About the work
Fernando de Rojas, a lawyer from Toledo, is thought to have written this dialogue-form work while a student in Salamanca; according to his own preface, he found an anonymous first act there and completed it with the remaining acts. The oldest surviving edition appeared in Burgos in 1499 as the “Comedia de Calisto y Melibea” in 16 acts; by 1502 Rojas had expanded it to 21 acts under the title “Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea”. The lengthy dialogue work was originally barely intended for stage performance – its preface recommends reading it aloud with changing voices – yet it came to be seen as a forerunner of Spanish drama and is still staged in adapted versions today.
Plot
The young nobleman Calisto falls hopelessly in love with the commoner Melibea and hires the shrewd go-between Celestina to win her over. Celestina brings the two together through cunning, but demands such a high fee that Calisto’s servants Sempronio and Pármeno kill her in a dispute over payment. After a secret night together, Calisto falls to his death from a ladder while leaving Melibea’s garden; the devastated Melibea then throws herself from her parents’ tower.
Cultural significance
“La Celestina” is among the most influential works of Spanish literature and is regarded by some scholars as the earliest Spanish tragedy; Cervantes and Lope de Vega praised it explicitly. Its title character, the go-between Celestina, became a fixed type in European literature and gave the work the title by which it is still known today.