Women Religious Crossing between Cloister and the World. Nunneries in Europe and the Americas, ca. 1200–1700

Abstract

Nuns and sex: rumour or fact? Did nuns stay in touch with the outside? Despite ecclesiastical authorities insistence on enclosure, were nuns truly isolated? How did nuns in observant convents administer their possessions outside the enclosure without leaving it? Which women can really be considered as “Dominican”? Those who were officially linked with the Order or those who perceived themselves as Dominican? Has Fountevraud’s identity as the order in which women lead and men serve medieval origins? Which evidence do we have of transatlantic ties before the arrival of the first European nuns in New Spain in 1620? How could Afro-Latin American women embody saintly virtues? These are some of the questions asked by the essays gathered here. This book conducts a long-term inquiry regarding the differences and similarities, the continuities and discontinuities in various aspects of the active role of women in monastic and religious life during a long chronological framework (c. 1200-1700). Such a transhistorical approach highlights the continuities between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Traditional periodization with a strict division between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period has not only made it difficult to understand these continuities, but has also led to the attribution of early modern features to the earlier period, as happened with Fontevraud’s identity (Müller). This volume also explores the transregionality and the fluidity of transatlantic exchange of models between Europe and America, and the continuities and connections between several geographical areas. Finally, the interdisciplinary dialogue established between scholars from different backgrounds allows a more comprehensive approach to seeing religious women organizing their life inside their communities and their relationship with the world. The main issues of this book are two: the transatlantic paradigm in the study of religious women; and the fluidity or permeability of enclosure and the relationship between these monasteries and the social milieu of their era. In both cases, spatial considerations are a significant element of the analysis, and the common thread of the different studies here presented. This volume is an invitation to continue dialogue among international scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, to open new horizons, and to raise new research questions that will inspire future scholarship. https://www.arc-humanities.org/blog/2022/04/18/on-women-religious-crossing-between-cloister-and-the-world/