MARTÍN DE CÓRDOBA, Fray.

£30,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington

Jardín de las nobles donzellas. Rare second edition - the only realistically obtainable printing - of a pro-feminist work in the mirror-for-princes tradition written as counsel for the future Isabella of Castile. Composed by Fray Martín de Córdoba, a Dominican close to Isabella's circle, the book engages the contemporary "battle of the sexes" debate while arguing, in practical terms, for Isabella's legitimacy and fitness to rule. Although formally addressed to "noble maidens", its true audience was the Castilian political elite, at a moment of dynastic uncertainty following the death of her brother Alfonso of Castile in 1468 and Henry IV of Castile's reluctant recognition of Isabella as heir.As Goldberg observes, the Jardín's relative simplicity of language and structure, coupled with dense allusion, made it accessible yet intellectually persuasive, serving both to encourage the princess and to reassure a sceptical populace that female rule could succeed. Circulating in manuscript during Isabella's lifetime, the first edition of 1500 was published towards the end of her successful reign as vindication of its thesis. The second edition of 1542 may have been intended to address altered anxieties after the nominal reign of Joanna of Castile, now reading as a conservative manual for governing women within a stable imperial order.Isabella herself accepted the Jardín's ideological framework only insofar as it enabled her accession. In practice, she exceeded it - notably by establis

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