Women and aristocratic identity: the memory of the motherly tie in the House of Fernán Núñez

Abstract

In the last decades different studies have underlined the bilateral orientation of lineage, the political dimension of motherhood, and the central and active role played by women in the administration of the Household. Given the significant role played by women and maternal lines in the reproduction of the lineage this article aims to explore the place they took up in the family memory of the House of Fernán Núñez, particularly in genealogical narratives. The analysis of the Catálogo historial genealógico (1682), together with other collective representations of the noble identity, will allow us to show the bilateral dimension of family memory. By doing so, this article questions the traditional dichotomy between male-public and female-private, as well as the image of the women-wife shown in the moral literature before the Enlightenment and in the philosophical and medical discourse.