Reading and (learning to) write in the cloister: the case of the monastery of Santa Clara de Vila do Conde (16th-17th centuries)

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze reading and writing practices within the community of Santa Clara de Vila do Conde, between the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the following century, through an approach that crosses the universes of the literature of spirituality, monastic history and graphic culture. The intersection of these different vertices will allow a clearer view of this convent of cloistered women, namely with regard to the texts they produced, the books they read, the works they kept in their library, as well as the documents they subscribed through their autograph signatures. In all these moments, and in very different ways, they revealed the importance that “knowledge of letters” had both inside and outside the cloister.