Celestina: An Annotated Edition of the First Dutch Translation (Antwerp, 1550) (review)

RESEÑAS Behiels, Lieve and Kathleen V. Kish. Celestina: An Annotated Edition of the First Dutch Translation (Antwerp, 1550). Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2005. 413 p. The earlier translations of Celestina are exceptional witnesses to the reception of this very popular book outside Spain. With the publication of this new scholarly edition of the 1550 translation into Dutch, all the earlier translations of Celestina into European languages (English, Italian, German, French, and Dutch) are now available in critical editions. One of the two authors of this new annotated edition, Kathleen Kish, has already participated in the critical editions of the early-German and the Italian translations of Celestina, and her experience shows in this excellent book. That the Dutch translation has been the last one to appear can be only attributed to the fact that Dutch is not a language commonly known by Hispanists or scholars in general. This problem has been dealt with in this edition by using English as an auxiliary tool that allows those readers who do not know Dutch to access the text. This critical edition contains: a succinct historical and literary introduction ; clearly explained and well thought-out editorial criteria; the complete transcription of the Dutch text based on the 1550 Antwerp edition; numerous footnotes that point out when the translation does not follow the Spanish original ; a critical apparatus that includes the variants in the three later publications of the same translation in 1574, 1580 and 1616; a bibliography and an index of proper names. Except for the transcription of the Dutch text and a glossary of archaic words to help the modern Dutch reader, everything else is in English . The parts of the 1550 translation that are not in the Spanish original – the title page, the printing privilege, the ecclesiastical approval, and a stanza added by the translator – are offered in English translation by the editors. Sensibly , they have not re-translated the Dutch text of Celestina into English. Since the inclusion of the Spanish original text that the translator followed – the Celestina printed in Zaragoza in 1545 – would make this already thick volume even thicker, the corresponding page number in Russell’s Spanish edition of Celestina (2001) has been added to the left of the Dutch text. Russell’s edition has been chosen both because of its availability and because it follows the 107 same family to which the Zaragoza 1545 Celestina belongs. Also, numerous footnotes call attention to every instance in which the Dutch version departs from the Spanish original. These footnotes, besides including the pertinent Dutch and Spanish lines side by side, offer the literal English translation of the dissenting Dutch words. Some of these variations, such as the omission of enamored Calisto’s words about Melibea, are explained by the fact that in 1550 the Netherlands were part of Charles V’s empire, where every book was submitted to the religious censors, as was the case in Spain. Equally interesting are the many occasions in which the Spanish original is modified to add local flavor: the repeated mention of Spanish wines in Celestina is changed into German wines or into beer; a reference to the apparition of Halley’s comet in 1531 is added (133), or the Spanish proverb about the conquest of the city of Zamora is replaced by a reference to the siege of Munster in 1535 (182). The footnotes also compare passages in the Dutch translation to their corresponding passage in other earlier translations of Celestina. These wise editorial interventions allow those readers who do not know Dutch to compare the Spanish original and its translation into Dutch, that is, after all, a Germanic language and often looks similar to German or English. The editors’ prologue contains an introduction to the historical background of the Spanish Netherlands in the years when this translation appeared. Detailed attention is paid to the several editions of Celestina printed in Spanish in the Netherlands and exported to Spain, such as the Nucio and Plantinian editions . Then, a detailed study of the text of the 1550 Dutch translation is included . The identity of the translator is not known, but from the features of the translation, the editors conclude that he was...