Lucrecia's dreams : politics and prophecy in sixteenth-century Spain

Bibliographic Information

Lucrecia's dreams : politics and prophecy in sixteenth-century Spain

Richard L. Kagan

University of California Press, 1995, c1990

  • : pbk

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Note

"First paperback printing 1995"--T.p. verso

Bibliography: p. 211-221

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Branded by the Spanish Inquisition as an "evil dreamer," a "notorious mother of prophets," the teenager Lucrecia de Leon had hundreds of bleak but richly imaginative dreams of Spain's future that became the stuff of political controversy and scandal. Based upon surviving transcripts of her dreams and on the voluminous records of her trial before the Inquisition, Lucrecia's Dreams traces the complex personal and political ramifications of Lucrecia's prophetic career. This hitherto unexamined episode in Spanish history sheds new light on the history of women as well as on the history of dream interpretation. Charlatan or clairvoyant, sinner or saint, Lucrecia was transformed by her dreams into a cause celebre, the rebellious counterpart to that other extraordinary woman of Golden Age Spain, St. Theresa of Jesus. Her supporters viewed her as a divinely inspired seer who exposed the personal and political shortcomings of Philip II of Spain. In examining the relation of dreams and prophecy to politics, Richard Kagan pays particular attention to the activities of the streetcorner prophets and female seers who formed the political underworld of sixteenth-century Spain.

Table of Contents

PREFACE EDITORIAL NOTE Introduction 1 Lucrecia de Leon 2 Dreams Diabolical, Dreams Divine 3 "I wake up the moment my eyes are closed" 4 Politics and Prophecy 5 Lucrecia the Prophet 6 Trial in ToletkJ Conclusion: Understanding Lucrecia CALENDAR OF LUCRECIA'S DREAMS ABBREVIATIONS NOTES SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX

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