The Monastery of Santa Lucia in Foligno and the Legenda of Santa Chiara. From Beguine Community to Scriptorium.

Abstract

During the fifteenth century female convents flourished in north-central Italy revealing a flurry of extraordinary literary production together with an unprecedented intellectual activity among women: the monastery of St. Lucia in Foligno is particularly interesting for being emblematic of this new direction among female institutions. From the old beghine of lay communities to the enterprising wealthy nuns of later monasteries, women found their way through social discrimination. They were capable of surviving marginalization by using and reversing to their advantage the same religious establishment that was relentlessly persecuting them.