Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent

by Mary Laven

Venice in the late Renaissance was a city of fabulous wealth, reckless creativity, and growing social unrest. It was also a city of walls and secrets, ghettos and cloisters. In this captivating book, Cambridge historian Mary Laven uncovers the long-hidden stories of the “Virgins of Venice” and the surprising lives they led. Laven has created a detailed and dramatic tapestry of resourceful, determined, often passionate women who managed to lead fulfilling lives despite their virtual imprisonment. Far from being precincts of piety and silence, the convents were hotbeds of political scheming, colorful pageantry, and illicit love. Rich in intrigue and gossip, eye-opening in its revelations, Virgins of Venice brings to life a culturally vibrant period in Venice and the hidden residents who dwelled behind its walls.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Italy, Renaissance, Historical, Womens

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Mary Laven is a professor of history at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

[Roman Clodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the rather tongue-in-cheek title (I was slightly embarrassed reading this on the tube!) this is an excellent 'alternative' history uncovering the simultaneous autonomy and constraint of Venetian convent women in the C16th-C17th. Far from being merely incarcerated as popular fiction would have us think, women in convents (and this is also the case outside of Venice) were able to function with, sometimes, more social authority than they had outside.

Based on the author's PhD thesis, this straddles perfectly the divide between rigorous scholarship and popular social history: the notes and bibliography give scholars the evidence and references they need, but the narrative is never broken up by footnotes and academic paraphenalia.

One of the most interesting things for me was the extent of similarity between convent women and the famous Venetian courtesans. Both were nominally marginalised and excluded from contemporary social structures and yet carved out their own autonomy in a kind of shadow-society that mirrored the overt one.

This isn't at all a salacious or scandalous read, though some women do manage to conduct a sexual life - and we should remember that Casanova had various convent lovers. Scholars working on early modern women have been doing some excellent work on uncovering convents as sites of female agency: social, scientific, artistic.

Fascinating, enlightening, human and gently amusing, this is a great read.

[G.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! Accessibly written but in no sense dumbed down, full of fascinating stories dug from the Venetian State Archives and told as far as possible in the nuns' own words. A crucial inspiration for An Imperial Concubine's Tale: Scandal, Shipwreck, and Salvation in Seventeenth-Century Japan.

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've a lot less experience with reading non-fiction - especially for enjoyment, not cruising for essay material - than I do with fiction, so I find myself uncertain about how to encapsulate the things I did and didn't enjoy about this. In general, I felt it had too much focus on presenting the historical record, which in this case was primarily the records of church inspections and investigations of Venetian convents. So there were a lot of "take the interesting case of Sister X", or "here's what the inspector said about Y convent", but I felt frustrated by the close focus. I wanted to be a step further back, looking at broader context, and the wider meanings of these isolated incidents. While the author gave quite a bit of explanatory context, especially for things that directly impacted on the convents and nuns, there was still a lot missing (comparative circumstances in monasteries, for instance). Where the broader stuff was filled in, I enjoyed this tremendously. In the chapters where it was lacking - and especially toward the end, as the author started digging into sexuality in the convents without any real notes of the "regular" practice of sexuality at that time and place - I felt bogged down in voyeuristic detail with any notion of its real meaning.

Anyway, I'm off to read more about Venetian society of the sixteenth/seventeenth centuries or so, because there was some wacky stuff going on there, and I am all about the wacky stuff people do to themselves.

[Baroness · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sex, lies, dirty secrets and total perversion. All things bad a woman pretending to be a nun would do or want to do.
Nope not in this book. DNF.

[Traci Andrighetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating—and forbidden—history!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The topic of this book - a look into the convents of medieval/Renaissance Venice - is intriguing enough that I bought it in hardcover, something I rarely do. The first few chapters lived up to my expectations, providing well-researched and documented information about the life of these nuns, those with a vocation and those with little choice. The writer's style is also very readable. My problem with this book is that it became heavily redundant, to the point that it became a chore to reach the last page. Managed to finish it, with determination.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected this book to be more interesting than it was. Once you understand that there were 2 kinds of women in the convents in Venice during this era, you can pretty much stop reading the book. I really was hoping for tales of debauchery and excess--not in this book.

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting look at a life that some chose and some were forced into. Laven speaks about the rising dowry and how it "pushed" parents into forcing girls into convent life. She shows the bad and the good. She also addresses enclosure and how it was sometimes ignored.

[eepî · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 ☆

I started reading this in June. I stopped halfway cuz I got too busy and the book is nonfiction and could not hold my attention.
I started reading it again yesterday and I found out that if I only read a bit more pages, I would have finish it the week I picked it up.

I already have preconceived notion about the catholic church and the nuns and priests so when I read the blurb of this book and the first 80 pages did not confirm what I want to read from the book I put it down. It's a me problem altho I could argue those first chapters a bit boring and repetitive. 

This is about nuns that are mostly forced to be nuns bcuz theyr from noble families for various reasons couldnt marry at that time, priests and archaic people from the 16th century.

The later chapters of the book is great. The author's writing is fair and offered more than one angles when a scandal or issue had arise.

" These exchanges give weight to the view that celibates of both sexes were keen to create situations in which they could mimic heterosexual and heterosocial relationships. But this case is also revealing of the terms on which more personal relationships between particular nuns and friars were conducted. "


The convents strong intent to separate the nuns from society contribute immensely to the nuns' actions. Most of them were young when they forced to be there. The prostitutes, the creation holes in walls to let men in their rooms, sexual relationships with each other and exploitative relationships with the friars- they were in need for communication and healthy community belonging. 


I am glad I finished this. I was really gonna dnf it cuz its been 4 months ! This is barely 200 pages, 20 % of it is notes and references.

[Frrobins · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history detailing the lives of women who were nuns in Venice during the Renaissance. And horrifyingly, I came away from this feeling as though nunneries were more like the worst sort of prisons. During this time period for reasons that Laven documents well, most women were forced to take the veil. It was not a choice. And if that wasn't bad enough, unlike the nuns depicted in popular shows such as Call the Midwife who were trained nurses and traveled to and from the nunnery to deliver babies, the nuns of Venice could not leave the nunnery and could only interact with people, including family, through a grate. I had the pleasure of visiting Venice once and the joys of walking through the magical city left a deep impression on me, and the thought that thousands of women were locked away for no crime and lived their lives there unable to enjoy their city was deeply upsetting.

Laven confronts various ideas popular about nuns, historically and presently, from historical ideas that they were sexually insatiable to modern feminist ideas that nunneries were a rare means by which women could have vocations and gain power, and successfully shows the nuanced reality of the situation and I felt like I learned a lot.

Towards the end of the book I felt things did get a little repetitive and that she'd run out of material. And considering that a lot of this book dealt with the changes the Protestant Reformation brought, I don't think Laven adequately addressed what things were like before the Protestant Reformation and after. Overall would recommend to anyone who is interested.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book that used a lot of primary sources. My biggest “wow” moment was when the author put the convents and their inhabitants within their social, economic and political context. The made a lot of sense of the ‘excesses, scandals and disobedience’ of the nuns of Venice.

I would have loved to have heard more from the perspective of the nuns themselves, but in a patriarchal society where women were forcibly enclosed, it’s not surprising their voicelessness continues to be obvious today.

Just a final note: I very much wish the author would not have interspersed stories of sex with stories of rape. They are not the same thing. One is a woman making decisions about what to do with her body, in a time when it is so heavily policed; the other is someone forcibly taking that decision away from her, exploiting her, and committing violence against her. They should not both come under the banner of “sexual scandal”, especially in a book where the author so gleefully reports the scandals because nun’s sexuality is titillating. Their vulnerability in being sexually exploited is actually truly horrifying.

[Jae Alberi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert! Nunneries were not nice places.

Interesting, infuriating and not surprising origination of nunneries built on dominance and money under the guise of holiness. Many women were unwillingly unloaded here by their families for a much cheaper dowry than marriage. A true prison, worse in some ways, not allowed outside or even to look out with windows boarded. Their rooms were literally called cells. They were allowed to communicate with very limited family members without privacy. Some were starved by the men who stole all their food and of course there was sexual abuse. Some women tried to have relationships with other men and each other, but of course were severely punished if caught.

These quotes sum up the gist of it:

"Aut maritus, aut murus (if not a husband to govern her, then a girl needed a wall to contain her)."

"The rape of nuns was a popular diversion, especially for the nobility"

"The urge to confine and separate lives on---so too, no doubt, the power of human relationships to undermine the walls of enclosed institutions."

And a plaque outside Santa Maria delle Vergini May 2, 1557
"Hope and love keep us in this pleasant prison."

[Valery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Virgins of Venice: Broken Vows and Cloistered Lives in the Renaissance Convent by Mary Laven is an interesting take on the convents of medieval Venice. There were certainly two different types of women there. The lives of the nuns are intriguing and the author captures well the essence of the time period. Some of the content is rather surprising, but nonetheless, the history of the period is well-presented and documented. The writing style is quite readable, while the content itself is somewhat redundant. Overall an interesting read about a period of time that has quite a bit of depth and influence.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest when I got this book from the library I had only title and author name to go by and I was half expecting it to be a book by a great Irish writer (particularly of short stories) of the same name. Well it wasn't the same Mary Laven but this is an excellent and she written a fascinating book about convents and nuns in 16th and 17th century Venice. It is a fascinating topic and Ms. Laven is to be congratulating for providing insight into the history of convents, nuns, Venice, social class, family dynamics - it is just amazing. Of course there are tales of sex, but overall it is a tale of Venetian women (though things she writes about relevancy in other times and countries) and how things what you might think, and certainly not what many men thought.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating. I love reading about nuns, so maybe I'm biased, but they are really one of the most interesting subjects in history. I particularly enjoyed reading about the subtle and not-so-subtle methods nuns used to circumvent the patriarchal institution (perhaps one of the most patriarchal?) that they were steeped in (those nuns partaaaaaayed!)

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting examination of the lives of nuns in Venice during the late Renaissance, fairly obviously based on a doctoral thesis. The writer draws mostly on trial and inquiry records, so it's inevitably a little skewed towards the unusual rather than the commonplace. The scandals really aren't very scandalous in the main!

[Robert Lukins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting accounts of the lives of those living in Venetian convents in the 16th and 17th centuries; no great conclusions are come to and the stories are generally not seen in relation to the wider world, but still, interesting.

[Veronica Freeney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting study of how women were treated in the sixteenth century in the Venetian convents in which they lived. It is a reflection of how women were treated by the Catholic church and the roles they were consigned to play, nun, wife or prostitute.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book especially as it covered a time I did not have a lot of knowledge about. I’ve read other books by this same author and really enjoy the thoroughness of the research involved in the writing. Definitely a page turner!

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched and fascinating insight into the renaissance convent.

[Iza C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a 10/10 for me. There is history, politics and a bit of drama in here, very entertaining as well as educational read.

[Fred]

I once met the author with her husband, another Cambridge academic, outside a cinema in Madrid waiting to see the film 'Love Streams'. My claim to fame.

[John Hackett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating if rather dry study of nuns in Venice living under strict conditions imposed on them by the religious authorities in the 15th and 16th centuries. Somewhat repetitive.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A scholarly work based on the author's doctoral dissertation, Virgins of Venice is diligently annotated and referenced, as expected. Laven's style is accessible and readable, and the topic is one of long-standing interest to me: the cloistering of women, often perforce. I observe similarities in all cultures and circumstances where the phenomenon occurs, whether in the Imperial Chinese family compound, the Sultan's Grand Seraglio, or the convents of Venice during the Counter-Reformation. Laven's research explains much I'd wondered about in late Renaissance religious orders, including social stratification within convents and why some orders required "reforming." Nevertheless, this book took me forever to finish. Her nomenclature, while perhaps perfectly proper in an Anglican English context, was highly problematic for me. Having been practically raised by Catholic women religious, as they prefer to be called, Laven's constant use of words like "nuns," for "sisters" or "women religious," and "nunnery," instead of "convent" or "cloister" deeply offended me on their behalf. It was like running into the real "n word" tossed around unabashedly. I'm sure my amygdala was flaring up like a Christmas tree with every sentence. The effort of not screaming and throwing the book exhausted me after only a few pages per sitting. She makes other small mistakes, too, such as the persistent use of "clothing" for "investiture," the second stage in the profession of vows. Usage errors like these were more irritating than offensive but made me wonder about the accuracy of other details. One star off for taxing me so. Otherwise, recommended.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virgins of Venice provides both an overview of convent life in Venice in the late Renaissance. It is a bit surprising to understand that so very many convents (and there were so very many in Venice at that time - a map at the beginning of the book shows at least 36 convents in the area of Venice and Murano and doesn't include the number in outlying areas) were populated by daughters of nobility. Families often determined that they could not afford the very expensive dowries of multiple daughters and would force their daughters into the convent.

Convents were places of intrigue and scandal. But what were the scandals exactly? Nuns not sharing their worldly possessions with the church and their co-inhabitants? That they perhaps had intimate relations with one another? That the entertained visitors with food they cooked (and treats they baked) ? Or the sexual scandals or the many inappropriate relationships with male visitors to the convents.

Mary Laven combines historical research with some very titillating stories of nun transgressions. Well written on a topic that I at least hadn't completely known about.

[Johanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thin volume & a quick read. This book shows though how many women were pushed into convents as a result of family pressures rather than any vocation and also how men in the ecclesiastical hierarchy abused there position and the women in their domain.As with other material I've read lately it provides an alternative view of an event that I thought I had a clear stance on. As a C of E educated atheist I always thought the reformation was a "good thing" (1066 & all that!) However, as this book partially demonstrates, for women for whom the convent was a refuge and or a way to actually have some sort of role beyond childbearing it was a cataclysm. In places that became largely protestant they were thrown out into the world with little or no support, in those areas that remained Catholic the edicts of the Council of Trent enforced a much darker, completely enclosed life. It is interesting to look at how your perception of events shifts as you consider all the angles. Recommended for anyone with an interest in women's history, the Renaissance or the Reformation.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very informative book on the nuns of Venice during the Renaissance. It describes the living conditions of the nuns, and the ways in which they were treated by the church and the world around them. In some ways, Laven seems to repeat herself (the book is divided into chapters, but it sometimes seems as though she is covering the same topic in several different chapters), and this might be because the book is an extention of her dissertation. The subject was interesting, though, and the book was a quick read at only 200 pages.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the life of nuns in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Venice, drawing on a wealth of material to form a narrative of different aspects of their lives and the society around them. Some background in Renaissance Catholicism is probably helpful, but the text would stand on its own, I think.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read sometime around 2005. Re-read in 2019.

I am actually quite glad that I picked up this one again. I liked it well enough first time around, but by now I know so much more about Italy (and Venice) at this point in history, so the book had so much more to give - and I had reason to bump up the rating with one more star. Entertaining as well as informative.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really easy read for a scholarly work on Renaissance Venice. I would recommend it for anyone, even if you're not interested in the field. It's got some sex, some religion, and quite a lot of research.