Participación y coautoría femenina en la literatura peninsular a finales de la Edad Media: una propuesta de identificación para la destinataria y el autor del Vençimiento del mundo

Abstract

This work starts from the mutual influence exerted by the authors of the literature in the vernacular - especially religious - and a women reading public, which is accelerating its emergence in the different kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula throughout the 15th century. In the absence of a joint study of wowen’s reading in the peninsular area, three cases are proposed of how a certain woman, a group of women or a group of women and men as readers and addressees of a work can determine its own gestation, the choice of content or the adoption of a certain style by its authors. Based on this approach, the objective of the work is to reveal the identity of the adressee and author of the treatise titled Vençimiento del mundo, which until now had not been found despite the fact that their names appear in the heading of the only surviving manuscript copy. Thus, the proposed addressee es Doña Leonor Ayala, who was one of the daughters of the 1st Count of Fuensalida, Pedro López de Ayala II, and María de Silva. And Alfonso Núñez, dean of the Collegiate Church of Talavera de la Reina, who served as Provisor and Vicar General with the Bishop of Zamora, also from Talavera, Juan de Meneses, is proposed as a possible author. Finally, the interaction between author and reader in el Vençimiento takes shape in Alfonso Núñez's attempt to legitimise the reign of Isabel of Castile before the representative of one of the most powerful families in Toledo, who was opposed to the monarchy.

Keywords

• educated woman
• Vençimiento del mundo
• Leonor de Ayala
• 15th century