361 pp / Softcover / ISBN 978-0-7727-2108-2 / $39.95
Edited and Translated by Saundra Weddle
The Chronicle of Le Murate, completed by Sister Giustina Niccolini in 1598, is one of a small number of surviving documents that presents a nun’s own interpretation and synthesis of historical events. It recounts the roughly two hundred-year history of Florence’s largest convent, which attracted boarders, nuns and patrons from Italy’s elite families. The manuscript provides a rare view of life behind the enclosure walls and of nuns’ interaction with the world outside. The messy vitality of this account is an important pendant to the more formal and predictable convent chronicles that dominate the genre.
“Sister Giustina Niccolini’s Chronicle of Le Murate captures both the gritty realities and the soaring spirituality of convent life in Renaissance Florence. Sister Giustina offers an inside look at how her community grew from a small female hermitage circa 1400 into the largest, most prominent Florentine convent by 1600. As she traces this spectacular rise, Sister Giustina illuminates the tenor of everyday life and the complexity of interpersonal relationships within a hothouse atmosphere. Her unique chronicle also bristles with insight into such important issues as collective governance, patterns of patronage, the creation of a rich visual culture, and the decisive impact of Tridentine reform. Weddle’s translation successfully catches the immediacy of the author’s voice as well as its stately cadences.”
— Sharon Strocchia – Emory University.
Saundra Weddle is Associate Professor of Architecture and Art History at Drury University. She has authored several articles relating to the form and function of convent architecture in Renaissance Italy.
“Beautifully translated and admirably framed by an insightful introduction that provides the historical and bibliographic context for the Chronicle, this book is a useful source of information for scholars in many fields as well as an invaluable addition to the primary sources available to students in courses on the Renaissance and early modern periods as well as on gender and religious history more generally.”
— Judith C. Brown, Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Reformé 34/4 (2011), pp. 168-169.
Renaissance Quarterly, 65:1 (Spring 2012), pp. 241-243. Reviewed by Cynthia J. Cyrus.
H-Italy, H-Net Reviews, (July 2012). Reviewed by Anne J. Schutte.
The Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies no longer sells or distributes books in “The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe: The Toronto Series.” Starting July 2015, volumes can be purchased by individuals and institutions from the Chicago Distribution Center. Contact CDC by email (orders@press.uchicago.edu), by fax (800-621-8476 or 773-702-7212), or by phone (800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000).
361 pp / Softcover / ISBN 978-0-7727-2108-2 / $39.95
