Vida monástica feminina e expressões de criatividade e cultura em Évora no período pós-tridentino.

Abstract

Early modern age witnessed the proliferation of monasteries and convents also in Evora, particularly from the mid-16th century. From distinct foundational and temporal matrices, these communities have bequeathed us a heritage that we need to remember and that it is not only the buildings, or the memories that exist in them in various forms, their dispersed assets when they are extinguished, their mark on the urban fabric or periurban city: it is also its documentary and musical heritage, artistic and concerning books. The nuns of that time were protective agents, producers, commissioners and diffusers of culture and artistic work, although under the dictates of Trent and the male superiors on which they depended. In the synthesis we present here, we insert the Cistercian monastery of São Bento de Cástris (Évora) in the general context of the female religious houses from the 16th to the 18th centuries with regard to cultural practices, and we highlight the musical ones.