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Joseph Ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando De Rojas

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Joseph Ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando De Rojas Copyright by Shon David Hopkin 2011 The Dissertation Committee for Shon David Hopkin certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando de Rojas: Celestina and the World of the Go-Between Committee: ____________________________________ Esther Raizen, Co-Supervisor ____________________________________ Michael Harney, Co-Supervisor ____________________________________ Samer Ali ____________________________________ Karen Grumberg ____________________________________ Madeline Sutherland-Meier Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando de Rojas: Celestina and the World of the Go-Between by Shon David Hopkin, B.A; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2011 Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati and Fernando de Rojas: Celestina and the World of the Go-Between Shon David Hopkin, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2011 Supervisors: Esther Raizen and Michael Harney Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati, one of the great Jewish poets and scholars of the Italian Renaissance, first translated the Spanish work Celestina (1499) by Fernando de Rojas into Hebrew in 1507. At present, only Tsarfati‘s introductory poem to his translation remains. This study seeks to answer the questions: What may have been Tsarfati‘s motivation to translate Celestina into Hebrew so soon after its Spanish composition? How might a Jewish audience in Rojas‘s day have understood his work? In response to these questions, this study will primarily concern itself with the similarities between Rojas‘s and Tsarfati‘s historical situations and the literary interests that they expressed in their works, interests that could have drawn Tsarfati to translate Rojas‘s work. Close readings of sections of Celestina, as well as an overview of Tsarfati‘s two hundred and thirty-poem corpus and close readings of several of these poems, make up the most important part of this study‘s analysis. Through this analysis, I argue that both Rojas and Tsarfati stood as transitional figures during a period of literary change, which allowed them to explore and exhibit similar themes and interests in their works. Their works thus served as a type of ―go- iv between,‖ moving their audiences from the attitudes and behaviors of one era into those of a new era. Additionally, and more importantly, both men found themselves at the nexus, or point of contact, between two cultures. Rojas – as a converso serving as a lawyer and leader of a Christian community – and Tsarfati – serving as a Jewish physician to the pope – were both in a position to feel the heavy pressures of the dominant culture and to communicate with their Jewish culture in ways that subverted that pressure and power. Both Rojas and Tsarfati were fascinated with the power of language to conceal and reveal meaning and to exert influence. As men of their time, both saw romantic love as having true, intrinsic value, but at the same time used it as a metaphor for the false hope offered by the dominant culture. v Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Working Questions and Thesis .......................................................................5 Chapter 1 – The Life and Background of Fernando de Rojas ...............................13 Rojas as Converso .........................................................................................13 Childhood .............................................................................................13 University Years ..................................................................................19 Post-University Years ..........................................................................22 Rojas and Converso Existence in fifteenth-sixteenth Century Spain ...........27 Conclusion to Chapter One ...........................................................................39 Chapter 2 – Celestina .............................................................................................40 Synopsis of Celestina ....................................................................................40 Celestina and Rojas as ―Go-Betweens‖ from Scholasticism/Middle Ages to Humanism/Renaissance .......................................................................48 Rojas and Celestina as a Go-Between for the Old Christian and New Christian (converso) ............................................................................................56 1) The Prologue and a World of Conflict and Contention ..............60 2) Celestina, Alisa, and Melibea – Converso Identity & The Power of Language for the Go-Between ....................................................72 Melibea as Converso? .................................................................73 Pármeno as Converso? ................................................................74 Celestina as Converso? ...............................................................77 3) The Dinner – the Overturning of Christian Ideals and the Exaltation of the Material .............................................................................85 4) Pleberio‘s Lament on Love – the Power and Deception of Love93 Conclusion to Chapter Two ........................................................................106 Chapter 3 – Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati and His World .....................................108 Introduction .................................................................................................108 The Budding of the Renaissance in Spain and Italy ...................................112 State of Jewish Affairs in Sixteenth-century Italy ......................................118 vi The Jews and Central Governments ..................................................118 The Jews and Money Lending in Italy ...............................................122 Challenges for the Jewish Population in Italy ....................................123 The Jews and the Renaissance ...........................................................133 The Life of Joseph ben Samuel Tsarfati .....................................................135 The historical Tsarfati at the Nexus of Cultures and Eras ..........................145 The Fictional Tsarfati ..................................................................................148 1) Reubeni, Prince of the Jews ......................................................148 2) Vidui...............................................................................................160 Conclusion to Chapter Three ......................................................................165 Chapter 4 – The Poetry of Tsarfati ......................................................................167 Introduction .................................................................................................167 Italian Forms into Hebrew – Ottava Rima and the Comedy Play...............171 Love Poetry .................................................................................................177 Bawdy Poetry/Quarrelsome Poetry....................................................187 Love of Language and Books .....................................................................194 Joseph Tsarfati and Jewish Society.............................................................204 Religious themes ................................................................................207 Poetry Focused on the Dominant Culture ..........................................222 Conclusion to Chapter 4..............................................................................235 Chapter 5 – Tsarfati‘s Hebrew Introduction to La Celestina ...............................238 Introduction .................................................................................................238 The Poem ....................................................................................................243 General Outline – The Power of Language and a Focus on Love ..............253 Inconsistencies in General Explanation and Alternate Interpretation .........262 Tsarfati as Go-Between...............................................................................273 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................281 Bibliography ........................................................................................................285 vii Introduction According to his introduction to the work generally known as Celestina,1 Fernando de Rojas first took pen to paper to create the Spanish masterpiece in the year 1499, near the close of the fifteenth century, in a fortnight of frenzied, around-the-clock writing during the spring break of his college studies.2 Those Jews who had not been willing to convert to Christianity had been expelled by the Catholic Monarchs seven years earlier in order to prevent ―great damage to the Christians [which] has resulted from and does result from the participation, conversation, and communication that they have had with the Jews, who try to always achieve by whatever ways and means possible to subvert and to draw away faithful Christians from our holy Catholic faith and to separate them from it…‖3 By 1499 the Inquisition had already been active in Spain for almost 1 The title first given to the work was Comedia de Calisto
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