

By Fernando de Rojas

Time Period: Middle Ages

Genre: Drama, Fiction

Spanish Bites

External Resources

Maria