Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy - Spiritual Fun and Learning for Women

This book is a study of convent theatre in Italy, an all-female tradition. Widespread in the early modern period, but virtually forgotten today, this activity produced a number of talented dramatists and works worthy of remembrance. Convent authors, actresses and audiences, especially in Tuscan houses, the plays written and produced, and what these reveal about the lives of convent women, are the focus of this book. Beginning with the earliest known performances of miracle and mystery plays (sacre rappresentazioni) in the late fifteenth century, the book follows the development in the convents at the turn of the sixteenth century of spiritual comedy and of a variety of dramatic forms in the seventeenth century. Convent theatre both reflected the high level of literacy among convent women and contributed to it, and it attested to the continuing close contact between the secular world and the convents - even in the Post Tridentine period.

List of contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Notes on texts and translations; Introduction; 1. Renaissance culture in Italian convents, 1450-1650; 2. The convent theatre tradition; 3. Plays and playwrights: the earliest examples; 4. Spiritual comedies in the convents; 5. From manuscript to print, from the convent to the world; 6. Beyond Tuscany; Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

Summary

A pioneering study of convent theatre in early modern Italy, an all-female dramatic tradition popular in its time but now virtually forgotten. It reveals much about convent authors, convent education, the high level of the nuns' literacy, and surprisingly close relationship between the convent and secular culture.

Product details

• Authors: Elissa Weaver, Elissa B. Weaver, Weaver Elissa B.
• Assisted by: Gigliola Fragnito (Editor), Cesare Mozzarelli (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.03.2015
• EAN: 9780521550826
• ISBN: 978-0-521-55082-6
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 22 mm
• Weight: 640 g
• Illustrations: 17 b/w illus., Raster, nicht spezifiziert
• Series: Cambridge Aerospace; Cambridge Studies in Italian History and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; European History, HISTORY / Europe / Italy, PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, Italy, Theatre Studies, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, 16th century, c 1500 to c 1599, c 1500 to c 1600, C 1600 To C 1700