Disciplining body and mind in the female conservatoires of the Old Regime. The case of the Conservatory of the Holy Conception in Rome, named the ‘Viperesche’s’ (centuries XVII-XIX)

The practices of disciplining - understood as a process of embodiment of external behaviour standards - are a central point of the educational methods applied in the institutions of the Old Regime. Educate the body to educate the mind: this was the main objective of the educational model adopted in the educational institutions especially in the post-Tridentine Catholic world. We can find a significant example of this educational approach in women’s conservatoires, which represent a nodal chapter of female education history in modern age. Born to defend the honour of orphan and abandoned girls or to protect the widows and unhappily married women, or even to retrieve the honour of fallen women (repentant prostitutes, former prisoners), the female conservatoires are among the most representative institutions of the complex and still largely unexplored educational system active during the decisive centuries of the modern age. Appeared in the early Sixteenth century on the initiative of wealthy lays or religious sensitive to the requests of protection and education of particular women’s groups, during the seventeenth century the female conservatoires became a stable presence in Italian and European cities, assuming a level of specialization more and more refined and fit to be a reference of that context’s needs. Initially conservatoires’ educational programmes, despite the wide range of specific goals of these institutions, were based on three elements: basic literacy, catechism and womanly work. Discretion and modesty were the key principles of the conservatoires’ educational project and were instilled through a meticulous plot of rules, aimed at organizing every hour of the boarders’ day and foster a capacity of full domain over their actions, words and passions. At present, although we have some good studies of synthesis (Groppi; Rocca) and insights about specific cases and periods (Guidi Schiavoni; Potter; Fantappiè; Sani) many questions on the characteristic and evolution of female conservatoires, especially as regard to a multifaceted and central context as the Roman one, are still open. We believe that these gaps can be effectively filled in only through the analysis of important specific case studies. On the basis of this conviction, we decided to shed light on the institutional and educational history of a relevant Roman institution: the Conservatory of the Holy Conception in Rome, known as the Viperesche’s. Founded in 1668 by the noble lady Livia Vipereschi to accommodate «those poor dangerous and well-born spinsters, who couldn’t enter the other holy places in Rome because of their age», the Viperesche’s Conservatory remained active during most part of the Twentieth century, overcoming many difficult historical phases, to which it answered by re-formulating its objectives and educational programmes. In this article the history of the institution is reconstructed with the help of a rich unexplored corpus of manuscripts and printed sources preserved at the Historical Archives of the Conservatory. The research focuses on the first two centuries of the institution’s history, paying specific attention to the internal organization and educational programmes, from which we infer valuable information on the disciplining processes directed to the boarders.