"Per monialium poenitentium manus". La tipografia del monastero di Santa Maria Maddalena alla Giudecca, detto delle Convertite (1557-1561)

The nuns of Santa Maria Maddalena, known as ‘le Convertite’, a convent located on the island of Giudecca in Venice, has printed, between 1557 and 1561, at least twenty-five editions of devotional texts in both Latin and Italian. The article focuses on reconstructing the history of this publishing program while at the same time attempting to describe the overall activities of the printing house, which operated in association with the Venetian bookshop ‘al Segno della Speranza’. Behind the initiative lay the shadowy figure of the convent’s chaplain, the priest Zuan Piero (Giovanni Pietro) Leoni from Valcamonica, who exploited the nuns’ labour as well as using them to satisfy his carnal desires. Leoni was tried and condemned to death in St Mark’s in 1561; his death led to the closure of the convent’s printing house.