ABSTRACT
This chapter reconsiders Josefa Amar y Borbon's writings with fresh biographical evidence, in the international framework of the newly questioned relationship between religion and Enlightenment "feminism" and of the growing attention devoted to the "Catholic Enlightenment". In the 1970s, Spanish historians started to explore the rich manifestations of "reformist Catholicism" or "Enlightened Catholicism" in the eighteenth century. Josefa Amar's vehement and solidly articulated Discourse on Women's Talent presents gender equality as a fact which cannot be denied in an age of Enlightenment when examined by an unprejudiced mind. She is dismissive of traditional, formulaic religious practices. She was aware that it was her own private tutoring, under the supervision of cultivated and favorable parents, which had provided her with a solid intellectual background. Besides her original works, Josefa Amar's translations are another significant dimension of her intellectual interests, statements and achievements. She was certainly a Catholic, not only by birth and education but also by personal conviction.
