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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
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.
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- Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1998
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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