“Nuevas sentencias sentía”: "Celestina" and the Misery and Dignity of Man

Abstract

This article seeks to understand the significance of Celestina (1499) as it moves through time. It contends that new meanings emerge when the context in which the work is printed and read changes. As the prologue to the Tragicomedia intimates, each new act of engagement brings to the fore meanings that may not have been intended or even conceivable at the point of its composition. Taking a synchronic and comparative approach, the article looks at the ‘horizon of expectations’ of Celestina’s reception in sixteenthcentury Spain and Italy, when at the height of its popularity. Focusing on the issues of self-knowledge and solitude, it contextualises their portrayal within ideological debates about the misery and dignity of man that circulated in the Renaissance and within an environment that was considering the possibility of disbelief. It juxtaposes Celestina against other contemporary texts involved in this supranational debate, such as Fernán Pérez de Oliva’s Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre (1546). It argues that, in this new horizon, Celestina’s portrayal of self-knowledge and solitude and its engagement with debates about the misery and dignity of man goes beyond its medieval origins.

Keywords

• Celestina
• reception
• Diálogo de la dignidad del hombre
• miseria hominis
• dignitas hominis
• Innocent III