The enigma of the allusion to Bernardo in the first act of La Celestina

Abstract

In his famous diatribe against women that he uses to try and get Calisto to turn away from Melibea, Sempronio, the servant, reinforces his arguments by citing four authorities. While there is no doubt about the authenticity of the first three authorities (Salomon, Seneca, Aristotle) and their role in misogynistic tradition, the identity of the fourth one, Bernard, has not yet been determined with certainty. The scholars mention at least three possibilities of interpretation. Some argue that the fourth one is Saint Bernard (12th century), whose supposed doubt about the Virgin Mary’s virginity Rojas “the Convert” might have used to mock the Christian dogma. Others refuse this thesis and draw attention to the passage of Corbacho which might have served to Rojas as a basis for the first Act in which there appears, alongside Salomon, Aristotle and Virgil, another victim of women, the Aragon courtier from the 15th century, Mosén Bernard de Cabrera. The two hypotheses are complemented by a third one which has not yet been explored: considering numerous implicit connections between La Celestina and Lilio de medicina by Bernardo Gordonio (13th-14th century), we speculate that the famous physician of Montpellier is hidden precisely behind the name Bernardo.