Fernando de Rojas
Fernando de Rojas (c. 1465, La Puebla de Montalbán, New Castile (now Toledo) – April 1541, Talavera de la Reina, Spain) was a Castilian author about whom little information is known. He possibly attended the University of Salamanca.[citation needed] Although his family was of Jewish ancestry, they were conversos, or Jews who had converted to Christianity under pressure from the Spanish crown. Nevertheless, his family was suspected of continuing to practice Judaism in secret, and Rojas appears as a defendant in the Inquisition, as do other members of his family.[1]
Fernando de Rojas is known for writing La Celestina (originally titled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea) in 1499. It describes a tragic love affair, and is seen as an the beginning of Spain's literary Renaissance.[citation needed] Although the work in anonymous, the author revealed his name and famous birthplace in an acrostic code at the beginning of the second edition of year 1500. No other work is known by him, nor is he mentioned by any of its contemporaries.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism, Random House, 2001, p15-16.