Propiedad y dominium en Castilla a finales del siglo XV: Celestina como civitas non recte instituta

Abstract

This article studies the principle of property as a crucial friction point for understanding some of the fundamental conflicts in Celestina, in relation to society and political power at the time. After pinning down the relevance of this subject in the play, I evaluate the religious, moral and legal mechanisms that power uses to control and legitimate possession at the end of the 15th century. The transgression of these mechanisms by the characters in the dialogue undergoes an in depth analysis which shows a dysfunction or failure in both the controlling principles for obtaining goods and the social obligations regarding their disposition. The study of external goods in Celestina confirms the characters' preference for the sign value of property, which is maximized in the privative, exclusive, public and consumption-oriented component embedded in the concept of dominium. The study concludes by assessing the consequences of the mentioned dysfunction or failure in relation to the Catholic Monarchs' socio-political restorative project, before whose idealized models of the city Celestina stands as a civitas non recte instituta.