Nuns’ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy is historian K.J.P. Lowe’s study of three convents in three different Italian cities, based on chronicles written by a member of each convent. These convents were Le Vergini in Venice, Le Murate in Florence, and San Cosimato in Rome. Each of the three convents belonged to a different order of nuns and had its own culture according to the social status of the nuns and to what extent they were confined to their convent. The amount of enclosure changed over the years and, especially after the Council of Trent (the Catholic Church’s response to the Protestant Reformation), which ended in 1563, nuns were increasingly forced to stay strictly within their convents, and even visitors from the outside world were discouraged. Before the Council of Trent, there were nuns who were allowed to leave their convents, but afterwards this was no longer the case.
Lowe’s book is arranged thematically rather than by city or convent and includes such themes as the structure of the convent buildings, the social background of the nuns, the stages they went through in becoming a nun, including the ceremonies associated with each step, and the art produced or commissioned by each convent. Many of the nuns did not choose to become nuns, but were sent to the convent by their families because they could not afford a dowry for a marriage. The convents also required a dowry, but it was much less than a marriage dowry would have been. At this time, marriage dowries had become so expensive that even wealthy families could only afford to marry off one daughter. For each theme she covers, Lowe compares and contrasts the experience at each convent. She also discusses the authors as historians, in what I think is one of the most interesting parts of the book. These chronicles were often ignored as sources because male historians looked down on female historians. Sadly, I think this is still the case, or at least it was when I was in college. At least one of the chronicles was plagiarized by a male historian, and it was the plagiarized version that became the best-known for a while.
The earliest of the three chronicles that Lowe studies is from Le Vergini in Venice and was written in 1523, well before the Council of Trent but at a time when the convent was threatened by unwelcome reform from church authorities. The author chose to remain anonymous, but Lowe thinks she was one of two nuns with the same name, who were members of the same family, possibly aunt and niece, or possibly cousins. One fascinating theme that Lowe discusses throughout the book is the relations between nuns in convents. There were many nuns in the same convent who were related to each other, but the exact relationship is hard to figure out because they often had different last names, and sometimes it is only because of the chronicle that we know these nuns were related to each other.
To complicate matters, nuns at most convents, including the Florentine and Roman convents in this study (but not the Venetian one, which is an exception in many ways) took new names when they became nuns, and we often don’t know their birth names. Lowe studies the names chosen by the nuns, and it’s interesting that, before the Council of Trent, there was more of a variety of names, including some from classical mythology, but afterwards it was largely names of Christian saints that were chosen. Interestingly, especially in the Florentine convent devoted to the Virgin Mary, there were relatively few nuns named Maria.
Le Vergini in Venice belonged to the Augustinian order, and the members were called canonesses, not nuns. They all came from wealthy families, some of the most prominent in Venice, and, at least before 1523, there were very few restrictions on them. They could leave the convent, and they did not take vows of chastity. Sexual activity, in fact, was relatively common. In fact, one of the two canonesses who might have been the chronicler was sexually active and had a child. Female children were allowed to stay at the convent, but male children were sent to an orphanage. The convent was rocked by a sex scandal in the early 1500s, which affected the election of a new abbess. Another theme Lowe writes about, for all three convents, is the election of abbesses and how they were conducted. This was different at each convent and could sometimes be quite contentious. Usually, the abbess held office for life, but at one of the convents, the abbess was elected for only three years at a time and had to step down afterwards, but she could be elected abbess again when her successor’s term was over.
The convent of Le Vergini had an illustrious past. According to the chronicle, it was founded in 1177, but documents outside the chronicle trace its existence back to the 1200s and not before. Each of the convents Lowe studies has a foundation story, and we don’t know for certain how much of it is true and how much is legendary. Le Vergini’s was the one that involved the most prominent people, including the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III. The emperor’s daughter Giulia was, according to the chronicle, the first abbess of the convent, but there is no independent evidence of this, or even that Frederick Barbarossa had a daughter named Giulia. (It could be a name she took on becoming a nun, but remember that, unlike the nuns at the other two convents, the canonesses of Le Vergini kept their birth names.) There is a history, in Latin, of Pope Alexander III which is inserted into the chronicle, which indicates his importance in the history of the convent. The rest of the chronicle is in Italian, as are the chronicles of the Florentine and Roman convents. The chronicler makes several references to classical mythology, which indicates that she had a classical education, at least to some extent, unlike the other two chroniclers who only refer to Christian sources.
Between 1519 and 1523, Le Vergini was subjected to reforms by the patriarch of Venice and his vicar, which were unwelcome to the canonesses. These included the introduction of nuns from another convent, who practiced stricter enclosure. The canonesses, who had a freer lifestyle, were called “conventual” nuns, while the enclosed nuns were called “observant.” Eventually the conventual canonesses were forced to become observant, and so they became confined to the convent as well. In fact, the chronicle was probably written to protest this strict enclosure. The chronicler, who tells very little about herself, spends the last part of the chronicle ranting against her enemy, the patriarch’s vicar, whom she holds responsible for the enclosure. Sadly, she is also very antisemitic and rants about the vicar’s supposed Jewish ancestry.
Le Vergini was a tourist attraction in Venice. The canonesses were known to have beautiful singing voices, and people from distant places came to hear them sing. It was also known for art and especially for fine embroidery. The canonesses of Le Vergini, the wealthiest of the three convents, were known for making cloth of gold. Its chronicle is the only one of the three that is illustrated, but we don’t know if the chronicler and the illustrator are the same person or not. As Lowe says, the illustrations are not very sophisticated, so the illustrator is unlikely to have been a professional artist.
The Benedictine convent of Le Murate in Florence goes back to the 14th century. It was the largest of the three convents discussed in the book, with about 150 nuns at any given time, even though this fluctuated over the years. Unlike Le Vergini, where the nuns came exclusively from the upper class, the nuns of Le Murate came from a variety of backgrounds. There were even a few nuns who were originally Jewish and converted to Christianity (forcibly, I suspect, even though Lowe does not say much about that). It would be interesting to know how they felt about living in the convent, but they were admitted to Le Murate, while they would not have been welcomed at all at Le Vergini, if the chronicler’s antisemitic attitude is any indication.
The chronicle of Le Murate was written by Giustina Niccolini in 1598. She came from a noble Florentine family and entered the convent when she was very young. There was a male historian in the family, but there are not enough documents to be able to tell how closely Giustina Niccolini was related to him. Of all the three chroniclers, Niccolini tells us the least about herself, and she focuses on the history of the convent. Like Le Vergini, Le Murate was a tourist attraction because of the artwork it held, some of it commissioned by the nuns themselves and some commissioned by outsiders for the nuns. Le Murate also had a tradition of beautiful singing. Some girls who could not otherwise afford the convent dowry were allowed to be admitted for free because of their excellent singing voices. Girls who had lower voices, which were quite rare, were especially sought after. Le Murate was also known for its scriptorium, where the nuns made copies of manuscripts, even though the manuscript illumination was usually done by outsiders, and this practice faded away in the 16th century with the rise of printing.
Le Murate had close ties with the Medici, the ruling family of Florence, who commissioned art for the convent. It enjoyed the patronage of Catherine de’ Medici when she became queen of France, as well as that of another queen, Leonor of Portugal. It contained works by famous artists such as Fra Filippo Lippi and Donatello. The nuns themselves do not appear to have been artists, but there were nuns at other convents who were, and they saw living in a convent as an advantage because they were allowed to pursue their art, as they would not have been if they had gotten married and spent much of their lives raising children. Before the Council of Trent, the nuns of Le Murate were not strictly enclosed, even though they did not enjoy the freedom (including the sexual freedom) of the canonesses of Le Vergini. Afterwards, though, enclosure was strictly enforced.
San Cosimato was a Franciscan convent in Trastevere in Rome. It was once the site of a Benedictine monastery, going back to the 1200s, but the building was given to the Franciscan nuns, much later. It is the only one of the three convents that still exists, but it is now in a different part of Rome. This was the poorest of the three convents, even though some of the nuns came from a relatively wealthy background. Not all of them did, as Lowe has found. Many did not have last names, which meant they came from a lower social class. Some of them came from outside Rome. Unlike the other two convents, San Cosimato was not a tourist attraction. It was located across the Tiber from Rome’s most famous sites. The nuns were not known for their singing voices, and the artwork was not by famous artists, but some of it was quite beautiful. The work that was dearest to the nuns was a relief sculpture of the Madonna that supposedly performed miracles. San Cosimato had two churches, an internal one for the nuns and an external one for the public, and after the Council of Trent, the miraculous Madonna was moved to the external church, which mean the nuns could no longer see it. Of the three convents, San Cosimato practiced the strictest enclosure before the Council of Trent, but afterwards it became even stricter.
The chronicler of San Cosimato was Orsola Formicini, a physician’s daughter whose mother died young, and whose father, who was already in his 70s when she was born, gave her to the convent when she was only eight years old because he was afraid he would not be able to take care of her much longer. It was not unusual for girls to enter a convent at such a young age. Lowe reflects that Formicini’s father might have chosen San Cosimato because it was dedicated to two physician saints, Cosmas and Damian. Of the three chroniclers, Formicini is the one who writes the most about herself. This is the longest of the chronicles, and it is often more of a spiritual autobiography than a history. Formicini writes about her own years at the convent, and not so much about the history of the convent. Her chronicle was written between 1603 and 1613, and exists in three different versions, including one copied by a male historian and housed in the Vatican. Lowe uses the second version, which she considers the most reliable and authentic, as her main source. Unlike the other two chroniclers, Formicini does not seem to object to the changes imposed from outside. She was very young when they were introduced, and probably did not remember much about what life at the convent was like before the Council of Trent.
Lowe’s book is an excellent resource on the life of nuns in the Italian Renaissance. Despite being confined to a convent, and, in many cases, to a life they did not choose for themselves, they had more influence in the world than many secular women. Abbesses, especially, had a great deal of power and were influential figures in their cities. They had multiple ties to the city governments. We should also remember that, at this time, wives did not have many choices in life, either. They often did not decide for themselves whether, or whom, to marry, and there were many cases of young women being married to much-older men. Orsola Formicini’s parents were a very good example of this.
Although there were many women who were forced to join the convent at a very early age, there were also widows who lived in convents, either as nuns or as boarders. Some of them were wealthy and became art patrons for the convent. Lowe writes about one noblewoman who married several times and lived at the convent in between marriages. So, there was not a “typical” nun in Renaissance Italy. The nuns came from many different backgrounds and joined the convent at different ages, and for different reasons. As Lowe explains, the nuns who were involved in the arts, as singers, painters, manuscript copiers, or embroiderers, were allowed to pursue their art in the convent in a way they would not have been allowed to if they had married and raised children. Lowe’s book is a fascinating study, and a great choice for Women’s History Month.
Nuns’ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy is available from the Hatcher Graduate Library.