The Phoenix of Mexico: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Poet, dramatist, essayist, scholar: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was never among the countless women authors who toiled in obscurity, their writings either unappreciated or altogether unseen during their own lifetimes, only to be rediscovered and celebrated decades or centuries later. Even among her contemporaries–those who gathered her works for publication and composed eulogies following her untimely death at the age of 43 in April 1695–she was revered as “The Phoenix of Mexico” and “The Tenth Muse.” Today she is widely recognized as the most significant writer in Spanish-American colonial literature and is regarded as the first advocate for women’s rights and education in the Western Hemisphere. Indeed, some of her works are considered among the most important feminist writings of the 17th century, whether in Europe or the Americas. Perhaps the best known of these is her Respuesta a Sor Filotea de la Cruz [Answer to Sister Filotea], written in 1691 in reply to a letter from the Bishop of Puebla, Manuel Fernández de Santa Cruz, who was writing under the pseudonym “Sor Filotea.” Both a memoir and an exposition, the Repuesta asserts that there is no justification for limiting a woman’s studies to devotional works, explaining instead her own commitment to writing and to the pursuit of knowledge in all fields. Sor Juana’s Repuesta was published in the posthumously appearing third volume of her works, Fama, y Obras, printed at Madrid in 1700 and quickly followed by editions printed at Lisbon and Barcelona in 1701. Here we are pleased to offer a copy of the Barcelona Fama, y Obras in contemporary limp vellum. All of these early editions are extremely rare, both in library holdings and in the trade–we locate no separate auction records for this Barcelona edition since 1951.
For more details, see Item 1 in Catalogue 9.
[Spanish America–Early Literature and Feminism]. Fama, y obras posthumas, tomo tercero, del fenix de Mexico, y dezima musa, poetisa de la America, sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, religiosa professa en el Convento de San Geronimo, de la imperial Ciudad de Mexico. En Barzelona: por Rafael Figarò. Año de M.DCCI [1701]. [132], 212, [3] pp. Small 4to (20 cm). First Barcelona edition. Bound in contemporary Spanish vellum with traces of two leather ties, title inked on spine. Vellum covers worn with tear at base of spine, textblock coming detached. Front endpaper worn and creased with light wear and creasing to title page; title page printed in black within typographic border, woodcut head and tail pieces throughout; published without frontis. portrait found in some copies of 1700 Madrid edition; textblock quite clean and sound. Overall about very good.
1. $20,000.
PRIMARY SOURCES 