"I Could be Suborned with a Sardine": A Material Culture Study of Teresa of Ávila's Letters

Abstract

Early modern Carmelite reformer and mystic Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) maintained an extensive correspondence, which has received less scholarly attention than her major autobiographical and mystical works. Her letters reached a broad audience, from her brother and later her nephew in colonial Peru, to her advisor Jerónimo Gracián, to the prioresses of the convents she founded across Spain, to noble patrons and friends, and even to Philip II, King of Spain. Her preoccupation with material objects spanned this diverse range. This thesis applies a material culture study to the objects mentioned in Teresa’s letters, offering new insights into her experience of the fragility of human embodiment. It analyzes Teresa’s experience with medical remedies, religious textiles, food, and possessions, illuminating both Teresa’s anxiety with the vulnerability of the fragile human body as well as her respect and care for the condition of human embodiment. This attention to Teresa’s concern with embodied materiality nuances our understanding of how early modern nuns navigated the spiritual and material demands placed on them by monastic poverty.