Witchcraft in Celestina: A Bibliographic Update since 1995

WITCHCRAFT IN CELESTINA: A BIBLIOGRAPHIC UPDATE SINCE 1995 Dorothy Sherman Severin University ofLiverpool Since I published my monograph on Witchcraft in "Celestina" in 1995,1 the topic of whether magic is an important feature of the work continues to receive scrutiny. I categorize recent work on this topic under five headings: die magic spell; Claudina; freewill and ambiguity; Celestina as healer; and last but not least, as it includes the largest number of articles, witchcraft, the Celestinesque genre, and other related texts. The Celestina quincentenary gave die impetus to a number of these articles, which were written for conferences in 1999-2000 and published somewhat later. Needless to say, I depend for information onJoseph Snow's invaluable bibliographical work, which continues even after lie has handed the publication of Celestinesca over to the team at the University of Valencia. Let us begin widi die first category, die magic spell. Miguel Angel Pérez Priego's 2000 article is extremely interesting. It covers some of the main ground diat I also cover in my 2006 article in the conference papers of Magic and the Classical Tradition published by the Warburg Institute, University of London. This concerns the main literary antecedent ofCelestina's spell, namelyJuan de Mena's Laberinto? Pérez Priego also examines die structure of the spell, invocation of die devil, the substance and reason for the spell, and die pactwith and direat to die demon. However, he disagrees widi Peter E. Russell that die reason for die literary patterning is because Fernando de Rojas doesn't dare My thanks toJoseph Snow for his help on this bibliography; any omissions are mine. 1 London: Queen Mary and Westfield College, 1995. - In this article I also look at Lucan's Pharsalia. La corónica 36.1 (Fall, 2007): 237-43 238Dorothy Sherman SeveriuLa coránica 36.1, 2007 to reproduce a real sj)ell.;i He also implicitly disagrees with me in that lie sees this sjiell as simply literarv-insjiired hechicería, or sorcery; in my interpretation, in calling up a devil for a simple philocaptio spell, Celestina stravs across the boundary into full-blown black magic or witchcraft, punishable bv death. I therefore agree with Russell that COj))IHg real spells would be a dodgv business for Rojas, whereas copying well-known literary antecedents of classical literature ant! the most-respected Spanish poet of the fifteenth century would he a safer bet. Pérez Priego looks again at literary and classical antecedents for Gelestina in antiquity in his 2002 article. Isabel Lozano-Renieblas (2005) discusses interesting parallels between thephilocaptio spell and the Eastern version of the well-known story ofSt. Cyprian and St. Justine. The magus Cyprian tries to seduce the Christian Justine of behalf of the youth Aglaidas bv conjuring uj) that same devil who wishes to possess her. Instead, Cvprian is himself converted to Christianity bv the saintly Justine. Louise M. Havvvood considers the magic spell and mourning in her 2001 article from a volume commemorating a Celestina conference held at the University of Cambridge. She relates Elicia's curse on Melibea's garden in Act XY to the traditional female lament, then jioints out that the "vehemence and detail of Elicia's curse transforms words seemingly spoken as lament into magic words whose destructive force is realized, very possibly, through diabolic intervention" (88). Robert Lima (1998) discusses Celestina as a 'maga' not a witch and looks at the stagecraft of the 'conjuro'. Miriam Pachecho Lój)ez (2001) studies inquisitorial trials in Talayera that have some curious parallels with Celestina's magic. Finally, tangentiallv related to this theme is my article on Juan Ruiz (2004), asking whether Trotaconventos perforins¿iphilocaptio spell on Doña Endrina, and attempting to establish a firm link between the Libro de buen amor and Celestina. The second topic on our list. Claudina, has been developed in mv 1997 article on Claudina's jiresumed witchcraft. Docs the text suggest that she was executed for her sins, leaving Pármeno motherless and in Celestina's grij)? Peter Russell was the first to have made this suggestion, and I agree with him. Anthony J. Cárdenas (2001b) argues that only Claudina is a witch...