Women, music and the Inquisition

The documents of the Inquisition represent particularly rich sources for exploring everyday life, and especially for learning about the musical activity of women which, in contrast, is hardly mentioned in other documents traditionally examined by musicologists. For example, the Inquisition's witchcraft trials frequently involved women who had taken part in Sabbats with music. In this lecture, the speaker will be presenting a few cases of Inquisition trials related with female musicians, which reveal the moral status of the musician in 16th century Spanish society, as well as the training, social position and professional vicissitudes of some female musicians. The speaker will then go on to make comparisons with some of the male musicians of the time.