Renaissance Transformations: Celestina, Petrarch, and Spanish Poetry

Renaissance Transformations in the Iberian Peninsula

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, profound changes occurred in the Iberian Peninsula, transforming our understanding of the world. The fifteenth century marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period. These transformations were political, economic, social, and cultural. In this century, a desire for knowledge of the classical world of Greece and Rome awakened, resulting in the stream of thought called Humanism.

La Celestina, written in the late fifteenth century by Fernando de Rojas, tells the love story that takes place in an unnamed city. The plot unfolds as follows:

1. Infatuation of Calisto: Calisto, a young knight, falls for the beautiful Melibea.
2. Appeal to the Madam: Due to Melibea's rejection, Calisto, advised by his servant Sempronius and despite the opposition of his other servant, Pármeno, seeks the help of a bawd, an old matchmaker, to mediate. The bawd convinces Melibea in exchange for a gold chain that she promises to share with the servants.
3. Allure of Melibea: Celestina, pretending to sell lace, enters Melibea's house and attempts to persuade her. Initially, Melibea refuses, but things change the next day.
4. Tragic Denouement: Celestina refuses to share the prize with the servants, and they kill the matchmaker. The mistresses of the servants, responsible for arranging the match, take revenge on the young man. When Calisto hears this, he falls down some stairs and dies in despair. Melibea commits suicide before her father.

The text alternates between a high lexicon and popular worship, presenting a society in crisis: each group behaves according to their interests and disregards values. It is believed that this dialogued text was intended for oral reading.

The Renaissance: A New Era

The Renaissance was born in the cities of northern Italy in the fourteenth century and spread throughout Europe, arriving in Spain in the sixteenth century. In the Renaissance, man became the center of the universe, and all facets of their lives were subject to study and worship.

Renaissance Culture

• The Ideal Courtier: The noble Renaissance individual lived in the court, holding political office for which they needed a humanistic education.
• Artists and Patrons: The Renaissance artist was an educated person versed in the ancient world, imitating the classics.

Renaissance Poetry

Renaissance poetry involved the creation of a new poetic model originating in the work of the Italian poet Petrarch.

• Love: In Renaissance love poetry, love is seen as a contradictory and painful experience.
• Francesco Petrarch: He is the true initiator of the Italian Renaissance with his Canzoniere, where he sings of his love for Laura. Petrarch established the model of Renaissance love poetry.

Italian Influence on Spanish Poetry

Italian influence is evident in the use of forms like:

• Lira: A stanza of 5 verses with heptasyllables and hendecasyllables.
• Octava Real: A verse of 8 hendecasyllables.
• Estancia: A stanza with a variable number of hendecasyllables and heptasyllables.
• Tercetos Encadenados: A 3-rhyme stanza in heroic verse.

The main formal novelty of Renaissance poetry was the use of the hendecasyllable. With these verses, forms like the lyre, octava real, and chained triplets were created.

• Sonnet: A poem composed of two quartets and two triplets.
• Silva: A poem consisting of an unlimited number of hendecasyllable and heptasyllable verses.

Petrarchan poetry continued, but in the second half of the sixteenth century, literature of a religious character flourished.

• Asceticism: The effort of purification of the soul through the removal of earthly pleasures.
• Mysticism: Consists of the union of the soul with God in human life through three ways: the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive.

Garcilaso de la Vega is the prototype of the noble courtier. His poetry is scarce. The most important theme of his poetry is the complaint of love due to rejection or death of the beloved. To show their grief, he writes pastoral poems featuring mythological characters.

Fray Luis de León is the author of poems with religious content related to the classical world. His verses extol the greatness of God, reflected in daily life, and propose a model.

San Juan de la Cruz collected his poems in their religious experiences and makes the soul in a young woman who desires the love of his beloved. His poems include Dark Night of the Soul, Living Flame of Love, and Spiritual Canticle.