- Researcher FCT - Scientific Employment Stimulus (CEEC) at the Instituto de Estudos Medievais of the Nova University o... moreResearcher FCT - Scientific Employment Stimulus (CEEC) at the Instituto de Estudos Medievais of the Nova University of Lisbon. Former Marie Curie IF Postdoctoral Fellow (2021-2023) at University Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona. My current research explores the interrelations between the visual and textual cultures, identity and liturgy of the Portuguese mendicant nunneries from the late medieval to the early modern period.
My doctoral thesis (2019) focused on the agency of Portuguese Dominican nuns in the production, patronage and use of illuminated liturgical books and art in the context of the Observant reform.edit
Initiated in Burgundy in the early fifteenth century by Colette of Corbie (1381–1447), the Colettine reforms soon expanded to eastern Iberia, reaching Portugal by the end of the century. In this paper I show how the context in which the... more
Initiated in Burgundy in the early fifteenth century by Colette of Corbie (1381–1447), the Colettine reforms soon expanded to eastern Iberia, reaching Portugal by the end of the century. In this paper I show how the context in which the first Colettine convents were founded in Portugal – a time when Clarissan reform was struggling to take the first steps in this territory and Colette’s endeavours were still a novelty – was reflected in the efforts developed by these communities and their patrons to promote a Colettine identity through the translation and use of a set of normative and para-normative texts, which would become the Colettines’ textual support in Portugal. I also demonstrate that these efforts were accompanied by the promotion of Colette of Corbie’s figure and sanctity through art.
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Free published version in:
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UIRVEY5ZTBKQAIHK7XBS/full?target=10.1080/17546559.2020.1802654
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UIRVEY5ZTBKQAIHK7XBS/full?target=10.1080/17546559.2020.1802654
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full access to the published version here: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/5ZXxuqGDxe3Zm3RkBPC3/full
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Ao longo deste texto pode ver-se como o anonimato que caracterizou a produção manuscrita medieval não transpareceu nas obras das comunidades dominicanas femininas. De modo contrário, a maioria dos casos aqui analisados mostra a... more
Ao longo deste texto pode ver-se como o anonimato que caracterizou a produção manuscrita medieval não transpareceu nas obras das comunidades dominicanas femininas. De modo contrário, a maioria dos casos aqui analisados mostra a importância do registo do envolvimento das monjas no processo de produção ou aquisição dos manuscritos, evidenciando como, também no caso Português, as monjas dominicanas tiveram um papel ativo na produção cultural ligada ao movimento observante. Além do envolvimento na produção e aquisição dos manuscritos (e de outras peças, como se pode ver pelas cartas de Maria de Ataíde), as monjas parecem também ter tido um papel ativo nas escolhas dos programas iconográficos que se demarcaram, como demonstrado, daqueles apresentados pelos códices produzidos fora da comunidade.
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Coexistindo, a partir do séc. VIII, no território que viria a ser Portugal, cristãos, árabes e judeus criaram uma cultura com traços comuns apesar das divergências que os afastavam. Ao longo da Idade Média portuguesa, nas artes plásticas,... more
Coexistindo, a partir do séc. VIII, no território que viria a ser Portugal, cristãos, árabes e judeus criaram uma cultura com traços comuns apesar das divergências que os afastavam. Ao longo da Idade Média portuguesa, nas artes plásticas, vão-se revelando aspectos identitários que podem ser explicados por séculos de convivência destas três culturas do Livro.
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Issued in 1298 by Boniface VIII, the bull Periculoso, predicting full enclosure for professed nuns, found several challenges that prevented its full implementation. It was not until the late Middle Ages, with the rise of the Observant... more
Issued in 1298 by Boniface VIII, the bull Periculoso, predicting full enclosure for professed nuns, found several challenges that prevented its full implementation. It was not until the late Middle Ages, with the rise of the Observant movements, that efforts towards nuns’ enclosure reached a broader, although still questionable, success. With the aim of ensuring compliance with the Orders’ religious rules and constitutions, Observants advocated, among other things, for the nuns’ strict enclosure. Nonetheless, surviving chronicles produced in the Portuguese observant convents, describe how, in some exceptional circumstances, observant nuns would travel outside the enclosure, either to found or reform other convents, or to escape life treathtening situations. Through the analysis of these accounts, and other surviving testimonies, in this paper I will try to analyse not only the circumstances that enabled this kind of trips, but also the arrangements and ceremonies that accompanied them, and the strategies used to keep the enclosure while travelling.
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What I intend to analyse in this communication is if and how, despite the strict rules involving their copying and keeping, liturgical books produced for female religious communities reflected, either textually or visually, the... more
What I intend to analyse in this communication is if and how, despite the strict rules involving their copying and keeping, liturgical books produced for female religious communities reflected, either textually or visually, the characteristics of their audience.
Through the analysis of some exemplars coming mostly from the Portuguese Dominican nunneries I will argue that, in some particular cases, liturgical books used in these communities reflect the effort of both their producers and users to adapt them, not only to be used by nuns, but also to function as identity shapers.
Through the analysis of some exemplars coming mostly from the Portuguese Dominican nunneries I will argue that, in some particular cases, liturgical books used in these communities reflect the effort of both their producers and users to adapt them, not only to be used by nuns, but also to function as identity shapers.
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In this paper I try to analyse the choir books of two Portuguese dominican observant nunneries as a part of a bigger program intend to help in the establishment of the observance in their communities. I'll try to do so by cross-cheking... more
In this paper I try to analyse the choir books of two Portuguese dominican observant nunneries as a part of a bigger program intend to help in the establishment of the observance in their communities. I'll try to do so by cross-cheking textual sources with the decorative programs of the books. After this analisys, it is temptative to see these illuminated manuscripts as a visual reinforcement of the written reformative texts.
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Studies on late Medieval cloistered women proliferated during the last thirty years revealing new information on their way of life, spirituality and cultural expressions. However, scholars have only recently begun to devote their... more
Studies on late Medieval cloistered women proliferated during the last thirty years revealing new information on their way of life, spirituality and cultural expressions. However, scholars have only recently begun to devote their attention to the study of Portuguese female religious communities and their material culture. This panel features three groundbreaking studies on Clarissan, Cistercian, and Dominican nunneries by three scholars from different disciplines: art history, conservation sciences, and musicology, and will provide new insights on artwork in relation to functionality, the materiality of illuminated manuscripts and the link between written and sounding chant.
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This session looks at a number of recent, gender-oriented approaches applied to late medieval Portugal which tackle the issue of knowledge production from different perspectives: philology, cultural history, and codicology. The first... more
This session looks at a number of recent, gender-oriented approaches applied to late medieval Portugal which tackle the issue of knowledge production from different perspectives: philology, cultural history, and codicology. The first paper explores the representations of nobles in the Livro de Linhagens do Deão (ca. 1343) and ensures its non-linear reading by deploying methods of digital humanities. The second paper analyses the processes of learning and knowledge transmission in the Portuguese Colettine nunneries through the analysis of surviving elements of material culture. Finally, by juxtaposing the materiality of books used in both male and female monasteries, the third paper delves into the dynamics of book commission at Lorvão nunnery.
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Studies on late medieval cloistered women proliferated during the last 30 years revealing new information on their way of life, spirituality, and cultural expressions. However, scholars have only recently begun to devote their attention... more
Studies on late medieval cloistered women proliferated during the last 30 years revealing new information on their way of life, spirituality, and cultural expressions. However, scholars have only recently begun to devote their attention to the study of Portuguese female religious communities and their material culture. This panel features four ground-breaking studies on Clarissan, Cistercian, and Dominican nunneries by four scholars from different disciplines: art history, conservation sciences, and musicology, and will provide new insights on artwork in relation to functionality, the materiality of illuminated manuscripts and other artefacts, and the link between written and sounding chant.
Since the late Medieval period, members of female religious communities have engaged in the making of miniatures on a wide variety of supports. Many of these miniatures were produced to ornament liturgical and devotional books; others... more
Since the late Medieval period, members of female religious communities have engaged in the making of miniatures on a wide variety of supports. Many of these miniatures were produced to ornament liturgical and devotional books; others graced objects such as candles and altar frontals. While nuns' activity in this realm has been documented quite extensively in northern Europe, the Italian production of miniatures is less understood, aside from case studies of a few individuals such as Eufrasia Burlamacchi (1482 –1548). It is hoped that this conference will not only consolidate what is known about the production of miniatures by Italian nuns, but also catalyze new research. To encourage reflection upon the continuity of technical practices and models across arbitrary period divisions, the time frame of this conference has been extended broadly. Insight obtained through technical examination or the material analysis of nuns' artworks will be especially welcome. Papers may be given in Italian or English. Some suggested paper topics:-Technical studies on pigments, binding media, or supports used in Italian nuns' miniatures-New attributions of miniatures to Italian nun artists-Biographical studies on Italian nuns who made miniatures-Analyses of the visual or textual sources of the iconography of Italian nuns' miniatures-Miniature painting in the context of liturgy, devotional practices, and conventual life-The commissioning and circulation of works containing Italian nuns' miniatures-Comparitive studies of miniatures and Italian nuns' work in other media such as embroidery-The techniques, training, collaborations, and workshop organization of Italian nuns-Problematic issues in the current historiography on the topic, and methodological questions To apply: please send a CV, a paper title, and a brief abstract of your paper, in English or Italian, to: barker@medici.org by January 15, 2018. Decisions will be announced within three weeks. Limited funding may be available for travel and lodging.
Research Interests: Women's Studies, Material Culture Studies, Book and Paper Conservation, Manuscript Studies, Illumination (Manuscripts, Books), and 8 moreItalian Renaissance Art, Dominican History, Women Artists, Medieval illuminated manuscripts, Female Monasticism, Illuminated manuscripts, Miniatura medievale, and Books for Nuns
The purpose of the workshop is to gather scholars who are carrying on innovative approaches to Dominican convents and nunneries in Spain and Portugal. The study of the architecture and the ornamentation of Mendicant convents has been... more
The purpose of the workshop is to gather scholars who are carrying on innovative approaches to Dominican convents and nunneries in Spain and Portugal.
The study of the architecture and the ornamentation of Mendicant convents has been deeply renewed during the last two decades. Art historians are progressively abandoning a mere technical and stylistic approach to the architecture and the decoration of churches and conventual buildings by focusing the reflection on functional, social and symbolic factors which conditioned their design. This new research tendency regards not only friars’ convents, but also, on the wave of the “gender studies”, nunneries linked to the Mendicant families.
The new questionings are concerned with function of spaces and decoration, in relation to liturgy, burying, and to social and even political activities convents and nunneries housed. They lead art historians to have an interdisciplinary dialogue with scholars from other fields (historians, liturgists, musicologists, archaeologists, anthropologists), and to exploit new kind of sources.
The study of the architecture and the ornamentation of Mendicant convents has been deeply renewed during the last two decades. Art historians are progressively abandoning a mere technical and stylistic approach to the architecture and the decoration of churches and conventual buildings by focusing the reflection on functional, social and symbolic factors which conditioned their design. This new research tendency regards not only friars’ convents, but also, on the wave of the “gender studies”, nunneries linked to the Mendicant families.
The new questionings are concerned with function of spaces and decoration, in relation to liturgy, burying, and to social and even political activities convents and nunneries housed. They lead art historians to have an interdisciplinary dialogue with scholars from other fields (historians, liturgists, musicologists, archaeologists, anthropologists), and to exploit new kind of sources.