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Books and Book Editorships:

S. Plakolm-Forsthuber:
"Florentiner Frauenklöster von der Renaissance bis zur Gegenreformation";
Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg, 2009, ISBN: 978-3-86568-327-4; 264 pages.



English abstract:
Florentine convents from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation

Like other Italian cities, Florence boasted a particularly high number of convents during the Renaissance. The rapid growth of convents during the 15th and 16th centuries had mainly social and socio-political causes. In Florence, there is evidence of a connection between the increasing dowry payments and the foundations of convents encouraged by the city, the Medicis and other benefactors. As a result, the convent remained the only acceptable alternative to marriage, and allowed women a way of life that was appropriate to their social status.
The different architectural designs of monastery and convent churches, and the monasteries and convents themselves are due primarily to the fact that, unlike monks, the nuns were not permitted to take on liturgical functions and in terms of pastoral care were dependent on priests or monks. The central element of the architectural concept of convents was the clausura, which was always applied strictly to nuns, was often tightened and required its own architectural solutions. The latter include the installation in churches of special choirs for nuns, in Florence preferably by means of the construction of a gallery in the entrance area. This divided the church into a lay church and a nun's choir (external/internal church). Additional measures ensured a visual tightness and the regulation of everyday life in the convent buildings. The conversion of dormitories into individual cells often required major conversion work in the cloisters. The individual cells were always the orders' preference for reasons of comodità.
The segregation of the nuns in the church and in the convent's clausura was justified by architecture theory writings, checked by Duke Cosimo I de'Medici in the course of a reform in 1545 and sanctioned in visitations. Of particular importance was the tract Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae (1577) by the Bishop of Milan Carlo Borromeo. Taking for comparison Milan and Naples, whose aristocratic convents were considerably different from those in Florence, this present work examines the extent to which the decisions of the Council of Trent (1545-63) and Borromeo's tract influenced or changed the architecture of the Florentine convents at the time of the Counter-Reformation. It also analyses the role played by the category "gender" in the construction of convents, and the extent to which the nuns managed to preserve space and individual niches for themselves within this microcosm, such as in the design of the refectories.
The text is accompanied by numerous plans and unknown illustrations of Florentine convents.

German abstract:
Der reich bebilderte Band dokumentiert erstmals den hohen Anteil an Frauenklöstern in Florenz. Ihr starkes Anwachsen in der Renaissance hat vor allem sozialpolitische Gründe: die von der Stadt und vielen Stiftern geförderten Klostergründungen wollten dem Überhang an ledigen oder gefährdeten Frauen abhelfen. Die architektonische Konzeption der Nonnenkirchen ist primär vom Umstand geprägt, dass Nonnen keine liturgischen Aufgaben übernehmen durften und der Klausur unterstanden. Die Lösung war der Nonnenchor. Eine Vielzahl von anderen Maßnahmen sorgte für die visuelle Engführung und die Regulierung des Alltags in der Klosteranlage. Gleichwohl waren die Klöster ein Refugium weiblicher Wissensvermittlung und Kreativität, bisweilen auch des Widerstands. Das Aufblühen der Nonnenklöster und deren Zusammenwachsen zu sakralen Vierteln veranlasste Herzog Cosimo I. de' Medici zu einer Reform der Klausur, die auch architektonische und städteplanerische Aspekte berücksichtigt. In vieler Hinsicht nimmt sie vorweg, was die rigiden Schriften des Mailänder Erzbischofs Carlo Borromeo den Frauenklöstern im Zeichen der Gegenreformation auferlegen werden.

Created from the Publication Database of the Vienna University of Technology.