Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ActiLit (Women’s practical Literacy and Learning Practices in the late Middle Ages (1350-1500))
Reporting period: 2021-06-15 to 2023-06-14
Due to the fact that the ER has been hired as an associate professor at Clermont Auvergne University from September, 1st 2022, the Action had a duration of 14 months instead of 24. However, even if the Action was shorter than previously stated, we can assert that it was a success. First, because the ER’s career was significantly boosted thanks to the fellowship: the ER has indeed obtained a permanent position as a professor of Medieval History in a French University. Second, because during these 14 months a lot of things have been done and achieved, and others will be in the following months thanks to the work that have been accomplished. However, the tasks corresponding to the months 15-24 of the project could not be completed.
Objective 1 = Defining practical literacy as a social skill.
- Paleographical approach: While the older documents (second half of the 14th c.) written by women are clearly written in a mercantesca-type of script, that is a type of writing used by merchants, this general frame changes quickly, and from the beginning of the 15th century, scripts begin to be more comparable to the textualis letter used by religious men and women in the manuscripts; and finally (end of the 15th c.) to the humanist one. Moreover, the scripts in the convent are more uniform during the 15th c.: this means that the nuns – as long as the lay girls called educande – were trained inside the cloister during the 15th c., but maybe not in the 14th c.
- Overview of the documentation: the accounts have the same form (that highlights the same practices of rendering accounts) in all the Florentine religious communities taken into account: this practice consists in the writing of series of simple accounts (expense/income) for each month, by a couple of nuns (the scrivane) that are to be replaced every two years. The complexity of the documentation grows in the second half of the 15thc., with draft registers, and sometimes double accounting registers. The practice is slightly different in Pisa – one of these differences is the large use of Arabic numbers before Florentine nuns. All these accounts are mostly written by nuns, from the 1350ies onwards (the reason why nuns began to count themselves is still to be found). Some of the documents, however, were written by professional proxies – sometimes the same documents as those written by the nuns, that were copied in a more formal fashion, aimed at being read outside the cloister.
Objective 2= Establishing how knowledge was transferred from the cloister to the household and vice versa
The use of mercantesca script, as long as the accounting techniques are clearly a transfer of merchant culture into female cloisters. The increasing number of educande – young lay girls who were educated into female monasteries for some years – during the 15th c. shows another kind of transfer of knowledge, from the cloister to lay families. The ER has established a list of all the educande mentioned in the documentation taken into account. Finally, she began to study some of the letters written by lay women from the Archivio Datini (only for the female authors who have written several lettres, in order to be able to compare the form of writing).
The broad consequences of the project's results deal mainly with the common percpetion of past Women as illiterate and as non-actors of European cultural History - except for very few and famous cases. We must change the common idea that past Women did not write and did not take part to the transmission of literate knowledge in society. By showing that writing was a normal and day-to-day activity for some categories of Women, this project can be considered as one of the fist steps of this cultural process.
Objective 1 = Defining practical literacy as a social skill.
- Paleographical approach: While the older documents (second half of the 14th c.) written by women are clearly written in a mercantesca-type of script, that is a type of writing used by merchants, this general frame changes quickly, and from the beginning of the 15th century, scripts begin to be more comparable to the textualis letter used by religious men and women in the manuscripts; and finally (end of the 15th c.) to the humanist one. Moreover, the scripts in the convent are more uniform during the 15th c.: this means that the nuns – as long as the lay girls called educande – were trained inside the cloister during the 15th c., but maybe not in the 14th c.
- Overview of the documentation: the accounts have the same form (that highlights the same practices of rendering accounts) in all the Florentine religious communities taken into account: this practice consists in the writing of series of simple accounts (expense/income) for each month, by a couple of nuns (the scrivane) that are to be replaced every two years. The complexity of the documentation grows in the second half of the 15thc., with draft registers, and sometimes double accounting registers. The practice is slightly different in Pisa – one of these differences is the large use of Arabic numbers before Florentine nuns. All these accounts are mostly written by nuns, from the 1350ies onwards (the reason why nuns began to count themselves is still to be found). Some of the documents, however, were written by professional proxies – sometimes the same documents as those written by the nuns, that were copied in a more formal fashion, aimed at being read outside the cloister.
Objective 2= Establishing how knowledge was transferred from the cloister to the household and vice versa
The use of mercantesca script, as long as the accounting techniques are clearly a transfer of merchant culture into female cloisters. The increasing number of educande – young lay girls who were educated into female monasteries for some years – during the 15th c. shows another kind of transfer of knowledge, from the cloister to lay families. The ER has established a list of all the educande mentioned in the documentation taken into account. Finally, she began to study some of the letters written by lay women from the Archivio Datini (only for the female authors who have written several lettres, in order to be able to compare the form of writing).
The broad consequences of the project's results deal mainly with the common percpetion of past Women as illiterate and as non-actors of European cultural History - except for very few and famous cases. We must change the common idea that past Women did not write and did not take part to the transmission of literate knowledge in society. By showing that writing was a normal and day-to-day activity for some categories of Women, this project can be considered as one of the fist steps of this cultural process.
All the documents have been collected, digitalized and classified. The main results are explained here above. [WP1] The documents on the educande have been studied, and the name of the girls have been listed [WP2]. This prosopography will be compared to the existing data on lay women writers, especially those done by Dr. Serena Galasso, in order to understand how the transfer between the families and cloisters worked – following an exclusively female line of transmission of knowledge. The exchanges of knowledge between the cloisters and the world have been thoroughly studied (see above) [WP3].
Dissemination: the ER has exposed her research in different kinds of scientific conferences (students’ seminaries, experts’ meetings, conferences addressed to a wide audience); she has also took part to the “Sciences is Wonderful” experience, and thus showed to children of different ages how much of past women’s written words are still present in our archives. Finally, she has also attended workshop and seminaries on similar kinds of documentation from the Germanic area, opening thus perspectives to a fruitful comparison.
Dissemination: the ER has exposed her research in different kinds of scientific conferences (students’ seminaries, experts’ meetings, conferences addressed to a wide audience); she has also took part to the “Sciences is Wonderful” experience, and thus showed to children of different ages how much of past women’s written words are still present in our archives. Finally, she has also attended workshop and seminaries on similar kinds of documentation from the Germanic area, opening thus perspectives to a fruitful comparison.
The interpretation of the whole amount of documentation collected, as well as the dissemination of the results are still on-going tasks. However, we can assert from now that
- The research has proved that, at least for the Tuscany during the period 14-15th century, writing and accounting was a normal and day-to-day practice for religious women, and a rather largely-spread capacity for lay women, as proved by their presence into female monasteries as educande, and by the Datini letters (the conclusions on this study are still to be drawn).
- The presence of female-hand written practical documentation into Tuscan medieval archives is impressive, especially (and almost exclusively) concerning female religious communities. The ER has emphasized this fact in all the conferences she gave to various types of audiences.
The ER will be able now to publish other papers and book on female medieval writing, on the basis of this study, starting from the idea that female writing in the Middle Ages was not as exceptional as it has always been considered till now (at least for certain contexts and periods), and considering that female convents worked as cultural centres for the transmission of literate knowledge from women to women.
- The research has proved that, at least for the Tuscany during the period 14-15th century, writing and accounting was a normal and day-to-day practice for religious women, and a rather largely-spread capacity for lay women, as proved by their presence into female monasteries as educande, and by the Datini letters (the conclusions on this study are still to be drawn).
- The presence of female-hand written practical documentation into Tuscan medieval archives is impressive, especially (and almost exclusively) concerning female religious communities. The ER has emphasized this fact in all the conferences she gave to various types of audiences.
The ER will be able now to publish other papers and book on female medieval writing, on the basis of this study, starting from the idea that female writing in the Middle Ages was not as exceptional as it has always been considered till now (at least for certain contexts and periods), and considering that female convents worked as cultural centres for the transmission of literate knowledge from women to women.