Review
Writer, abbess and intellectual character of the Golden Age of València. Her work, Vita Christi, constitutes a revision of the sacred history from the feminine genealogy of Christ, and had a great subsequent influence. It is one of the reference books of this period. It belongs to la querelle des femmes, a movement that, from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, defended the dignity of women and their right to education and culture.
Justifications
- Vita Christi is one of the masterpieces of Catalan literature in the Golden Age, the most renowned one written by a woman.
- It defends the dignity of women through the women of the genealogy of Jesus.
- It is considered a work that contributes enormously to the defence of women in a misogynistic context, and it is framed in the "querelle des femmes" movement, in the Iberian Peninsula.
- Literary value: high level based on the rules of rhetoric.
- Vita Christi had a greater editorial success than Tirant lo Blanch.
Biography
Isabel de Villena (Valencia, 1430-1490) is one of the first women who wrote in Catalan. She was educated in the court of Maria of Castile. When she was fifteen, she entered the convent of the Trinity in Valencia, where she became abbess. In order to instruct the nuns of the convent, while she was the abbess, she wrote the works that made her famous Vita Christi, a life of Christ which is particular because it is explained from the point of view of the women that lived with the main character, especially the Virgin Mary.
Apart from her literary work, Villena worked to enlarge the convent, especially its library, which became one of the most important of that time. Moreover, her intellectual value is also evident by the fact that she was related with prominent figures of culture and politics.
She died when she was 60, without having published her work, which was finally published on the 22nd of August 1497, thanks to Sister Aldonça de Montsoriu, who succeeded her in her position, and who was charged of publishing the book.
The work by which we know Isabel de Villena stands out for her exegetical character, since she drafted it thinking of her convent's nuns, as a review of the Holy Scriptures, and presents the women appearing in it from a repairing point of view, beginning with Eve, who, far from being presented as responsible for the original sin, appears as being close to the Virgin Mary, with whom she engages in the restoration of the broken order in Paradise.
Vita Christi, which is part of la querelle des femmes changes the focus from Christ to the women he was surrounded by, especially her mother, Mary, who becomes the main character of the text (and who even agrees the terms of her pregnancy with God...), but also saint Anne, Mary Magdalene, and many others.
In the work, which has a clearly educational purpose, as it has been abovementioned, and mainly addressed to the nuns of the convent of the Trinity, heaven is described as if it was a court in which Jesus is treated as His Majesty. The text alternates biographical narration and allegorical fiction, in a personal selection made by the author of the Gospel, which recreates, above all, Christ's childhood, passion and death. Sister Isabel says that her work is written "in Romance" (referring to Catalan), and normally uses accurate descriptions of objects and actions, conceptual images, hyperboles, exclamations and diminutives (especially in the chapters of Jesus' childhood), all of them are characteristics that aim at seeking the identification with the readers.
It has 291 chapters, with six topics: birth and childhood of the Virgin Mary; beginning of the Redemption process; birth and childhood of Jesus; public life, passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ; Virgin Mary's life after the Ascension of Christ, and her death or Assumption.
Works
Catalan
Vita Christi. Unfinished due to the author's death. Aldonça de Montsoriu, who succeeded Isabel de Villena as abbess of the convent of the Trinity, edited the work for the first time in 1497. Later, it was reprinted by Lope de Roca in Valencia, in 1513 in Valencia again, and in 1527 in Barcelona (including xylographies). A manuscript called Treaty of Passion containing chapters 142-228 of Vita Christi has been preserved as a sermon. It could be the origin of the rest of the book.
Copy of the 3rd printing of this work: Universitat de València, Historical Library, https://weblioteca.uv.es/cgi/view.pl?sesion=202112192028018419&source=uv_im_23173577450006258&div=5&mini=1&mend=60 (retrieved on: 18/03/2022)
Cortés Escrivà, Josepa; Mandingorra Llavata, Mª Luz; Pons Alós, Vicent (2019). “Aquestes són les obres que yo, sor Ysabel de Billena, é fetes en aquest monestir”. Notes autògrafes de sor Isabel de Villena. València: Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
Bibliography
Alemany Ferrer, R. (2012). «Una visión filógina de Eva y María Magdalena». Revista de Filologia Cultura Neolatina. Fasc. 3-4 (2012), https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/28498/1/CN.pdf (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
Cantavella, Rosanna (1987). Isabel de Villena Protagonistes femenines a la “Vita Christi”. Barcelona: La Sal.
Ferrando Francés, Antoni (2015). «Llengua i espiritualitat en la Vita Christi d’Isabel de Villena. Scripta, Revista internacional de literatura i cultura medieval i moderna, núm. 6 (pàg. 24-59), ISBN 2340-4841
Fuster i Ortells, Joan (1957). El món literari de Sor Isabel de Villena. València: Successor de Vives Mora.
Rotger, Agnès (2017). Elles! 65 dones oblidades de la història. Barcelona: Institut Català de les Dones.
OTHER RESOURCES
Lletra - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, https://lletra.uoc.edu/ca/autora/isabel-de-villena/detall, (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
Biblioteques UV - Universitat de València, https://uv-es.libguides.com/isabeldevillena/bibliografia, (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
VIDEOS
YouTube, Sor Isabel de Villena, una dona extraordinària - Ferran Garcia-Oliver, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjPwd7L1S3g, (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
YouTube, La voluntat didàctica d’Isabel de Villena - Vicent Escartí, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxL6f11YpT4, (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
YouTube, Lectures per a l’aula amb les germanes Roig, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=grxqAPlQlls , (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
Exposició AVL, https://www.avl.gva.es/documents/32214/95919/Exposici%C3%B3+itinerant+sobre+sor+Isabel+de+Villena(retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
MATERIALS FOR THE CLASSROOM
Capsir Maiques, Sandra i Viu Rodríguez, Maria (2018). Dones valencianes que han fet història. Alzira: Bromera.
Roig Celda, Rosa i Roig Celda, Manola (2018). Contem històries de dones d’ací. València: Vincle Editorial.
Roig Celda, Rosa i Roig Celda, Manola (2019). Isabel vol ser escriptora. Carcaixent: Edicions 96.
Sanchis i Caudet, Rosa (2020). Isabel escrigué lo llibre. Alzira: Bromera.
Roig Celda, Rosa i Roig Celda, Manola (2021). Les nostres escriptores. València: Generalitat Valenciana, https://presidencia.gva.es/documents/172345415/174577058/LES+NOSTRES+ESCRIPTORES.pdf/72fffe5a-b899-4e04-bc64-1b64df5cf49b (retrieved on: 25-03-2022).
Didactic approach
In Valencian language and literature, 1st and 2nd of ESO, the work of the abbess Sister Isabel de Villena can be used to illustrate the myth or characteristics of prose narrative, literary clichés, etc.; in 3rd of ESO and 1st of Bachillerato we include it in literature, as the outstanding author of the Golden Age; in 4th of ESO and 2nd of Bachillerato, the importance in the empowering and equal treatment of women in her work can be emphasised.
In Spanish and universal literature, it can be used when la querelle des femmes is worked.
In history, to study 15th century and Renaissance.
In ethical values when the emancipation movements are explained.
Documents
