PEDRO HENRÍQUEZ UREÑA AND HIS EDITION OF LA CELESTINA

Abstract

This article offers a detailed examination of Pedro Henríquez Ureña’s 1938 edition of La Celestina, published by Editorial Losada, situating it within his broader humanistic project aimed at disseminating Hispanic classical literature in Latin America. Employing a philological and historical-critical approach, the author analyzes the editorial criteria adopted by Henríquez Ureña in response to the work’s complex textual tradition, marked by the absence of a princeps edition and the coexistence of multiple early witnesses. The study demonstrates how the Dominican editor privileges the earliest texts—Burgos 1499 and Seville 1501—while explicitly incorporating the additions of 1502 through systematic use of brackets, revealing a rigorous process of textual collation and a critical awareness that has often been overlooked in later Celestina scholarship. The article also examines his decisions regarding orthographic modernization, punctuation, and accentuation, as well as the inclusion of appendices and paratexts that enhance the historical understanding of the work. In addition, the study contextualizes this editorial endeavor within Henríquez Ureña’s intellectual trajectory, highlighting his connections with major Hispanists such as Raymond Foulché-Delbosc, Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, and Alfonso Reyes. The article concludes that the 1938 edition of La Celestina constitutes not merely a divulgative transcription but a solid and conscious philological contribution, essential for the work’s reception in the Hispanic American context.