Fernando de Rojas (d. 1541), the principal author of La Celestina, was born sometime in the fifteenth century in the town of Puebla de Montalbán near Toledo, Spain. As far as we know, La Celestina is the only book that Rojas ever wrote, and few details of his life have ever come to light. What is known is that he was a lawyer by trade educated at the prestigious University of Salamanca and that he belonged to a noble family of Conversos, or Jews who adopted Christianity. The genesis of The Celestina also carries with it an air of mystery. According to Rojas, he came across the first act, entitled The Comedy of Calisto and Melibea, while in Salamanca. This first act had supposedly been penned by an anonymous author. Rojas found himself so enchanted with the work that he decided to expand and complete it during a two-week vacation from practicing law. From the nucleus first act was born a drama about two young lovers who take a popular ideal of love in Rojas’s era to an extreme that bears tragic consequences for themselves and those around them.
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