'Una qüistión [...] sobre la conçebçión de Santa María': The Cancionero de Baena Debate on the Immaculate Conception

Abstract

This study examines six poems included in the Cancionero de Baena (ID1449, ID1450 R1449, ID1451 R1450, ID1452 R1451, ID1453 R1452, and ID1454 R1453 in Dutton & González Cuenca 1993). This series of poems occupies an important place in the development of immaculism in Spain and is characterized by the theological themes that animate the poetic debate, in which Fray Lope del Monte confronts Diego Martínez de Medina, thus demonstrating the influence of scholastic methodology on the poetry of the fifteenth century.This study reveals the influence of scholasticism on cancionero poetry, focusing on the ways of appealing to patristic authority. This examination of patristic authority and its reflection in poetry enables us to state precisely how scholastic methodology influenced religious poetry in the fifteenth century, and to reach conclusions on the incorporation of theological methods in Castilian poetic debate.