550 guido ruggiero
least, this reality led to a division among convents that most were well
aware of—some convents were spiritual retreats from the world that lived
up to the monastic ideal, others were less committed to the spiritual life,
and a few were quite open and integrated into the social and sexual life of
the city. The unnamed convent where Giulio first encountered Valiera at a
party seems to fall into this latter category. in fact, it is reported that Vene-
tians often took visitors to the city to visit the convents which were famed
for their music, learned nuns, and glamorous parties. The rather dour and
moralistic Venetian diarist, Girolamo Priuli, whose diaries record the last
years of the 15th century and the first of the 16th, sums up the situation
nicely, “i believe in this diary i have described enough... the dishonest
life of these Venetian nuns, who being truly of noble blood and origin
are most beautiful, delicate and filled with every virtù especially in song,
playing and every other musical ability and in handicrafts... [such nuns
are] famous to all foreigners, lords and others who have come to Venice
for they are immediately taken to such convents to hear and admire their
ability in music and also to see the most beautiful things made there with
hand and needle.”13
some were noted for more. criminal documents reveal that at least 33
convents had one or more prosecutions for fornication there in the period
1350–1500, with nine being very active in such activities. The most famous
or infamous convent sant’angelo di contorta across the 15th century was
involved in 52 prosecutions for sexual offenses that apparently involved
most of the nuns and the abbess as well. certainly its record was anoma-
lous, but a close examination of the crimes prosecuted there and at other
convents suggests that if quietly practiced, there was an acceptance in the
city that at certain convents nuns were not locked away from the world
or its sexual life. rather, convents could be exciting centers of youthful
courtship and upper-class contact between the sexes that played a signifi-
cant role in the social and sexual life of the city, especially for the young.14
again we find ourselves in wonderland.
13 Girolamo Priuli, I Diarii, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, vol. 24 (Bologna, 1912–33)
part 3, vol. 4, pp. 33–34. Priuli remarks just before this text, “to tell the truth [there are]
more than fifteen convents... which can be called public bordellos... with the greatest
offense to God.. .”
14 for an extensive discussion of this see: ruggiero, Boundaries of Eros, pp. 70–88,
especially pp. 77–84. see also Gabriella Zarri, Recinta: Donne, clausura e matrimonio nella
prima età moderna (Bologna, 2000); and Jutta sperling, Convents and the Body Politic in
Late Renaissance Venice (chicago, 1999).