Convents and the Body Politic in Late Renaissance Venice

Convents and the Body Politic in Late Renaissance Venice

By:"Jutta Gisela Sperling"
Published on 1999-01 by University of Chicago Press

In late sixteenth-century Venice, nearly 60 percent of all patrician women joined convents, and only a minority of these women did so voluntarily. In trying to explain why unprecedented numbers of patrician women did not marry, historians have claimed that dowries became too expensive. However, Jutta Gisela Sperling debunks this myth and argues that the rise of forced vocations happened within the context of aristocratic culture and society. Sperling explains how women were not allowed to marry beneath their social status while men could, especially if their brides were wealthy. Faced with a shortage of suitable partners, patrician women were forced to offer themselves as \

Ranked by Google Books for keyword politic for 5.

-ZPuOBqDu0QC

9780226769363

0226769364

417

BOOK

"History"

NOT_MATURE

en

http://books.google.com/books?id=-ZPuOBqDu0QC&printsec=frontcover&dq=politic&hl=&cd=5&source=gbs_api

http://books.google.com/books?id=-ZPuOBqDu0QC&dq=politic&hl=&source=gbs_api

PARTIAL

true

false

http://books.google.com/books/reader?id=-ZPuOBqDu0QC&hl=&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_api

SAMPLE

false