The Velvet and the Veil: Women Between the Cloister and the Court

What did a Venetian courtesan and a Benedictine abbess have in common? More than you might think. In premodern Europe, nuns and courtesans occupied opposite ends of the social spectrum-but both navigated the same world of male power, institutional control, and limited choices with remarkable ingenuity. This course traces the parallel lives of women who took the veil and women who took the court, from the early medieval period through the 19th century. We will meet abbesses who ruled vast estates, mystics who defied church authority, Renaissance courtesans celebrated for their wit and learning, and the great mistresses who shaped the politics of absolutist courts. Drawing on art, literature, biography, and history, this course explores the sacred and the profane as two faces of the same world.