The Nun of Monza
Published July 06, 2005
I have been reading about the "superfluous daughters" in early modern Italy who were, with varying degrees of force, pushed into nunneries.
Unsurprisingly, there's little detail about the process or the fate of the women, so it is said the best account is the story in Allessandro Manzoni's I promessi sposi, which was inspired by the life of Marianna de Leyva, known as "the nun of Monza," (Monza being a city near Milan).
After eight years of education in a convent she writes to her father saying she does not want to be a nun. Taken home, she is held in virtual solitary confinement and allowed not the smallest of pleasures. Finally she gives in and is whisked back to the convent:
"I am here," began Gertrude, but on the point of offering the words that were to have almost irrevocably sealed her fate, she hesitated for a moment and fixed her eyes on the crowd in front of her. She saw, in that moment, one of her companions, who was watching her with an air of compassion mixed with maliciousness, and seemed to be saying, "Ah, the clever one has fallen into the trap!" That sight, reawakening with even more force in her soul all the old feelings, restored a little of her old courage and she was already searching for any answer other than the one dictated to her when, raising her eyes to her father's face, as if to tests her strength, she saw such sinster anxiety, such threatening impatience that prompted by fear, with the same readiness with which she would have taken flight before a dreadful object, she continued, "I am here asking to be admitted to take the habit in this convent where I was so lovingly raised."
Later, she took a lover and murdered a servant who threatened to expose her. There's been at least one movie made of her story—it is described as "nunsploitation," so I doubt it has much value.
The text, described as "the first modern Italian novel," is available in Penguin classics, and I note from Amazon that one of its "statistically improbably phrases" is "poor innocent girl," which isn't exactly reassuring as to its value as an account.
Even Google scholar doesn't throw up anything—sounds like a topic ripe for re-exploration.
This from Musical Voices of Early Modern Women: Many-Headed Melodies, T. Lamay (ed) Ashgate, 2005, "The Good Mother, the Reluctant Daughter , and the Convent,: A Case of Musical Persuasion, Colleen Reardon, pp. 271-286.
Natalie is the editor of My London Your London, an independent cultural guide featuring theatre, gallery and museum reviews, and also blogs at Philobiblon, on history, culture, Green politics and all things feminist. She's the founder of the Carnival of Feminists, and Managing Editor and Books Editor on Blogcritics.
- The Nun of Monza
- Published: July 06, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Books
- Writer: Natalie Bennett
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IMdb has the movie listed as La Monaca di Monza, but the description doesn't sound much like "nunsploitation":
Disturbing but accurate Italian Chronicle of the XVII century. It depicts the real story of the Spanish nun Virginia de Leyva, a noble forced to take the religious votes in the Italian convent of Monza, where she becomes mother superior, and of her violent affair with an Italian "Signorotto", after which she gives birth to a girl. He gets killed, she ends up buried alive for more than ten years in a tiny cell. Cruel inner plots, corruption, sex hidden behind the walls between nuns and priests, hysteria and general hypocrisy, not to mention tortures and psychological violence, all make up to a disturbing but effective kind-of prequel to Ken Russell's The Devils. The story of Virginia de Leyva also inspired a famous chapter of the Italian historical novel I promessi sposi by Alessandro Manzoni.
Unless The Devils was also "nunsloitation," that is...
The Devils is indeed a nunsploitation film. In fact, it is considered the grandaddy of nunsploitation, having sparked a golden age for the genre in the 1970s by giving rise to a host of imimtators.
There are several movies based on the Monza tale. As you pointed out, the 1968 film The Nun of Monza was one of them. It actually followed Monza films made in 1962 and 1947. There was also a 1967 theaterical version by playwright Giovanni testori.
Other Monza films include The True Story of the Nun of Monza, I Promessi Sposi, and the recent Italian TV series, "Renzo e Lucia" .
Thanks folks - and to think I'd never previously heard the term ...
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I have changed the category of this post from "News" to "Opinion." Opinion is not 100% appropriate, but this post isn't a review, per se, and it isn't really news, either.