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Monastic Women and Religious Orders in Late Medieval Bologna
Sherri Franks Johnson explores the roles of religious women in the changing ecclesiastical and civic structure of late medieval Bologna, demonstrating how convents negotiated a place in their urban context and in the church at large. During this period Bologna was the most important city in the Papal States after Rome. Using archival records from nunneries in the city, Johnson argues that communities of religious women varied in the extent to which they sought official recognition from the male authorities of religious orders. While some nunneries felt that it was important to their religious life to gain recognition from monks and friars, others were content to remain local and autonomous. In a period often described as an era of decline and the marginalization of religious women, Johnson shows instead that they saw themselves as active participants in their religious orders, in the wider church and in their local communities.
- GenresHistory
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 15, 2023
This is a solid overview of women's religious communities and their broader social contexts in late medieval Bologna—in this period, one of the most important cities in what is now Italy. Sherri Franks Johnson makes extensive use of Bologna's archival records make the case that, rather than being marginalized, these women were active participants in their wider world. It's of a piece with much scholarship on women's monasticism and religious identity of the last 20-30 years—e.g. Sharon Strocchia or Alison More—and bolsters them, even if Franks Johnson's arguments are not in themselves particularly groundbreaking. A useful reference for those working on women's/Italian monasticism in the Middle Ages.
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July 20, 2015A monograph both useful and interesting, lucidly outlining the histories of Bologna's houses of religious women, and placing them in their late medieval context. Johnson's argument for the importance of considering houses with fluid affiliations, and their connections to local networks both ecclesiastical and civic, is persuasively and strongly made.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews