Historicizing Teresa: Reflections on New Documents Regarding Sor Teresa de Cartagena

HISTORICIZING TERESA: REFLECTIONS ON NEW DOCUMENTS REGARDING SOR TERESA DE CARTAGENA Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez University ofNotre Dame Yonsoo Kim Boston College While Teresa de Cartagena's works have received an increasing amount of critical attention in recent years, her enigmatic figure remains veiled in speculation. Since Francisco Cantera Burgos definitively confirmed her kinship witii the powerful and influential Santa Maria/Cartagena family in 1952-daughter of Pedro de Cartagena, niece ofAlonso de Cartagena, granddaughter of Pablo de Santa Mariavirtually no new information has been uncovered to help us to contextualize and better understand her two texts,Arboleda de los enfermos and Admiración operum Dey. The years ofher birth and death, die dates ofcomposition for Arboleda and Admiración, Teresa's relationship with her family, her educational background, her religious order, her age when she was afflicted with deafness are all open to scholarly conjecture. Besides the scraps of presumably autobiographical information embedded in her works, the only concrete historical data we have regarding Teresa remains what Cantera Burgos recorded over fifty years ago: in his testament datedJuly 6, 1453, Alonso de Cartagena (ca. 1384-1456) bequeathed one hundred florins to his niece, Teresa die nun: "ATeresie moniali centum fl. ad aliquod subsidium sustentacionis " (537). This dearth of historical information, nevertheless, has not dissuaded her critics from reconstructing her vitawhich may be summarized Ea corónica 32.2 (Spring, 2004): 121-50 122 Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez and Yonsoo KimLa corónica 32.2, 2004 as follows. Teresa was probably born between 1420-35,' the second daughter and third or fourth child ofPedro de Cartagena (1387-1478) and María de Sarabia.2 She grew up in the family home on Calle de Cantarranas la Menor in Burgos, a center of social, political, and cultural activity in the city and frequent stopover for visiting national and international dignitaries.3 In the Cartagena tradition, Teresa and her siblings must have received an excellent educational formation.4 Accessing the available resources of the various family libraries, she was probably tutored at home and then sent to Salamanca to study in a convent, for in the late Middle Ages religious houses trained not only their own novices but also die sons and daughters of die nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie.5 Her privileged position as a Cartagena must have provided an exceptional foundation in religion and moral phi1 First proposed by Cantera Burgos (538) and generally accepted by subsequent critics ; ."Man Deyermond ('"El convento ') suggests 1420-1425. Dayle Seidenspinner-Núñez (Writings) proposed earlier dates of 1415-1420 based on the accepted birthdate (1424) of Teresa's nephew, Iñigo de Mendoza, son ofher older sisterJuana. VVe gratefully acknowledge the suggestions of George Greenia and Francisco Hernández that have improved this report and the ongoing support ofAlan Deyermond, to whom we dedicate this study. - Pedro de Cartagena first married Maria de Sarabia, with whom he had five children: Alonso de Cartagena (d. 1467), Alvaro de Cartagena (d. 1 47 1 ), Juana, Teresa, and Maria Sarabia. He Later married Mencia de Rojas and fathered two children: Lope de Rojas (14441477 ) and Elvira de Rojas. He also recognized three illegitimate sons: Pablo de Cartagena, Gonzalo Pérez de Cartagena (d. 1519), and Pedro de Cartagena. Family documents (the will ofAlonso de Cartagena or the 1 446 right ofprimogeniture ofPedro de Cartagena from which Teresa is absent) list first the male children in order ofbirth (Alonso, Alvaro, Lope de Rojas) and then the female children (Juana, Teresa, Maria Sarabia, Elvira de Rojas), complicating the establishment ofa relative chronology. In 1424 (?), Pedro de Cartagena killedJuan Hurtado de Mendoza in a duel and to re-establish peace between the two families , he married his firstborn Alonso to the daughter ofthe deceased, Maria, and his oldest daughterJuana to Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, the deceased's son. Presumably either Alvaro or Teresa would be the next sibling. 3 In the summer of 1440 Princess Blanca de Navarra was lodged at the Cartagena household on her way to Valladolid to marry Crown Prince Enrique; in 1453, the Condestable Don Alvaro de Luna was staying at the residence ofPedro Cartagena when he was arrested (Cantera Burgos 432, 471). 4 The family...