48 pages 1 hour read

Celestina

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1499

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

The first iteration of the novel La Celestina, published anonymously as Comedia de Calisto y Melibea (Comedy of Calisto and Melibea), first appeared in Spain in 1499. In 1500, a law student named Fernando de Rojas revealed himself as the author in a new edition of the text (under the title Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, or Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea), explaining in a prologue that he had discovered the first act already written and then finished the rest of the play. 

Now known as Celestina after its most infamous character, the work is widely considered a novel. However, because it is written entirely in dialogue, Celestina has also been put on as a play, although not during its author’s lifetime, since its length and complexity made it difficult to stage. The first two editions of the text spanned sixteen acts, but in 1502, de Rojas published a new revised edition that added five more acts. This study guide refers to The Margellos World Republic of Letters edition, translated by Margaret Sayers Peden and published by Yale University Press.

Celestina is de Rojas’s only known literary work. Written on the cusp of 16th century, the text is alternately known as the last work of the Spanish Middle Ages or the first work of the Spanish Golden Age.

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