This dialogue novel, written in the final years of the fifteenth century by the Salamanca University Law graduate Fernando de Rojas and possibly one other hand, is considered to be one of the top half-dozen Spanish masterpieces of world literature. It foreshadows the development of both the theatre and the novel in Spain and Europe, and creates one of the archetypal characters of Spanish fiction, the bawd, go-between sorceress Celestina. The genesis of this masterpiece is cloaked in mystery. Rojas claims to have found a one-act play and during his Easter vacation to have added another fifteen shorter acts to it (in 1497 or 1498) and taken it to the publishers where it appeared in 1499 as the Comedia de Calisto y Melibea. Its …
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Citation: Severin, Dorothy. "La Celestina". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 December 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34677, accessed 22 November 2024.]
