Description
Book SynopsisThe book is a valuable text for students and scholars in early modern European history, religion, women's studies, and economic history.
Trade ReviewThe 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
Table of ContentsList of Tables, Graphs, and Figures
Preface
1. The Growth of Florentine Convents
Convents in Crisis
The Midcentury Resurgence
The Rush to the Convent
2. Nuns, Neighbors, and Kinsmen
From Neighborhood Enclaves to Citywide Institutions
Property and the Topography of Power
Defenders of the Parish
3. The Renaissance Convent Economy
The Structure of Convent Finance
The Paradox of ''Private'' Wealth
Balancing the Budget
The Medici and the Monte
4. Invisible Hands: Renaissance Nuns at Work
Economic Strategies and Opportunities
The Century of Silk: Nuns and Textile Production
Three Case Studies in Textile Work
Books and Educational Activities
5. Contesting the Boundaries of Enclosure
The Practice of Open Reclusion, 1300–1450
Privatization, Enclosure, and Reform, 1430–1500
The Florentine ''Night Officers''
Ecclesiastical Reform Initiatives, 1500–1540
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
