The Spanish Bawd

This English title names Fernando de Rojas's late-fifteenth-century Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, first printed in 1499 and often called Celestina. Calisto, a young noble, falls in love with Melibea and, failing at direct courtship, hires Celestina, an aging go-between who trades in cosmetics, spells, and arranged desire. Servants, prostitutes, and the old woman's greed pull the intrigue into blackmail and murder; the lovers' meeting leads to a fall and a public lament. The work is a long dialogue-novel of urban appetite, not a saint's life and not a simple stage farce.

Bound in blue cloth cover and spine blocked with a design in gold, black and red by Jeff Clements. Black endleaves. Pale blue slipcase.