Food and music were both considered dangerous stimulants for women. During the modern age they could express themselves as ‘artists’ only inside nunneries: Isabella Leonarda – an Ursuline nun from Novara – was the most prolific female composer of the seventeenth century. Moreover, the first book of recipes ever written by a woman comes from an Italian nunnery: Maria Vittoria della Verde, a Dominican nun from Perugia, wrote down 170 recipes from 1583 to 1607. While bishops considered elaborate music and food dangerous for the spiritual well-being of nuns, it is evident that both were used to maintain a lively relationship with the external world. Fasting was the opposite system of affirming themselves.
Gioia Filocamo (2015). Strategic Minimalism through Food and Music in Early Modern Nunneries / Minimalismo estratégico através da comida e da música nos conventos do início da Idade Moderna. REVER, XV(1), 48-57.
Strategic Minimalism through Food and Music in Early Modern Nunneries / Minimalismo estratégico através da comida e da música nos conventos do início da Idade Moderna
FILOCAMO, GIOIA
2015
Abstract
Food and music were both considered dangerous stimulants for women. During the modern age they could express themselves as ‘artists’ only inside nunneries: Isabella Leonarda – an Ursuline nun from Novara – was the most prolific female composer of the seventeenth century. Moreover, the first book of recipes ever written by a woman comes from an Italian nunnery: Maria Vittoria della Verde, a Dominican nun from Perugia, wrote down 170 recipes from 1583 to 1607. While bishops considered elaborate music and food dangerous for the spiritual well-being of nuns, it is evident that both were used to maintain a lively relationship with the external world. Fasting was the opposite system of affirming themselves.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
