Note 425 — Chapter XIII

For a notice of the first known edition,—that of 1499,—which is entitled “Comedia,” and is divided into sixteen acts, see an article on the Celestina by F. Wolf, in Blätter für Literarische Unterhaltung, 1845, Nos. 213 to 217, which leaves little to desire on the subject it so thoroughly discusses. The expurgations in the editions of Alcalá, 1586, and Madrid, 1595, are slight, and in the Plantiniana edition, 1595, I think there are none. It is curious to observe how few are ordered in the Index of 1667, (p. 948,) and that the whole book was not forbidden till 1793, having been expressly permitted, with expurgations, in the Index of 1790, and appearing first, as prohibited, in the Index of 1805. No other book, that I know of, shows so distinctly how supple and compliant the Inquisition was, where, as in this case, it was deemed impossible to control the public taste. An Italian translation printed at Venice, in 1525, which is well made, and is dedicated to a lady, is not expurgated at all. There are lists of the editions of the original in L. F. Moratin, (Obras, Tom. I. Parte I. p. 89,) and B. C. Aribau’s “Biblioteca de Autores Españoles,” (Madrid, 1846, 8vo, Tom. III. p. xii.,) to which, however, additions can be made by turning to Brunet, Ebert, and the other bibliographers. The best editions are those of Amarita (1822) and Aribau (1846).