About Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695) was a Mexican nun, philosopher, and one of the most prominent literary figures of the Spanish Golden Age. A polymath with interests spanning theology, science, mathematics, and the arts, she wrote poetry, dramatic works, and prose in Spanish, as well as in Latin and, in some devotional pieces, Nahuatl. Her work is celebrated for its intellectual rigor, wit, and defiance of conventional gender roles in her era.
Note on This Title
Her Enigmas ofrecidos a la Casa del Placer (commonly cited as Enigmas de la Casa del Placer) is a sequence of verse riddles (enigmas) that Sor Juana composed for the members of a Portuguese convent known as the Casa del Placer. It was published in 1692 in her Segundo volumen de las obras (Seville). The enigmas are characteristic of her style and of the baroque literary tradition of ingenious, learned wordplay. They draw on a wide range of subjects and display her wit and erudition. Readers seeking Sor Juana’s authentic texts should consult established scholarly editions of her complete works (Obras completas), which provide reliable attributions and contextual information.
