Maria Arcangela Biondini (1641–1712) e il monastero delle Serve di Maria di Arco. Una fondatrice e un archivio (review)

This collection of essays results from the collective effort of nine scholars and offers an all-round view on the life and work of the Venetian-born nun Maria Arcangela Biondini. The volume explores different aspects of Biondini’s existence, focusing on her spiritual and mystic experience as well as her impressive literary productivity, while also providing insights into the social and cultural contexts in which she lived. Biondini was a religious reformer of her monastic order, the Serve di Maria, and the founder of a new convent in Arco, in the northern Italian diocese of Trent. A prolific author who saw writing as part of her contemplative as well as active experience (essays by Adriana Valerio and Franco Azzalli), her works included her autobiography, a history of the foundation of her convent, spiritual texts, and letters. She gained fame as a charismatic spiritual director; and from her convent she corresponded with devout women and men, both religious and lay (essays by Cecilia Nubola, Giuliana Boccadamo, and Rosa Casapullo). Indeed, Biondini’s experience acquires meaning especially in relation to her spiritual influence that certainly went beyond the circumscribed environment of the cloister. Her contacts and correspondence brought her links with members of artistic circles—like the ex-cleric and musician Paris Francesco Alghisi—and with some of the protagonists of the international political scene in Vienna and Paris. She also corresponded with King Louis XVI of France, to whom, in 1705, she addressed a letter urging him to support the Catholic cause and to take care of the spiritual dimension of life and his own salvation, for which she prayed (essays by Liliana De Venuto, Remo Crosatti, and Luigi Bressan). All this unfolded while religious and political conflicts tore Europe apart, yet new or reformed religious organizations emerged in which women enthusiastically participated, as well as spiritual movements, such as quietism and the alumbrados. The in-depth analysis of Biondini’s case study never loses sight of the broader context, thereby inviting readers to speculate on the many implications of observing the world from the rather unusual perspective of a cloistered nun. In line with the most recent scholarly interpretations, the volume clearly supports the view of the convent as an enclosed space with permeable walls and many links with the outside world that were individually and collectively created by the nuns. To a large extent, the volume also shows that female religious sometimes crossed gender divides by entering the realm of politics and participating in current debates. This is discussed, for example, in relation to Biondini’s mysticism and visions, some of which had a political meaning—she attributed the Habsburg defeat of the Turks, in 1683, to the intercession of the Virgin—but also in relation to some of her writings that touched on crucial cross-cultural matters. Her tract on Confucius and the controversy on the “Chinese rites,” which exploded within the Catholic Church in the second half of the seventeenth century, reminds us that the political and religious questions that attracted the attention of the European learned groups were also addressed by cloistered nuns. In the case of Biondini and her fellow nuns, a collection of books was available in their convent’s archive (Bressan). Undoubtedly, this volume brings together traditional scholarly approaches as well as more innovative and experimental ones. The psychodynamic reading of Biondini’s monastic ideal and experience, which is carried out mainly through the textual analysis of her writings, offers interesting suggestions for further research in this direction (Lucio Pinkus). On the whole, some of the chapters could have drawn more consistently on the conflicts that marked Biondini’s life, such as, for instance, her relationships with...