Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance

A portrait of 16th and 17th century Italian convent life, set in the vibrant culture of late Renaissance Venice. Early 16th century Venice had 50 convents and about 3000 nuns. Far from being places of religious devotion, the convents were often little more than dumping-grounds for unmarried women fron the upper ranks of Venetian society. Often entering a convent at seven years old, these young women remained emotionally and socially attached to their families and to their way of life outside the convent. Supported by their private incomes, the nuns ate, dressed and behaved as gentlewomen. In contravention of their vows they followed the latest fashions in hair-styles and footwear, kept lap-dogs and threw parties for their relations. But in the 16th and 17th centuries the counter reformation was to change all that. Threatened by the advance of protestantism, the Catholic Church set about reforming its own institutions. A new state magistracy rapidly turned its attentions to policing the nuns' behaviour, relentlessly pursuing transgressors on both sides of the convent wall.