RIFORMA PROFETICA E POTERE POLITICO. IL MONASTERO AGOSTINIANO DI SANTA MARTA E LE SUE MISTICHE NEL DUCATO DI MILANO FRA QUATTRO E CINQUECENTO

Through the analysis of largely unpublished archival sources and manuscript materials, this dissertation investigates the unique experience of female charismatic religiosity that flourished between the late Quattrocento and early Cinquecento within the Augustinian monastery of Santa Marta in Milan, eventually extending to other local regular institutions, in light of recent scholarship on early modern female prophetism and Italian religious life during this period. The investigation focuses on the formation and transformation of a clearly recognizable mystical tradition, the associated practice of female spiritual direction and the evolution of a collective prophetic charisma understood as a reflection of broader shifts in the religious sensibility during the considered period. The aim is to examine specific aspects of female religious life, primarily, though not exclusively, cloistered, while reflecting on the relationship between political power and prophetism within a historically significant yet understudied context such as the first two decades of the Sixteenth century. Furthermore, this research highlights the specific characteristics of this tradition within the context of early modern Milanese religiosity, emphasizing its nuances within the broader phenomenon of the sante vive (living saints), a category in which historiography has long situated it. Through a patient reconstruction of the characteristics of the magisterium and the reformist agendas of its mystics, the case of the monastery of Santa Marta offers the opportunity to grasp the full complexity of this fundamental juncture in Italian spiritual life. In particular, it highlights the close link between political and social crises and the spread of new religious needs, and demonstrates how the city of Milan constitutes an important observatory for understanding key aspects and problems of the religious crisis of the early modern era.