Gestures as a Transnational Language through Woodcuts: Celestina ’s Title Pages

Abstract

Following the 1499 publication of the Comedia de Calisto y Melibea, Celestina became among the most profusely illustrated sixteenth-century books. This article analyses the body language featured in the title-page woodcuts of its early editions. Conceiving the woodcuts as belonging to a particular historical time, the study confirms that most contemporary printers conceived the work as part of a dramatic iconographic tradition and were openly concerned with the legibility of illustrations that would help readers understand the text. Printers and engravers enjoyed certain flexibility as they summarized the plot of the (tragi)comedy and codified emotions on the page, while operating under three distinctive iconographic programs: the lovers' encounter in Melibea's garden, Celestina depicted in Melibea's bedroom, and a condensation of the plot on a theatrical stage pop-ulated by groups of figures and successive actions. In these, changes in body language or the depiction of the scene convey different readings of the characters' intentions and inner feelings.