La vida musical en el monasterio de Santa Maria de Jonqueres en los siglos XVI y XVII: Agraïda y Eugènia Grimau

Abstract

This article takes a look at the musical life in Santa Maria de Jonqueres Monastery. It was one of the monasteries founded in the 12th century to accommodate the daughters and wives of the knights of the Order of Santiago while they were fighting wars or when they died. It was located in the city of Barcelona from the end of that century and it was inhabited mainly by women from the nobility or upper classes instead. In fact, the institution was more like a luxury “boarding house” than a “strict convent” because it was inhabited by “ladies” rather than “nuns”, according to a description by Maria Mercè Costa. This article analyses the monastery’s relationship with its urban environment through musical activities, with a particular focus on the foundations of post-mortem liturgical celebrations. The specific case of the sisters Agraïda/Graida and Eugènia Grimau, two nuns serving as cantors in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, is studied in detail by analysing a variety of documents –blood sample files, visitor books, literature, wills, ceremony books, anniversary books and ledgers– preserved mainly in the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in Barcelona and the National Historical Archive in Madrid.