The writings of Teresa de Cartagena

Teresa de Cartagena was born in Burgos in about 1415-20, into a powerful family of Jewish origin. All we know of Teresa comes from her work: she was deaf and not physically strong, she was a nun, and —perhaps the source of her resilience— she was well-educated, above all in religion and moral philosopy. Deaf from early womanhood, her consolatory treatise "Grove of the Infirm" is a reflection on the spiritual benefits of illness, taking her own deafness as an autobiographical exemplum; her second work, "Worder at the Works of God", was apparently written to counter the contention of her critics that a woman, and particularly a handicapped woman, had nothing of value to say. The remarkable survival of both works allows a rare glimpse into the world of women in fifteenth-century Spain.

Along with the texts, translated in their entirety with explanatory footnotes, this volume also provides important backbround material (on Teresa's life and works, on the ideology of gender in the middle ages, and on medieval literary theory), and an interpretative essay on the translated texts.

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