ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a number of compositional and thematic aspects of formally didactic texts written by women in early modern Spain. It looks at texts that both in form and content are singularly meant to instruct, distinct from the broad category of didactic prose that is associated with the Horatian prodesse et delectare topos that defined much of the literature of the early modern period. The chapter proposes a conceptual framework for some areas of inquiry that are especially relevant to the study of women-authored didactic texts in the early modern Spanish context. It focuses on the site and conditions of production and the ways in which mastery and moral and spiritual superiority are asserted, as well as offering a general sense of the range of topics that appear in these texts.
