Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence

Inbunden, Engelska, 2009

AvSharon T. Strocchia,Sharon T. (Emory University) Strocchia,Sharon T Strocchia

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The 15th century was a time of dramatic and decisive change for nuns and nunneries in Florence. In the course of that century, the city's convents evolved from small, semiautonomous communities to large civic institutions. By 1552, roughly one in eight Florentine women lived in a religious community. Historian Sharon T. Strocchia analyzes this stunning growth of female monasticism, revealing the important roles these women and institutions played in the social, economic, and political history of Renaissance Florence. It became common practice during this time for unmarried women in elite society to enter convents. This unprecedented concentration of highly educated and well-connected women transformed convents into sites of great patronage and social and political influence. As their economic influence also grew, convents found new ways of supporting themselves; they established schools, produced manuscripts, and manufactured textiles. Strocchia has mined previously untapped archival materials to uncover how convents shaped one of the principal cities of Renaissance Europe.She demonstrates the importance of nuns and nunneries to the booming Florentine textile industry and shows the contributions that ordinary nuns made to Florentine life in their roles as scribes, stewards, artisans, teachers, and community leaders. In doing so, Strocchia argues that the ideals and institutions that defined Florence were influenced in great part by the city's powerful female monastics. Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence shows for the first time how religious women effected broad historical change and helped write the grand narrative of medieval and Renaissance Europe. The book is a valuable text for students and scholars in early modern European history, religion, women's studies, and economic history.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2009-12-14
Mått152 x 229 x 24 mm
Vikt522 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor280
FörlagJohns Hopkins University Press
ISBN9780801892929
UtmärkelserWinner of Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian History 2010 (United States)

Tillhör följande kategorier

Religion: allmänt inom Filosofi och religion
Europas historia inom Historia och arkeologi
Genusvetenskap inom Samhalle och politik
Kristendom inom Filosofi och religion

List of Tables, Graphs, and FiguresPreface1. The Growth of Florentine ConventsConvents in CrisisThe Midcentury ResurgenceThe Rush to the Convent2. Nuns, Neighbors, and KinsmenFrom Neighborhood Enclaves to Citywide InstitutionsProperty and the Topography of PowerDefenders of the Parish3. The Renaissance Convent EconomyThe Structure of Convent FinanceThe Paradox of ''Private'' WealthBalancing the BudgetThe Medici and the Monte4. Invisible Hands: Renaissance Nuns at WorkEconomic Strategies and OpportunitiesThe Century of Silk: Nuns and Textile ProductionThree Case Studies in Textile WorkBooks and Educational Activities5. Contesting the Boundaries of EnclosureThe Practice of Open Reclusion, 1300–1450Privatization, Enclosure, and Reform, 1430–1500The Florentine ''Night Officers''Ecclesiastical Reform Initiatives, 1500–1540ConclusionAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

The author skillfully analyzes extensive archival and printed sources. Choice 2010 With this book Sharon Strocchia performs a service both to convent studies and to historians of Renaissance Florence by bringing these two fields together... Convents, long a hazy presence on the rich scholarly map of Renaissance Florence, now have their political and economic contours there clearly charted. -- P. Renee Baernstein Renaissance Quarterly 2010 An enjoyable, well-written account by a gifted historian clearly knowledgeable about her subject. -- Laura Swan Magistra 2010 Strocchia makes a significant contribution to the developing body of work on women's religious life in the Renaissance... providing a plethora of research avenues for the interested scholar and an interesting glimpse of Renaissance life for the general reader. -- Sally Mayall Brasher American Historical Review 2010 A convincing and wide-ranging analysis of a crucial facet of Renaissance Florence. -- Brian Maxson Canadian Journal of History 2010