Povere nella città. Esperienze religiose femminili dal “Liber elimosinarum Comunis Fabriani” .

This article examines various forms of female religiosity in 14th-century Fabriano through an analysis of the Liber elimosinarum Comunis Fabriani (1339-1340), an unpublished, municipal accounting register of public almsgiving. The study reconstructs Fabriano’s religious and urban profile within the polycentric context of the Marca Anconetana: a centre lacking an episcopal see, yet endowed with fully developed civic functions, with a focus on the political and identity-shaping role of public piety as an instrument of control and legitimation of communal power. Through a close analysis of the practices of alms distribution, the Liber offers a mapping of female religious experiences, with particular attention to small communities of recluses (carcerate), which emerge as a quantitatively significant and socially recognised phenomenon. Adopting a gender-based approach, the article argues that voluntary reclusion should be interpreted not merely as the outcome of control or marginalisation, but as an autonomous religious choice