TY - BOOK ID - 78641812 TI - A convent tale PY - 2002 SN - 0415927188 1315023164 1136694536 9781136694608 1136694609 9781315023168 041592717X 9780415927178 041593043X 9780415930437 041592717X 9780415927178 9781136694530 9780415927185 9781136694677 PB - New York Routledge DB - UniCat KW - Convents KW - San Paolo Converso (Milan, Italy) KW - History KW - Milan (Italy) KW - Mailand (Italy) KW - Milano (Italy) KW - Milão (Italy) KW - Mediolanum (Italy) KW - Comune di Milano (Italy) KW - Church history KW - Christian religious orders KW - anno 1500-1599 KW - anno 1600-1699 KW - Milan UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:78641812 AB - Power often operates in strange and surprising ways. With A Convent Tale, Renee Baernstein uncovers some of the nuanced methods cloistered women devised to exert their agency. In the tradition of Simon Schama and Steven Ozment, Baernstein uses the compelling story of a single clan, the Sfondrati, to refashion our understanding of the early modern period. Showing the nuns as neither helpless victims nor valiant rebels, but reasonable beings maneuvering as best they could within limits set by class, gender and culture. Baernstein writes against the tendency to depict women as inactive ER -