Women, History & Prophecy in Early Modern Religion - A Workshop

Speakers

1) Eleonora Cappuccilli (University of Oslo & University of Toronto), who will speak on "Mystic and Prophetic Voices in Dialogue. Lucia da Narni and Maria de Santo Domingo in the Early Modern Reformations"

2) Lorena Sodano Flores (University of Toronto) who will speak on "Rewriting History through Female Religious Eyes: the Historiography of Fiammetta Frescobaldi (d. 1586)"

This workshop will explore the activities of female prophets active in sixteenth century Italy and Spain. At the beginning of the century Maria de Santo Domingo, a Dominican tertiary from Spain, reported having visions of a prophetess, Lucia da Narni, who was active in Italy in the same years. Eleonora Cappuccilli will explore how the two women fashioned their prophetic persona on a model of sanctity and religious reform that challenged traditionally male political and ecclesiastical hierarchies. She will discuss the impact of religious and political networks, of female role models – such as Catherine of Siena – and of Savonarola’s influence in creating the visionary connection between the two women. In Florence the Dominican nun Fiammetta Frescobaldi engaged as a historian with the social and cultural debates of her time. Born to a prestigious Florentine family, Frescobaldi entered a Dominican convent at age 12 and remained there for fifty years until her death. Becoming disabled in her early twenties, Frescobaldi began to write voluminously: histories, hagiographies, chronicles, scientific texts, and translations from Latin to the Italian vernacular. Lorena Sodano Flores will address Fiammetta’s engagement in Renaissance Florentine historiography from inside the convent and the ways she expressed her opinions about cultural and social life in Florence.

This event will be in person at Sidney Smith Hall (100 St George St.), Room

2098 (the “Natalie Zemon Davis Conference Room”) and also online at: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/84642897679