Caterina Vigri (later Saint Catherine of Bologna) was a mystic, writer, teacher and nun-artist. Her first home, Corpus Domini, Ferrara, was a house of semi-religious women that became a Poor Clare convent and model of Franciscan Observant piety. Vigri's intensely spiritual decoration of her breviary, as well as convent altarpieces that formed a visual program of adoration for the Body of Christ, exemplify the Franciscan Observant visual culture. After Vigri's departure, it was transformed by d'Este women patrons, including Isabella da Aragona, Isabella d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. While still preserving Observant ideals, it became a more elite noblewomen's retreat.Grounded in archival research and extant paintings, drawings, prints and art objects from Corpus Domini, this volume explores the art, visual culture, and social history of an early modern Franciscan women's community.
- Women, Art and ObservantFranciscan Piety
- Contents
- List of Plates and Figures
- Colour Plates
- Black & White Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. The Pious Women of Corpus Christi
- Bernardina Sedazzari’s House in Via Praisolo
- Leaders of the Community
- The Inventory of 1426: Ecclesiastical Vestments
- Relics, Devotional Objects and Art
- From Urban Hermits to Cloistered Nuns
- 2. Building a Public Image of Piety
- San Guglielmo as a Poor Clares ‘Anti-Model’
- Building the First Church and Convent
- The Poor Clares Form of Life
- The Entombment and Adoration of the Host Altarpieces
- 3. The Sette Armi Spirituali and its Audience
- The Corpus Christi Community 1431–56
- Women’s Education in Ferrara, Mantua and Urbino
- Corpus Christi Library and Lectio Divina
- The Sette Armi Spirituali and Teaching Novices
- 4. Drawing for Devotion: Sister Caterina’s Breviary
- Nuns’ Artwork: Aesthetic, Medium and Materials
- The Kalendar and Psalter
- Personalizing her Breviary: The Temporale and Hymnarium
- Poverty, Penitence and Franciscan Saints in the Sanctorale
- Vigri’s Man of Sorrows and the Gaude Virgo Mater Christi
- 5. Corpus Christi’s Later Religious and Civic Identity
- The Sette Armi Spirituali and Observant Reform
- The Community and Casa Romei
- The d’Este Duchesses as Patrons
- Later Fifteenth-Century Art and Visual Culture
- Corpus Christi as a Pantheon of d’Este Women
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Introduction
- 1. The Pious Women of Corpus Christi
- 2. Building a Public Image of Piety
- 3. The Sette Armi Spirituali and its Audience
- 4. Drawing for Devotion: Sister Caterina’s Breviary
- 5. Corpus Christi’s Later Religious and Civic Identity
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Bibliography
- Manuscript Sources
- Baltimore, MD
- The Walters Art Museum (WAMBa)
- Bologna
- Archivio di Stato (ASBo)
- Archivio Generale Arcivescovile, Archivio della beata Caterina (AGABo)
- Biblioteca Comunale Archiginnasio (BCABo)
- Biblioteca Universitària (BUBo)
- Archivio del Convento di Corpus Domini (ACDBo)
- Ferrara
- Archivio del Convento di Corpus Domini (ACDFe)
- Archivio Storico Diocesano (ASDFe)
- Archivio di Stato (ASFe)
- Bibliotecta Comunale Ariostea (BCAFe)
- Florence
- Biblioteca Riccardiana (BRFi)
- Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale (BNCFi)
- London
- British Library (BLLo)
- Oxford
- Bodleian Library (BLOx)
- Mantua
- Archivio di Stato (ASMa)
- Milan
- Biblioteca Ambrosiana (BAMi)
- Archivio di Stato (ASMi)
- Modena
- Biblioteca Estense Universitària (BEUMo)
- Archivio di Stato (ASMo)
- Perugia
- Biblioteca Comunale Augusta (BCAPe)
- Philadelphia, PA
- University of Pennsylvania Library (UPPh)
- Printed Primary Sources and Historical Fonts
- Secondary Sources
- Index
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