Fernando de Rojas and the Renaissance Vision: Phantasm, Melancholy, and Didactism in Celestina by Ricardo Castells (review)

to engage in intelligent scholarly discussion and research. One area where Pope's book may seem a little weak is its bibliography, containing fewer than 50 secondary sources, but the exemplary texts he includes would undoubtedly be ofuse to beginning students. The few students to whom I lent this text all foundverypositive things to say about its clarity, level of coverage, and commitment to issues important to students. You can't ask for much more from a text written for readers new to Middle English. ^ Ricardo Castells. Fernando de Rojas andthe Renaissance Vision: Phantasm , Mefancholy, andDtdactism in Celestina. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. 125p. Michael McGrath Georgia Southern University Five hundred years since its publication, La Celestina is still very much a source of scrutiny by critics who aspire to unravel its seemingly many contradictions. One of the most problematic scenes is the supposed meeting between Calisto and Melibea, the star-crossed lovers, in thefirst scene ofAct I. The debate centers upon the nature ofthe meeting: does the encounter actually take place, or does it only exist in Calisto's dream? In Fernando de Rojas andthe Renaissance Vision, Ricardo Castells explores the European cultural and literarytradition ofphysiological studies to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the first scene as well as other apparent inconsistencies found throughout the text. Castells attempts to place Rojas' masterpiece in "its appropriate cultural and historical setting" and "to present an innovative critical framework for future studies ofLa Celestina, while respecting the cultural and intellectual traditions of the Spanish Renaissance" (8). Fernando de RojasandtheRenaissance Vision consists ofan introduction, six chapters, a section ofworks cited, and an index. In the Introduction Castells details the contradictory interpretations of the opening conversation between Calisto and Melibea as evidence ofone ofthe many textual difficulties. The first part ofthe Introduction is well written and particularly useful to readers unfamiliarwith the different interpretations ofthe first scene. It is necessary for the reader to be familiar with this information because Castells refers to it throughout the book. The second part ofthe Introduction consists of a briefdescription ofeach chapter. Castells traces the history and development of lovesick dreams in European literature in Chapter I, titled "La presencia angelica de aquella ymagen luziente: Celestina and the Medieval Phantasmal Tradition." He proposes that Andreas 98 * ROCKY MOUNTAIN REVIEW * SPRING 2002 Reviews Capellanus' love manual DeAmore, Dante's La vita nuova, and Petrarca's Rime in morte di Madonna Laura represent only three ofthe medieval works ofliterature that establish a phantasmal tradition in Europe that Rojas could have had at his disposition while writing La Celestina. Castells skillfully defends his conclusion that the opening scene is indeed a manifestation ofCalisto's lovesickness. He notes that while die anonymous author ofAct I and Rojas did not necessarily utilize specific literature from the phantasmal tradition as models for La Celestina, there did exist throughout medieval and Renaissance Europe sufficient documented literary sources that could explain Calisto's physiological state. Castells considers the physiological and psychological factors that contribute to the origin of lovesick dreams in Chapter II, "De dónde son los fantasmas: Dream Theory from Plato to the Renaissance." The dream theories of scholars and writers from the classical period to the Middle Ages—including Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Hildegard de Bingen—lead Castells to conclude that sixteenth-century writers, such as Rojas, subscribed to Aristotle's physiological explanation of lovesickness, but within a Neo-platonic context. Calisto's dream, therefore, is a result ofhis physiological and spiritual love for Melibea and a natural reaction ofa young man in love. In the first part of Chapter III, "Calisto's Lovesickness and die Diagnosis of Heras and Crato, Médicos," Castells explains and attempts to resolve the confusion surrounding another textual variant that appears in the different editions of La Celestina. Heras and Crato, two doctors whom Calisto calls for in the second scene ofAct I (1499), are mentioned as Crato and Galieno in Tragicomedia de Calistoy Melibea (1500), and as Erasístrato in later editions. Following a lengthy summary of the variants that appear in editions as late as those of the twentieth century, Castells returns to Calisto's lovesickness. Scientificand philosophical treatises from western Europe...