The Lives of Women: A New History of Inquisitional Spain

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The Lives of Women Lisa Vollendorf A New History of Inquisitional Spain HISPANIC STUDIES / WOMEN’S STUDIES Recovering voices long relegated to silence, The Lives of Women deciphers the responses of women to the culture of control in seventeenth -century Spain. In this new history of Inquisitional Spain, Lisa Vollendorf incorporates convent texts, Inquisition cases, biographies, and women’s literature to reveal a previously unrecognized boom in women’s writing between 580 and 700. During this period, more women wrote for the public book market and participated in literary culture than ever before. In addition , the rise in convents and female education contributed to a marked increase in texts produced by and about women in religious orders. Vollendorf argues that, in conjunction with Inquisition and legal documents, this wealth of writing offers unprecedented access to women’s perspectives on life in early modern Spain, and that those perspectives encompass diverse ethnic backgrounds and class differences. Many of the documents touch on issues of sex and intimacy; others provide new ways of understanding religious practice in the period. Perhaps most important , these writings give a richly textured view of how women reacted to the dominant culture’s attempts to define, limit, and contain femininity. Vollendorf shows that the texts reflect a shared preoccupation with redefining gender and creating legitimate spaces for women. As The Lives of Women vividly illustrates, hundreds, if not thousands, of women’s stories await rediscovery in archives. The book provides a roadmap for understanding the experiences and concerns of wives, widows, sisters, and daughters who lived in a key moment in the development of the Spanish nation and the Hispanic world. At its core, The Lives of Women argues for a reconceptualization of history, one that will rely on the experiences of women and minorities as much as on the words and actions of kings and conquistadors. The Lives of Women A New History of Inquisitional Spain Nuns, noblewomen, witches, and writers—all had a voice in early modern Spain, yet their words have been relegated to silence for centuries . The Lives of Women recovers the experiences of women from all walks of life who lived and even thrived in the controlling culture of Inquisitional Spain. Among the voices are those of . . . Eleno/a de Céspedes (c. 545 or 546–?): Born a morisca slave girl and named after her master, Céspedes married, gave birth, and developed a protrusion that eventually led to her transformation from woman to man. Tried by the Inquisition in the 580s, Céspedes was sentenced to ten years of service in a hospital and was forced to live as a woman. Zebriana de Escobar (b. 600s): Witness in the sorcery trial of María Romero in 702, Escobar was a widow who was beaten by her domestic partner. She testified to the Inquisition that she paid Romero for remedies to stop the violence. Oliva Sabuco (567–?): Philosopher and humanist with an orientation toward science, Sabuco is the author or co-author of the Nueva Filosofía de la Naturaleza del Hombre (587). Constanza Ossorio (c. 565–637): Cistercian nun whose posthumously published Huerta del celestial esposo (686) advises nuns and monks on proper Christian behavior. Lisa Vollendorf is Associate Professor of Spanish at California State University, Long Beach. Author of Reclaiming the Body: María de Zayas’s Early Modern Feminism and editor of Recovering Spain’s Feminist Tradition and of Literatura y feminismo en España: siglos XV–XXI, she has won fellowships from the Newberry Library, UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, and the Huntington Library. ISBN 0-8265-1481-2 ™xHSKIMGy514813z VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS Nashville, Tennessee 37235 www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com VOLLENDORF VANDERBILT “At once accessible and most obviously a scholarly endeavor, The Lives of Women will appeal to many audiences.” —Stacey Schlau, West Chester University “. . . destined to become a milestone in the field of Golden Age Studies. . . . Drawing from an extensive array of primary and secondary sources . . . Vollendorf clearly makes the case for a new model of study within the field of Golden Age Studies.” —Reyes Coll-Tellechea, University of Massachusetts, Boston The long-silent voices of women in the age of the Spanish Inquisition Front cover illustration: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (67-682), Two Women at a Window, oil on canvas. Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection. Image © 2004 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Design: Dariel Mayer The Lives of Women A New History of...