Donne ed eterodossia nell'Italia del Cinquecento

Abstract

To shed light on the question of women and the Reformation in Italy, this essay examines women in various social classes - well-known noblewomen, previously unfamiliar figures from the middling and lower ranks - in the context of their relations with family members, neighbors, and priests. Among female defendants, witnesses, and accusers in trial records from the Venetian Republic and Modena the author finds many staunch proponents of philo-Protestant ideas, some troubled by the religious debate, and still others moved to denounce husbands, daughters-in-law, neighbors, and priests to the Inquisition. On occasion, women manipulated pervasive assumptions about their weakness and subordination to the men in their families, as well as their subaltern legal status, so as to disclaim responsibility for their religious ideas. Often, they broke free of prescriptions by speaking about religion and taking action on their own or in female groups, independent of or even against their families.