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Women, Charity and Community in Early Modern Venice: The Casa delle Zitelle*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Monica Chojnacka
Monica Chojnacka*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Abstract

This article examines the Casa delle Zitelle, a charitable institution for young women at risk of falling into prostitution, in early modern Venice. Founded by a group of deeply religious noblewomen, the Casa reflected the social anxieties of the time that linked social ills to prostitution, as well as a new spirit of social activism inspired by religious conviction on the part of the city's elite. The Casa also created a new type of female community that drew both on familial structures and the traditional female networks that were characteristic of Venetian neighborhoods.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , Spring 1998 , pp. 68 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1998

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was funded by a grant from the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and a University of Georgia Faculty Research Grant. An early version was presented at the Emory University Vann Seminar on early modern Europe; the author would like to thank its participants for their suggestions, particularly Sharon Strocchia and Laura Mason. In addition, the author wishes to thank Edward Muir for his helpful comments.

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