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The Rhetoric of Mary: Early Modern Italian Convents and the Architecture of Virginity Isabel Teramura
The Council of Trent, convening during the years 1545-1563, aimed to evaluate and establish the values of the Catholic CounterReformation in response to the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation. Among its many reforms, the topic of enclosure for cloistered women was left until the last sessions and discussed hastily. The resulting declarations were vague and left much room for interpretation. However one major decision was the renewal of the Bull Periculoso of 1298, which called for the strict enclosure of nuns.1 Largely, the rhetoric of the Protestant Reformation advocated for the dissolution of convents, which were cast as corrupt and unfounded in scripture.2 In Italy, however, the post-Reformation period generally saw Catholic aristocratic convents reinvigorate the practice of enclosure. Strictly cloistered life was a massive shift for the life of cloistered women, who often had social roles as teachers, doing charity work,3 or begging and trading in the city.4 The spiritual work of nuns turned inward. Convent architecture from this period exemplifies this reclusive spirit: the buildings were transformed by the construction of walls, gates, grilles, doors, covered passages, and courtyards. The transition of aristocratic cloisters from open to closed spaces was motivated by a desire to hide visibly; nuns were withdrawn from public spaces into buildings which visually gestured at their purity. I argue that this architectural transformation speaks to an ideology of visible seclusion drawn from the Protoevangelium of Mary. The story of the birth of Mary, found in the protogospel of
