Influence and skulduggery: what the vetting of Inquisition officials in 17th-Century Spain Reveals about the family of Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán (1618-c.1685)

McLaughlin, Karl ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2558-2249 (2022) Influence and skulduggery: what the vetting of Inquisition officials in 17th-Century Spain Reveals about the family of Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán (1618-c.1685). Bulletin of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, 47 (1). p. 1. ISSN 2643-9581

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Abstract

The detailed records compiled by the Spanish Inquisition are an indispensable source of information not just on the controversial institution but also for expanding our historical knowledge of Golden Age Spain. They can also be an extremely valuable tool for the investigation of the family antecedents of literary figures of the period. This is particularly important when relatively little biographical information exists on an author, as is the case of the little-known Extremaduran poet, Catalina Clara Ramírez de Guzmán (Llerena, 1618-c.1685), whose two brothers sought admission to the junior post of familiars of the Inquisition in the early 1640s. The abundant official documentation relating to their application is even more valuable as it not only aids our understanding of the detailed vetting required for such posts but also brings to light controversies involving the Ramírez family and provides irrefutable evidence of deep-running enmities and rivalries in the author’s home city.