Letters of A Portuguese Nun - Authorship

Authorship

Until the 20th century, the letters were often ascribed to a 17th century Franciscan nun in a convent in Beja, Portugal, named in 1810 as Mariana Alcoforado (1640–1723). The letters were said to have been written to her French lover, Noel Bouton, Marquis de Chamilly (1635–1715), who came to Portugal to fight on behalf of the Portuguese in the Portuguese Restoration War from 1663-1668. The young nun was said to have first seen the young officer from her window, the now-locally famous "janela de Mértola," or "window of Mértola."

The attribution to Gabriel-Joseph de la Vergne, Comte de Guilleragues, was first put forward by F. C. Green in 1926, and, later, in 1953, 1961, and 1962, by Leo Spitzer and Jacques Rougeot and Frédéric Deloffre, respectively. It is now generally recognised that the letters were not a verbatim translation from the Portuguese, but were in fact a work of fiction by the Comte de Guilleragues, himself.

However, the 2006 book Letters of a Portuguese Nun: Uncovering the Mystery Behind a 17th Century Forbidden Love by Myriam Cyr argues that Mariana Alcoforado did, in fact, exist — and that, as an educated nun of the period, she could have written the letters; that the letters show characteristics suggesting a Portuguese original, and that Mariana was, in fact, their author. None of the arguments presented by Myriam Cyr, however, differs significantly from the 19th century debate on the authenticity of the work, and the bulk of the critical evidence continues to favor the thesis of Guilleragues's authorship.

In the 17th century, the interest in the Letters was so strong that the word "portugaise" became synonymous with "a passionate love-letter."