ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the rediscoveries and reevaluations of humanist women's writing from fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Spain. It overviews the women humanists centers on six learned women, whose literary careers have been the focus of significant scholarly research: Teresa de Cartagena, Luisa Sigea, Oliva Sabuco, Luisa de Padilla, Maria de Guevara, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. Teresa de Cartagena, considered the first Spanish feminist writer, wrote two significant treatises: the first, Arboleda de los enfermos and the second, Admiracion operum Dey. In response to the challenges of "some prudent men and also discreet women" who were astonished at the erudition of the Arboleda, Teresa defended her authorship in Admiracion operum Dey. Admiracion was dedicated to Juana de Mendoza, member of a powerful noble family, camarera mayor to the Infanta Isabel, the oldest child of the Catholic Monarchs, and wife of the noble, writer, and political figure Gomez Manrique.
