Ana Francisca Abarca de Bolea (1602–1685) was a Spanish writer and poet born in Zaragoza on 19 April 1602 and died in Casbas (Huesca) around 1685.
Career[edit]
Born into a family of noble lineage, Bolea (one of whose descendants would become the Count of Aranda), was the daughter of Martin Abarca de Bolea y Castro, a humanist, and Ana de Mur. After being baptized in the Zaragozan Parish of San Felipe,[1] she lived from three years of age in the Real Monastery of Santa Maria de la villa in Casbas, from which she was unable to leave and where she developed a deep religious and humanistic background.
Within the enclosures of the monastery Bolea was enriched with many different readings to the point where she was able to learn classical Latin. She was professed as religious on 4 June 1624. In 1655 she was mistress of novices and came to hold the office of abbess in 1672. She corresponded with leading scholars and writers within the Aragonese literary circles, she particularly enjoyed the patronage of Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa, as well as the Count of Salinas, Juan Francisco Andrés de Uztarroz and most likely, with Gracián, who praised her and collected her poems in his Agudeza y arte de ingenio.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Francisca_Abarca_de_Bolea (acc. 26/05/14)