ABSTRACT
Although the life and works of Sor Juana Inøs de la Cruz have been much discussed, she remains one of the great enigmas in the intellectual history of the Hispanic Empire. During her early years she became a voracious reader, learning to read at the age of three, according to her own account, from an amiga of Amecameca. Sor Juana entered the convent freely and perhaps because she felt this was a place that would allow her an intellectual life. Although Sor Juana is best known for her poetry, which has attracted the greatest critical attention, it was only a part of her intellectual interest. Music played a powerful role in Mexican convents of the seventeenth century. Although no music remains that was written specifically for Sor Juana's convent, there is good reason to imagine that sacred polyphony was composed for its services.
