Whores and public brothels was how Italian moralists denounced the nuns and convents in sixteenth century Venice.
Stuffed with aristocrats with no real calling and no marriage prospects, many convents were hubs for elite family parties and fine dressing up. Far from the virginal ideal of the Catholic Church. Historian Mary Laven, author of a new book on Renaissance convents, Virgins of Venice, tells Martha how the Church cracked down. Mary Laven, Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent, published by Viking £16.99 ISBN: 0670896357
