Book cover for Prostitution, Repentance and Social Welfare in Renaissance Florence

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

Copyright: © Gillian Jack 2026

Number of pages: 224

Number of illustrations: 6

Publication date: 15 October 2026

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Prostitution, Repentance and Social Welfare in Renaissance Florence

The Monastery of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite

Gillian Jack (Author)

Series: New Historical Perspectives

Published in association with: Institute of Historical Research, Royal Historical Society

Open Access publication funded by Jisc Open Access Community Framework

From the fourteenth century, prostitutes in Florence were encouraged to leave their profession and spend their lives in repentance at the monastery of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite. Many did over its 500 years, and the monastery was soon one of the most populous in Florence. As the longest enduring monastery for repentant prostitutes, Sant’Elisabetta is an integral part of the history of nuns and of prostitution in the medieval and early modern periods, and had an important place in municipal responses to social welfare and civic morality. It is only by uncovering successive governments’ involvement in Sant’Elisabetta that we can fully understand how the city attempted to manage both prostitution and welfare.

This is the first book-length study to put Sant’Elisabetta into its full historical context. It establishes the place of this often-overlooked nunnery in the wider world of medieval penitential piety, renaissance charity and early modern social welfare, exploring the myriad ways in which the Florentine authorities attempted to stabilise Sant’Elisabetta’s finances and ensure its continued survival. Drawing on diverse archival sources, the book’s long chronological scope offers valuable insights into the broader histories of the relationship between the Florentine state and monastic institutions, public policy, welfare and women in the long Renaissance.

Gillian Jack takes us deep into the workings of one of Florence’s most compelling institutions. Piety and poverty were among the forces shaping Sant’Elisabetta over centuries, but Jack shows how it was above all the women who sheltered there at the shifting margins of acceptability who made it indispensable.
—Nicholas Terpstra, Provost & Vice-Chancellor, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Introduction
1 Prostitution and Repentance in Medieval Context
2 The Foundation of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite
3 Legalised Prostitution and Funding Repentance
4 Municipal Funding and Increased Interference
5 Making Prostitutes Pay for Sant’Elisabetta
6 Sant’Elisabetta, the Law, and Exceptions to It
7 A New Era of Financial Stability
Conclusion
Appendix: The Nuns of Sant’Elisabetta delle Convertite
Bibliography

PDF: 9781911507611

Hardback: 9781908590978 / 224 pages / 240mm x 160mm

Paperback: 9781908590985 / 224 pages / 234mm x 156mm

Gillian Jack (Author)

Gillian Jack is a historian of late medieval and early modern Italy, with a focus on poor women and girls in Florence. She is currently an Associate Lecturer at The Open University where she has taught history from Greek myth to the 1970s.

Subject: History, Religious History

BISAC codes: HIS020000, HIS037020, HIS058000, POL019000, REL084000, SOC032000

Thema codes: JBSF1, NHDL, NHTB, QRVS

Keywords: 14th Century, 15th century, Charity, Florence, Italy, Long Renaissance, early modern, monastic institutions, nunneries, prostitution, public policy, welfare, women