Fama, y obras posthumas del fenix de Mexico, dezima musa, poetisa Americana, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, religiosa professa en el Convento de San Geronimo de la imperial ciudad de Mexico
Madrid: Imprenta de Antonio Gonçalez de Reyes, a costa de Francisco Laso, 1714.
[32], 318, [2] pp. Period limp vellum with leather ties, title written on spine in ink. In Spanish. Very Good overall, covers worn, wrinkled, top corner of front cover chipped, two of the four leather ties broken; some internal wear and aging, pp. 21-28 with damage and holes to the text, quite substantial to 21-24, marginal hole in pp.19-20; final leaf has margin reinforced and a few pencil marks.
Rare early edition of these posthumously published poems of Sor Juana, the "Mexican Phoenix," a philosopher, poet, book collector, and nun who contributed to the Spanish Golden Age. The illegitimate daughter of a Spanish captain, Sister Juana grew up in her maternal grandfather's hacienda among his considerable library. Eschewing marriage, she entered a Hieronymite convent in 1669. Skilled in both Latin and Nahuatl as well as theology and logic, her radical thinking on church hierarchy and women's roles caused the Catholic Church to publish a letter in 1690 demanding that she focus on prayer rather than philosophy. She was eventually forced to sell her extensive library of some 4,000 volumes as well as her musical and scientific instruments. Plague struck her convent in April 1695, and she was among the many victims. This work was first printed in Madrid in 1700 by Manuel Ruiz de Murga, as Vol. III of the author's complete works. Nobel laureate Octavio Paz was largely responsible for bringing her work to modern readers' and critics' attention with his 1989 book Sor Juana: Or, The Traps of Faith.
Price: $7,500.00