El tahúr y la alcahueta, aliados de juegos prohibidos en Salamanca hacia 1497: Lucena, Repetición de amores y arte de axedrez

Abstract

Lucena, the author of Repetición de amores y arte de axedrez, was a well-known chess player and a converso. While his Repetición reads as a cold, lifeless text characteristic of the academic genre he is mocking, within its lines the celebrated chess player and law student at Salamanca spends some time recreating his close friendship with an old woman famed among students as an adept go-between. This article delves into the close relationship between the gambler and the bawd with the intention of supporting the hypothesis of the existence in Salamanca of a real woman whose secret services, first recorded in 1497, included not only illegal matchmaking but also the running of lucrative illicit table games.