User:Mcapdevila/The catalan Celestina

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(tag removed) mergeto|La Celestina|date=December 2008}}

Summary

La Celestina is considered one of the masterpieces of the Spanish medieval literature, but new studies uncover the author was from the kingdom of Aragon, and even written in Catalan language.

Almost all scholars agree that there was a release (today disappeared) prior to the Burgos edition of 1499, the author of which was not Fernando de Rojas. Recall that "alleged" first edition of 1499 (where there is no author's name) says literally "nuevamente revista y enmendada con la adición de los argumentos de cada un auto en principio", so it may not be the Princeps Edition, yielding to a Prínceps Edition prior to 1499..

Despite having been proven that there was a release (now lost) prior to the de Burgos edition of 1499, some scholars state the Princeps Edition was the Toledo edition of 1500, only because it says “the Bachiller Fernando de Rojas finished it” in its initial acrostic verses: "el bachjller fernando de royas acabo la comedia de calysto y melybea y fve nascjdo en la puebla de montalvan", concluding that Burgos date of 1499 is wrong ..

Investigators & their published works

José Guillermo García Valdecasas

José Guillermo García Valdecasas, Doctor in Law by the University of Bologna and its actual Dean & Rector.

Alejandro Sendra

Alejandro Sendra's paper (in catalan) about the catalan expressions & words therein contained. Alejandro Sendra's paper (in catalan) about the sun eclipse, that proves the location of the Celestina must be Valencia area.

Jordi Bilbeny

He has written a paper saying that according to all previously published works (autor from the crown of Aragon & prior to the de Burgos edition of 1499), plus Luis Vives assertion, the play would have occurred totally in Valencia and would have been written in catalan, by an author deleted by Spanish censorship (Inquisition).

Arguments of the tesis

Why the Toledo edition may not be the Princeps Edition

They exist the following points against this theory:

1. .- Acrostic verses can’t proof by themselves that the 1500’s editions is the "Princeps Edition".
2. .- If the 1499’s was written after Toledo's one, it should contain as stated, something added to that one, and it’s just the opposite, what ihas is missing verses.
3. .- The phrase “fernando de royas acabo la comedia” can strictly mean that "a previous work existed" and Rojas has finished it.

So given all the arguments pro and against it, whether the oldest known edition is that of Burgos, or the Toledo one, it should exist a "Princeps Edition" prior to 1499 or before 1500.

Documents backing-up the Catalan Celestina

There are two documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that prove that the author was from "Aragon" (Crown of Aragon) and that he has been "cloaked" for some unknown reason. In the book "El Arte de agudeza e Ingenio" of Lorenzo Gracian (1669 and 1757) you can read the following "y el encubierto Aragonès en su ingeniosíssima tragicomedia de Calixto y Melibea":

In addition, there are two copies of a Juan Luis Vives book (Editions of 1531 and 1785), where Vives says explicitly that the author of "La Celestina" wrote it in "his language ", In quo sapientior fuit qui nostra lingua scripsit Celestinam tragicomaediam . Vives language (persecuted by the Inquisition, arriving to the point to get refuge at Desiderius Erasmus' home) was only the catalan, and when he could not write in that language, before using Spanish, he had chosen to write in Latin.

The point backing this assertion can be easily understood for all the inquisitors that killed his family and were chasing him, were from Castile... For this reason he escaped to the Low Countries, being later on, the tutor of Mary Tudor (daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon), but never returned to Spain.

There is a proof of the Italian maxima "traduttore" 'can be "tradittore", for.. the Spanish edition of 1948 of the same works by Juan Luis Vives, the expression "nostra lingua" has been translated by "vulgar castellano". This, as is widely known, was a period where catalan language was banned, the first third of general Franco's rule.

The fact that it had been written in Catalan would explain the large number of Catalan words-expressions and "translation errors" that only make sense if the language in which it was composed was Catalan. We should note that Alejandro Sendra has already made an exhaustive compilation of these catalan words.

Jose Guillermo Garcia Valdecasas, Doctor of Law by the University of Bologna and actual rector, following the traces of those elements related to legal life, the institutions and laws, came to the conclusion that the facts showed, that the action of the work "had occurred in some big city in the crown of Aragon" and that the three "cimenterios" (Jew, Christian and Muslim "cemetery") where CELESTINA used to go stealing, could not exist in Salamanca neither in Toledo or Seville, for Castile had banned Muslims in their domains, while in Valencia was quite normal to find them during the fifteenth century.

Looking at a map of the city of Valencia c.XVII you can see the geographical location of some places (the river, leather manufactures, the Church of the Magdalena - no 18 -, the parish of St. Michael - No 13 -- ), Compared with the places described in the book, where occurs the action of the play: "a big city, next to a river, which has shipyards, and warehouses, and where "navios" could be easily seen from the roof of the tower of Melibea's house . " The book reads as follows: Subamos, señor, al açotea alta, porque desde allí goze de la deleytosa vista de los navíos. A scene that does not match at all with Salamanca, Toledo or Seville. Although there is a scholar who says that the "princeps edition" was made in prose and located in an imaginary city of Salamanca-Toledo, and the later version of the Rojas placed it in Seville (saving the "navíos" reference)...

Alejandro Sendra outlined the reference to the eclipse, also pointing that the location of the play had to be Valencia

On top of that, an English edition from the eighteenth century mentions "Valencia" as the city where the characters live ...

References

1. ↑ La agudeza y arte de ingenio. Oraculo manual y arte de prudencia. El comulgatorio de varias meditaciones de la sagrada communion. - Baltasar Gracián - Amberes - Verdussen, 1669.
2. ↑ Joannis Lodovici Vivis Valentini de disciplinis libri XX. : Excvdebat Antverpiae Michael Hillenivs in Rapo, 1531; [T.I] de corruptis artibus liber primus [ -septimus]. [T. II] de tradendis disciplina sev de institvtione Christiana liber primvs. [T. III] De prima philosophia siue de intimo naturae opificio liber primus [ -octavus]( Juan Luis Vives : Amberes : Michael Hillenius, 1531)
3. ↑ Juan Luis Vives Obras completas : primera translación castellana íntegra y directa : Juan Luis Vives - Lorenzo Riber : Madrid : M. Aguilar, 1947. OCLC: 234096159
4. ↑ La adulteración de La Celestina : J Guillermo García Valdecasas : Madrid : Editorial Castalia, ©2000 : ISBN 847039875X 9788470398759