Craig A. Monson's Books

Habitual Offenders

A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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Habitual Offenders

A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

In April 1644, two nuns fled Bologna's convent for reformed prostitutes. An investigation went nowhere, and the nuns were forgotten. By June of the next year, however, an overwhelming stench drew a woman to the wine cellar of her Bolognese townhouse, reopened after a two-year absence, where to her horror she discovered the eerily intact, garroted corpses of the two missing women. Drawing on primary sources, Monson reconstructs the history of crime and punishment in seventeenth-century Italy.

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352

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022633533X

ISBN 13

9780226335339

The Black Widows of the Eternal City

The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous Poisoners

By: Craig A. Monson

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The Black Widows of the Eternal City

The True Story of Rome’s Most Infamous Poisoners

By: Craig A. Monson

The Black Widows of the Eternal City offers, for the first time, a book-length study of an infamous cause célèbre in seventeenth-century Rome, how it resonated then and has continued to resonate: the 1659 investigation and prosecution of Gironima Spana and dozens of Roman widows, who shared a particularly effective poison to murder their husbands. This notorious case has been frequently discussed over 350 years, but the earliest writers concentrated more on fortifying their reading constituency’s shared attitudes than accurately narrating facts. Subsequent authors remained largely content to follow their predecessors or keen to improve upon them. Most recent writers and bloggers were unaware that their earlier sources were generally unconcerned with a correct portrayal of real events. In the present study, Craig A. Monson takes advantage of a recent discovery—the 1,450-page notary’s transcript of the 1659 investigation. It is supplemented here by many ancillary archival sources, unknown to all previous writers. Since the story of Gironima Spana and the would-be widows is partially about what people believed to be true, however, this investigation also juxtaposes some of the “alternative facts” from earlier, sensational accounts with what the notary’s transcript and other, more reliable archival documents reveal. Written in a style that avoids arcane idioms and specialist jargon, the book can potentially speak to students and general readers interested in seventeenth-century social history and gender issues. It rewrites the life story of Gironima Spana (largely unknown until now), who has dominated all earlier accounts, usually in caricatures that reiterate the tropes of witchcraft. It also concentrates on the dozen other widows whose stories could be the most recovered from archival sources and whom Spana had totally eclipsed in earlier accounts. Most were women “of a very ordinary sort” (prostitutes; beggars; wives of butchers, barbers, dyers, lineners, innkeepers), the kinds of women commonly lost to history. The book seeks to explain why some women were hanged (only six, in fact, most of whom may not have directly poisoned anyone), while dozens of others who did poison their husbands escaped the gallows and, in some cases, were not even interrogated. It also reveals what happened to these other alleged perpetrators, whose fates have remained unknown until now. Other purported culprits, about whom less complete pictures emerge, are briefly discussed in an appendix. The study incorporates illustrations of archival manuscripts to demonstrate the challenges of deciphering them and illustrates “scenes of the crime” and other important locations, identified on seventeenth-century, bird’s eye-perspective views of Rome and in modern photographs. It also includes GPS coordinates for any who might wish to revisit the sites.

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Page Count

259

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0472126970

ISBN 13

9780472126972

Divas in the Convent

Nuns, Music, and Defiance in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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Divas in the Convent

Nuns, Music, and Defiance in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

Monson retells the story of Vizzana and the nuns of Santa Cristina to elucidate the role that music played in the lives of these cloistered women. Monson explains how the sisters fought back with words and music, and when these proved futile, with bricks, roof tiles, and stones.

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Page Count

298

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226535193

ISBN 13

9780226535197

Nuns Behaving Badly

Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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Nuns Behaving Badly

Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

Witchcraft. Arson. Going AWOL. Some nuns in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy strayed far from the paradigms of monastic life. Cloistered in convents, subjected to stifling hierarchy, repressed, and occasionally persecuted by their male superiors, these women circumvented authority in sometimes extraordinary ways. But tales of their transgressions have long been buried in the Vatican Secret Archive. That is, until now. In Nuns Behaving Badly, Craig A. Monson resurrects forgotten tales and restores to life the long-silent voices of these cloistered heroines. Here we meet nuns who dared speak out about physical assault and sexual impropriety (some real, some imagined). Others were only guilty of misjudgment or defacing valuable artwork that offended their sensibilities. But what unites the women and their stories is the challenges they faced: these were women trying to find their way within the Catholicism of their day and through the strict limits it imposed on them. Monson introduces us to women who were occasionally desperate to flee cloistered life, as when an entire community conspired to torch their convent and be set free. But more often, he shows us nuns just trying to live their lives. When they were crossed—by powerful priests who claimed to know what was best for them—bad behavior could escalate from mere troublemaking to open confrontation. In resurrecting these long-forgotten tales and trials, Monson also draws attention to the predicament of modern religious women, whose “misbehavior”—seeking ordination as priests or refusing to give up their endowments to pay for priestly wrongdoing in their own archdioceses—continues even today. The nuns of early modern Italy, Monson shows, set the standard for religious transgression in their own age—and beyond.

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258

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0226534626

ISBN 13

9780226534626

Nuns Behaving Badly

Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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Nuns Behaving Badly

Tales of Music, Magic, Art, and Arson in the Convents of Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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258

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University of Chicago Press

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ISBN 10

0226534626

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9780226534626

Habitual Offenders

A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

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Habitual Offenders

A True Tale of Nuns, Prostitutes, and Murderers in Seventeenth-Century Italy

By: Craig A. Monson

“An enthralling amalgam of sex, violence, and scholarship. At the center of the story are the abduction and murder of two reformed prostitute nuns” (Frederick Hammond, Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome). In April 1644, two nuns fled Bologna’s convent for reformed prostitutes. A perfunctory archiepiscopal investigation went nowhere, and the nuns were quickly forgotten. By June of the next year, however, an overwhelming stench drew a woman to the wine cellar of her Bolognese townhouse, reopened after a two-year absence—where to her horror she discovered the eerily intact, garroted corpses of the two missing women. Drawing on over four thousand pages of primary sources, the intrepid Craig A. Monson reconstructs this fascinating history of crime and punishment in seventeenth-century Italy. Along the way, he explores Italy’s back streets and back stairs, giving us access to voices we rarely encounter in conventional histories: prostitutes and maidservants, mercenaries and bandits, along with other “dubious” figures negotiating the boundaries of polite society. Painstakingly researched and breathlessly told, Habitual Offenders will delight historians and true-crime fans alike. “Monson’s combination of style and substance makes this a thoroughly engaging work to read. His ability to move from the smallest of significant objects, silver-handled forks and scarlet jackets, to examine the struggles for power between the Pope and Europe’s most powerful families is notable, resulting in a work highly enjoyable for academic and lay readers alike.” —Women’s History “Monson delivers cut-to-the-quick truths about survival strategies for individuals and families, both great and small, caught in networks from Bologna, through Venice and papal Rome, reaching as far as Mazarin and the king of France.” —Alison K. Frazier, author of Possible Lives: Authors and Saints in Renaissance Italy

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352

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022633547X

ISBN 13

9780226335476

Disembodied Voices

Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent

By: Craig A. Monson

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Disembodied Voices

Music and Culture in an Early Modern Italian Convent

By: Craig A. Monson

Tells the story of the nuns of Santa Cristina della Fondazza - gifted singers, instrumentalists, and composers who used music to circumvent ecclesiastical authority and to forge links with the world beyond convent walls

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354

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ISBN 10

0520088751

ISBN 13

9780520088757

Book's by Craig A. Monson

Habitual Offenders

Habitual Offenders

The Black Widows of the Eternal City

The Black Widows of the Eternal City

Divas in the Convent

Divas in the Convent

Nuns Behaving Badly

Nuns Behaving Badly

Nuns Behaving Badly

Nuns Behaving Badly

Habitual Offenders

Habitual Offenders

Disembodied Voices

Disembodied Voices

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