Nun of Monza show in Milan
Woman who conspired in lover's deeds inspired Manzoni character
12 March, 12:43
(ANSA) - Milan, March 12 - The story of an infamous nun who
took a lover, conspired in the murders he committed, and
inspired a character in Alessandro Manzoni's masterpiece I
Promessi Sposi is the focus of a exhibition here looking at the
confinement of 16th-century noblewomen in Italy.
The exhibition at the Castello Sforzesco reconstructs the
life of Marianna de Leyva (1575-1650), better known as the Nun
of Monza, and explores how families of that time often pushed
daughters into convents in order to save money, avoid splitting
family property or rid themselves of unwanted offspring.
But the exhibition also looks at other confinements placed
on the lives of women, as well as considering specific cases of
individuals who broke these restrictions, such as Anne Boleyn
and Lucretia Borgia.
Marianna de Leyva, the daughter of a powerful Spanish
family in the northern Italian city of Monza, was forced into
the Santa Margherita Convent at the age of 16, where she took
the name Sister Virginia.Desperately unhappy, she repeatedly wrote to her father urging him to allow her to return home. However, after a few years, she began a love affair with a nobleman Gian Paolo Osio, whose house bordered the grounds of the convent. Their affair resulted in two pregnancies, a stillborn in 1598 and a daughter named Francesca in August 1604. Osio took in his daughter but when she was just two, a lay sister at the convent threatened to expose the arrangement. Osio killed the sister with the help of two other nuns, and then tried to kill them as well in order to ensure their silence.
One of the women managed to escape and both Osio and Sister Virgina were arrested. The former was sentenced to death while the nun was condemned to life imprisonment in a tiny walled-in cell in Milan.
The exhibition helps reconstruct Sister Virginia's life through various original documents relating to her family, which owned the building that now houses Milan city hall.
Letters she exchanged with Cardinal Federico Borromeo, who ordered her release after 13 years, are on loan from the prestigious Ambrosiana Library, while the original records of Sister Virginia's trial have been brought from the Milan Diocese's Historic Archive. The papers also reveal other aspects of life in that era, such as the use of exorcisms to free individuals of the evil eye and the use of torture to extract confessions. In addition, the exhibition looks at other depictions of the Nun of Monza, whose story was made famous by Manzoni's celebrated 1840-41 historical novel in which she appeared as the figure of Sister Gertrude. The story of Sister Virginia and her fictional counterpart were popular subjects for art and etchings, several of which appear in the exhibition. A final section looks at her depiction in theatre and film, with a particular focus on a 1967 TV series by filmmaker Luchino Visconti. The exhibition runs at Castello Sforzesco until March 21.
photo: 'Monaca di Monza', 2004 Italian TV film
