«Hombre Sciente» and «Docto Varón»: A Profile of Fernando de Rojas' Authorial Persona

Abstract

The «Carta a un su amigo» and the «Prólogo» properly called —the prefatory texts, that is, added, respectively, to the two versions (the Comedia and the Tragicomedia) of the masterwork commonly called Celestina— provide a profile of two outstanding figures: the «docto varón» and the «hombre sciente.» In view of these personages, we may launch a hypothesis concerning two perspectives, one comedic and the other tragic, which come to bear upon the very nature of the composition. The hypothesis allows us to sidestep the thorny controversy, still unresolved, about issues of authorship. We may focus, instead, upon the notion of an «authorial persona,» an integration of the individual characteristics of such auctoritates as Heraclitus, Petrarch, Ausiàs March, Juan de Mena, Rodrigo Cota. All these may be considered eminent embodiments, some of the «docto varón,» some of the «hombre sciente» in question.