In Widow's Habit: Women between Convent and Family in Sixteenth-Century Milan
Recent scholarship has recognized that medieval and early modern nunneries functioned as refuges, both permanent and temporary, for many kinds of women who could not or would not live in family households. Widows were particularly numerous among the convents' transient populations. But a widow&...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
1994
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
Year: 1994, Volume: 25, Issue: 4, Pages: 787-807 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Recent scholarship has recognized that medieval and early modern nunneries functioned as refuges, both permanent and temporary, for many kinds of women who could not or would not live in family households. Widows were particularly numerous among the convents' transient populations. But a widow's own family often competed with the convent for her loyalty and money. Her options in this situation were limited both by legal constraints that affected her dowry, inheritance, and independence, and by cultural expectations. This study concentrates on nine widows who lived in the Angelic Convent of San Paolo in Milan in the sixteenth century, and details the varying ways in which widows could construct the difficult family-convent relationship. It uses widows' wills, convent chronicles, and other notarial records to argue that the convent could take the place of the family in a widow's life. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/2542255 |