Humanism and Education in Medieval and Renaissance Italy: Tradition and Innovation in Latin Schools from the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

ly apply to Beatrice del Sera.In Amor di Virtù, del Sera has a character, Aurabeatrice, protest against the isolation and confinement of women.Weaver tells us that "the grim opening of the manuscript introduces the author and the theme most central to the play, the unjust treatment of women."Another character in the plays declares "they are women not pictures to hang on a wall."Weaver observes that del Sera's message is clear: "women have been put in the convent and left there, as one hangs a picture and need not think of it again."Weaver does not ignore the Church's reactions to the theatrical aspirations of the nuns, and in some cases, their opposition to what the clergy deemed to be a conflict between their creative activities and their role as women religious.For instance, the nuns resisted orders to cease theatrical presentations in which they wore men's clothing, mustaches and beards to portray various male roles in plays.Even the most sombre reader may smile at the image of these nuns sporting mustaches and beards.Chapter five, follows various plays and authors from "manuscript to print, from the convent to the world" providing an informative examination of the develop- ment of various women writers who were receiving "serious notice from the outside world."One such example was Maria Clemente Ruoti, who in 1649 became the first woman and only nun to be inducted into the Florentine Academy of the Apatisti.In chapter six, the concluding chapter.Weaver moves beyond Tuscany to look at how convent theatre flourished in the rest of the Italian peninsula and points beyond: probably in all Catholic Europe and in the New World colonies.Some may question Weaver's frequent use of the term "young boys" referring to presentations by confraternity members (18, 51, 52, 63, 73 ).It has been suggested by others that in the Italian Renaissance the term "youth" seemed to include men as old as age thirty-five (Ilaria Taddei, ''Puerizia, Adolescenza, and Giovinezza' in The Premodem Teenager, Toronto: CRRS, 2002).However, this is a small issue that does not detract at all from this illuminating text that will clearly be of interest to scholars in disciplines as diverse as History, Women's Studies, Art History, Renaissance stud- ies, and Italian as well as the study of religion-the latter because Weaver offers important insights into relations between the early modern church, lay piety and secular society.Convent Theatre in Early Modern Italy clearly demonstrates how theatre was an important part of convent life that provided education and entertainment for many nuns and for the female members of their families.