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MONASTIC POVERTY AND MATERIAL CULTURE IN EARLY MODERN ITALIAN CONVENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2004

SILVIA EVANGELISTI
SILVIA EVANGELISTI
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Abstract

This article discusses the meaning of material culture in early modern Italian convents. Although nuns were required to give up private property rights and embrace religious poverty, many of them brought into the convent a vast range of material objects and goods for their personal use. These goods could also be given away, exchanged, or lent to others within the monastic community and even outside it. By exploring the circulation of objects, money, and goods, we get an interesting picture of how female monastic institutions worked internally and interacted with the city. We also gain a better understanding of the role of objects in articulating religious discipline and regulating the networks of interpersonal relations within cloistered communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 1 - 20
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I began work on this article as a British Academy Fellow at the Newberry Library, in Spring 2002. I am greatly in debt to both institutions for supporting my research. I would like to thank Tricia Allerston, Sandra Cavallo, Flora Dennis, Rupert Sheperd, and Tessa Storey, for questions and comments. Thanks to Jonathan Hopkin for polishing the English in the final draft.