The Erotic Legend of St. Nafissa and the Retrato de la lozana andaluza

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY THE EROTIC LEGEND OF ST. NAFISSA AND THE RETRATO DE LA LOZANA ANDALUZA RYAN D. GILES IN recent decades, critics have found that Francisco Delicado’s Retrato de la Lozana Andaluza (1528) exploits the conventions of hagiographic writing. Ronald Surtz, for example, has called attention to parallels in the lives of reformed prostitutes like SS. Mary of Egypt, Pelagia, and Thaïs (288).1 The narrator of the Lozana Andaluza parodies these traditions by recording the life of an incorrigible whore who, after traveling across the Mediterranean, comes to practice her trade in Rome, escapes the Eternal City prior to its sacking in 1527, and finally takes refuge from the world on the remote island of Lipari. Of particular interest is mamotreto 47, describing apparitions of St. Mary Magdalene in the author’s hometown of Peña de Martos, “sale en ella la cabelluda, que quiere decir que allí munchas veces apareció la Madalena” (398).2 Gemma Delicado Puerto has shown how this episode relates Lozana’s portrait to the popular image of the Magdalene as a patron saint of cosmeticians and sex workers. She finds that the narrative not only parodies the legends of holy harlots in a general sense, but specifically targets attributes of the beata peccatrix from the Gospel.3 1 Surtz also mentions legends in which first-person narrators identify themselves as confessors and witnesses as in the case of St. Catherine of Sienna, the Blessed Ángela de Foligno, and Lucia de Narni (289-90). See also, Claude Allaigre’s “Introducción” (15055 ). 2 All citations from the edition of Allaigre. This editor includes a reproduction of the woodcut of Mary Magdalene’s apparition at Peña de Martos from the editio princips (210). I am grateful to David Nirenberg for his comments. 3 The Mary Magdalene of hagiography is a composite character based on three scenes from the Bible: a Mary anointing the feet of Jesus; an unnamed female sinner YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY 115 What has yet to be explained is the meaning of the holy woman most explicitly linked with the protagonist of Delicado’s novel. An unidentified saint named “Nefija” is invoked three times as a healer who prostitutes herself to customers free of charge (mamotretos 23, 50-51). In the first scene, Lozana comes to the aid of a canon, who, seeing her at the door, exclaims: “¡Cuerpo de mí!, es más hábile, a mi ver, que Santa Nefija, la que daba su cuerpo por limosna” (284).4 He no doubt noticed that her nose and forehead were scarred by syphilis, the same sickness that appears to have ravaged his body. Lozana insists that the canon avoid the tortures of physicians and instead trust in her loving care, “dejá hacer a mí, que es miembro que quiere halagos y caricias, y no crueldad de médico” (286). In a later episode, a gentleman named Trujillo claims to be suffering from venereal disease and suggests to Lozana that “los tocos y el tacto es el que sana que así lo dijo Santa Nefija, la que murió de amor suave” (412). After Trujillo turns the tables on the visitor and becomes her sexual healer, “quiérolo ver por sanar,” she expresses regret at having performed her services pro bono, “como que fuera yo Santa Nefija, que daba a todos de cabalgar en limosna” (412, 414). In each case, characters allude to erotic “charity,” in keeping with a convention that can be traced back to the “pasos de caridat” of Trotaconventos in the fourteenth-century Libro de buen amor (c. 1322d). In a note to his edition of the Lozana Andaluza, Francisco Damiani identifies Nefija as a Hispanic derivative of “Nafissa,” the name of a mock saint who will be later called on as a “protectora de las cortesanas ” in Pietro Aretino’s Ragionamenti (108). Damiani and other editors of Delicado, however, have not considered that the Italian name functions as a pun on the euphemism for female genitalia, “una fissa,” 116 ROMANCE NOTES washing them with tears; and finally Mary of Magdala being healed of evil spirits, anointing the body of Christ, and later announcing the Resurrection (Voragine no. 96; John 12:3...