This essay draws attention to a particular way of transforming secular melodies into works of piety and devotion for performance at the court of Queen Isabel. Curiously enough, we know about this kind of performance not from music sources, but from a collection of poetry written by the Franciscan friar Ambrosio Montesino (c. 1450–1514), preacher and confessor to the Catholic Monarchs. After reviewing some aspects of his life and works, I will turn to his sacred poems written for distinguished members of the clergy and the nobility – including Queen Isabel – and to the tunes that he indicated should be used to sing them.

We know very little about Montesino's life, but he enjoyed a privileged position at Court, contributing with his writings and sermons to the religious reforms initiated by the Monarchs and Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517). Hernando de Talavera (1428–1507), Montesino's predecessor as royal confessor, may have introduced him to Queen Isabel and King Fernando. Montesino's most influential book was the Spanish translation of the well-known Vita Christi (1502–03) by ludolphus of Saxony, a task he undertook at the Monarchs' request; as early as 1493, in a letter to Talavera, Isabel had shown her enormous interest in seeing the work published (Liss 2004a: 303) (fig. 1).

King Fernando sponsored Montesino's Epístolas y evangelios para todo el año con sus doctrinas y sermones [Epistles and Gospels for the Entire Year with Their Doctrines and Sermons, 1512].