Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 2792
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Bruzelius , Caroline A.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Hearing is Believing: Clarissan Architecture, ca. 1213-1340 [The article studies convent churches in medieval Italy, in order to evaluate changes in the liturgical participation of Clarissan nuns. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source URL: Gesta 31, 2 (1992): 83-91. Link Info Later published in Medieval Religion: New Approaches. Edited by Constance Hoffman Berman. Routledge, 2005. Pages 272-289. target = '_blank'>Gesta 31, 2 (1992): 83-91. Link Info Later published in Medieval Religion: New Approaches. Edited by Constance Hoffman Berman. Routledge, 2005. Pages 272-289.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Architecture- Religious Assisi, Perugia, Italy- Monastery of San Damiano Assisi, Perugia, Italy- Monastery of Santa Chiara Monastic enclosure Monasticism Naples, Napoli, Italy- Monastery of Santa Chiara Naples, Napoli, Italy- Monastery of Santa Maria Donn
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 13- 14
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Eleven Figures. See the linked article in JSTOR to view these illustrations. Figure One San Damiano, Assisi, longitudinal section. Figure Two San Damiano, Assisi, plan. Figure Three San Damiano, Assisi, plan of the dormitory and oratory. Figure Four Santa Chiara, Assisi, plan. Figure Five Santa Maria Donnaregina, Naples, elevation of apse. Figure Six Santa Maria Donnaregina, Naples, plan. Figure Seven Santa Maria Donnaregina, Naples, longitudinal section. Figure Eight Santa Chiara, Naples, interior. Figure Nine Santa Chiara, Naples, nun's choir. Figure Ten Santa Chiara, Naples, nun's choir, openings towards the altar. Figure Eleven Santa Chiara, Naples, plan.
  • Table:
  • Abstract: The implications of strict enclosure for the architecture of women religious have rarely been examined, even though the legislation often specifies a variety of barriers, screens, and wheels to protect and separate communities of women from the outside world. This essay examines the architecture of several Clarissan convents in Italy in order to study the character, location and evolution of the nuns' choirs over the course of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. I will propose that the increasing importance of eucharistic devotion in the late thirteenth century generated a new type of church and choir plan that is exemplified in the monumental convent church of Sta. Chiara in Naples [Reproduced by permission of the International Center of Medieval Art.].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Duke University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1992.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: Not Available
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