Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy: Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women

by Elissa B. Weaver

Overview

This study shows how theater was an important feature of convent life from the early fifteenth century, probably in all of Catholic Europe and its colonies. For this study, mainly devoted to Tuscany, the author has found an extensive corpus of theatrical works of convent provenance, which argues for the widespread practice of theater in the convents. She traces its chief characteristics—what the nuns' own writings tell us about their literacy and that of their audiences, and how their lives and work intersect with secular society and literary culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521039024
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/16/2007
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Notes on texts and translations; Introduction; 1. Renaissance culture in Italian convents, 1450–1650; 2. The convent theatre tradition; 3. Plays and playwrights: the earliest examples; 4. Spiritual comedies in the convents; 5. From manuscript to print, from the convent to the world; 6. Beyond Tuscany; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"[An] important contribution to the history of theater, the history of monasticism, and women's studies...This volume should be found in all college and university libraries." Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher