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444 Annali d’italianistica 30 (2012)
rare as any other in Florence, everyone judging its value to be 300 scudi, and it
cost 134” (264). Beyond the enjoyment of Renaissance art, the convent of Le
Murate was tightly connected with well-known citizens and institutions. The
nuns’ connections with the life of the city shaped their political orientation and
contributed to the identification of the convent as pro-Medicean. This Chronicle
casts light on a religious institution that had a secular import and a major impact
in the life of Florentine women of the time. The convent functioned as an
essential component of the support network for lay women who, after having
received part of their education inside the convent, kept a close relationship with
the nuns even once they left the convent walls.
The material of the chronicle is divided into 78 chapters and arranged
chronologically. As Weddle reminds us in her introduction, Sister Giustina
abided by the intrinsic humility dictated by her habit and rule and was not
concerned with the notion of individual authorship. In her introductory letter
Sister Giustina sets forth her task by claiming to possess a “weak, cowardly
soul” and a “natural ignorance and base intellect” (42); as a consequence, she
describes the experience of the convent and celebrates its founders as if
expressing herself through a communal voice. The chapters reveal facts that
vary in nature and are often transfigured into signs of the divine plan to which
the nuns of Le Murate were strenuously struggling to conform. When Smeralda
Venturi decided to join the sisters and abandon her secular life (as well as a
husband, after an unconsummated marriage), her steps from her house to the
convent are guided by a young man “with a handsome face and marvelous
manners” (79) that Giustina immediately identifies with an angel. She talks
about internal politics (mainly consisting of the elections of abbesses, invariably
reported as effortless fulfillments of God’s will and wisdom); relationships with
the Pope and other Florentine personalities visiting the convent (visits that seem
to follow at times secular patterns: in chapter 26 Pope Leo X, upon receiving
from the abbess an illuminated missal, promptly compensates her with 200 gold
scudi in alms); practices of devoutness (all of which produce miracles and
visions, often recounted in the language of nuptial mysticism: “Innumerable
other things could be said about the effects of the holy prayers made by our
mothers for their spouse Jesus with profound humility, pure affection, and the
illuminated flame of love. They squeezed from these ripe fruits the sweet juice
of heavenly grace in their breasts, able to perform marvelous works that build
and secure our congregation’s foundation upon the living rock, Christ” 101).
Giustina deals as well with practical matters such as construction at the
convent, an issue arising rather frequently given the growing population of nuns
and, at times, of lay women in need of assistance. These are occurrences that
address a key concern Weddle refers to as the “double bind,” that is, the clash
between the nuns’ need for financial support and the desire to cultivate
seclusion. Unable to comply strictly with the rule of enclosure announced in