Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
A Note on the Translation 31
A Brief Discourse on What Occurred to the Most Reverend Sisters of the
Joined Convents of San Mattia and San Luca from the Year 1573 (1575) 33
The Arrival and the Miraculous Workings of the Glorious Image of the
Virgin Mary Painted by Saint Luke, through the Year 1616 (1617) 67
Appendix
Poems by Malvasia in the Arrival, in Italian and English 121
Dedicatory Letter from Santi Riccetelli, Cronica di tutto il successo
[Chronicle of All That Occurred] (1574) 126
Dedicatory Letter from Leandro Alberti, Cronichetta della gloriosa
Madonna di San Luca, accresciuto da un Reverendissimo
Religioso [Short Chronicle of the Glorious Madonna of
San Luca, Augmented by a Most Reverend Religious] (1579) 127
Bibliography 129
Index 137

About the Author

Danielle Callegari received her Ph.D. from New York University. She has published on Dante, early modern nuns, and food and politics in Italy. Her current research focuses on the social and political history of food and eating in medieval and early modern literature. Shannon McHugh completed her Ph.D. at New York University. Her publications include articles on Vittoria Colonna and on literary underworld journeys. Presently she is working on a book that explores constructions of masculinity and femininity in early modern Italian lyric poetry.

Reviews

The two convent chronicles by Diodata Malvasia tell the story of Bologna’s most famous religious icon, the Madonna of San Luca, and of the struggle of convent women with authorities over its control. The earlier chronicle includes epistolary exchanges between the convent and civic and ecclesiastical authorities — extraordinary examples of the art of persuasion and eloquent documents of the interconnectedness of convent and secular life. Callegari and McHugh provide an accurate, clear and elegant English translation, with introduction and notes that provide an indispensable guide to the times, the characters and events portrayed; they give us a unique voice from Renaissance Bologna, an important cultural center under-represented in contemporary research on women’s history and literature. 

Elissa B. Weaver
Professor Emerita of Italian Literature, University of Chicago