ABSTRACT
The boundaries of the cloister were quite permeable and allowed the passage of patrons, convent stewards, and other secular individuals. Reminders of temporal society abounded within the cloister as well. Vivid insight into the world of Valladolid's convents comes, in fact, from the ample records of their litigious behavior. The transmission and definition of property that surfaced at the moment a woman made her profession in a convent shaped the contours of this legal activity. For most young women and their families this was a significant transition. Whatever its origin, it was customary practice by the early modern era for the nuns of Valladolid's convents to administer private incomes - a practice that departed from the expectations of a monastic separation that was supposed to render them "dead to the world". Valladolid's families could justify the risks and expense of these lawsuits in part because their estates made powerful statements about their economic and social worth.
