KADINLARI CEZALANDIRAN KADIN: AZİZ JERONIMOLU MAGDALENA
THE WOMAN WHO PUNISHES OTHER WOMEN: MAGDALENA DE SAN JERÓNIMO

Summary/Abstract: As the view of poverty and sexuality began to change from the beginning of the sixteenth century, both poverty and sexuality were seen as problems that needed to be controlled, supervised, and solved. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, a similar situation arose in Spain, where social, financial, religious, political, and economic problems caused problems for those in power and the number of controls and restrictions on prostitutes in the country increased. While previously tolerated, a group of individuals allowed to carry out their profession, prostitutes were accused of morally and hygienically polluting society. This group, which was to be controlled by the church and the government, included not only prostitutes, but also other women such as vagabonds, strays, witches, beggars, lazy women, and thieves. Magdalena de San Jerónimo, who aimed to rehabilitate the women by imprisoning them in buildings called galera, wrote a treatise entitled Razó n y forma de la Galera y Casa Real, presented it to King Felipe III and declared that society could be purifiied by imprisoning the women who were causing the decay of Spanish society. This study focuses on the reasons why the institution called galera, was formed and the possible consequences of implementing it in addition to its relationship with rehabilitation and discipline.

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