En los albores de la celestinesca: Sobre el "Romance nuevamente hecho de Calisto y Melibea" en el pliego suelto de 1513

Abstract

The Romance nueuamente hecho de Calisto y Melibea, a pliego suelto printed in 1513 (at Jacobo Cromberger, Seville), a "romance-cuento" (according to Menéndez Pidal) of 680 octosyllabic verses, attests a prompt transformation of genre, from Celestina 's dramatic prose into a narrative poem with an extradiegetic narrator. The concise plot includes the typical narrative motifs of Spanish balladry (e.g., the protagonist as a hunter), and it emphasizes the theme of sin and punishment (taken from Celestina 's paratexts), present also in the first pliegos sueltos sung by blind performers. Evidence shows that the base text has been the Comedia, and not the Tragicomedia. This early text should be considered a milestone in the history of the celestinesca.