How 15th-century jousting poems work

What is it about?

This is an article about jousting poems, known as invenciones. These poems combine both verbal and visual elements, and are generally deliberately ambiguous, usually with some sexual innuendo. The focus here is on jousting poems addressed by Fernando de Acuña (c. 1456-1495) , Viceroy of Sicily, to María Dávila, a wealthy and pious widow of noble birth, whose first husband had been the Treasurer of Castile. In accordance with her will, dated 16 June 1502, she founded a convent for Sisters of St Claire, near Palencia, the Convento de Santa María de Jesús. I comtend that this invención and another by the same jouster were displayed at a joust that took place in Salamanca between November 1486 and January 1497.

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Why is it important?

This explains how to interpret such poems and contains important historical information.