[vii] A Fulbright-Hays Research Fellowship funded by the United States and Spanish governments made possible nine months of intensive research in Spain, and I am deeply grateful that my family and I were able to live in Seville while I worked in the archives of this fascinating city.

Special thanks are due several individuals who assisted my research in Spain. Doña Eulalia de la Cruz Bugallal, director of the Archivo Municipal de Sevilla, and her assistant, Doña Hermine Meós Gonzalez, were unerringly kind and helpful to me. At the Biblioteca Capitular of Seville, the director, Don Francisco Alvarez Leisdedos, and his assistant, Don José Jaén Santiago, assisted me with patience and tolerance. The director of the Biblioteca Universitaria in Granada, Doña Maria Pardo, permitted me to study the manuscripts of Pedro de León and to photocopy them. I appreciate very much help from the noted historian, Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, in finding these manuscripts. The Count of Peñaflor de Argamasilla, Hermano Mayor of the Hermandad de la Santa Caridad, kindly gave me permission to look through the collections of papers in the Hospital de la Santa Caridad in Seville. Doña Aurore Domínguez Guzmán assisted my search in this archive, and Don Tomás García sat with me while I read documents and helped me to photocopy them. Noël Diazs assistance in preparing the maps and charts is greatly appreciated.

My thanks also go to several American scholars who have helped me with my work. William A. Christian, Jr., who has
done extensive research in Spain, gave me many suggestions [viii] and unselfishly shared his notes and insights. Judith Walkowitz read an earlier version of the chapter on lost women and helped me improve it. Lutz Berkner and Richard Kagan gave me many valuable suggestions for converting an earlier version into the present book. Robert I. Burns, S.J., read the first chapter and shared his writing experience with me. Elizabeth Vodola, who gave her undivided attention to a thorough reading of the manuscript, suggested many improvements. Temma Kaplan has been a superlative guide in research, analysis, and writing. She has supported me with a marvelous balance of criticism and approval, and she has never run out of ideas to broaden and deepen my study of the underworld.

Finally, my husband and children have risen to the challenge of this entire project, and I am so thankful that they have shared in it with me.

Pasadena, California                                                                                    M.E.P
August 1979