DONNE A FIRENZE NEL SEICENTO Peste e religione, Gesuiti e istruzione nell’esperienza di Eleonora Ramirez de Montalvo*

The paper analyses the Eleonora Ramirez di Montalvo’s experience (1602-1659): she is the founder of the congregation of the so-called Montalve. The congregation was dedicated to the education of girls humble and of noble young women. This is a case study of a certain importance, owing to the link between the Eleonora’s educational project and the pastoral job of the Florentine Jesuits and owing to the success of the Montalve schools, the educational and training model realised by the congregation founded by Eleonora. It it would be applied by Grand Duke Leopold of Lorraine to the female Conservatories that, by his will, were instituted after the suppression of the ecclesiastical institutions. The focus of the paper is on the relationship between Eleonora Ramirez’s experience and the extremely difficult socio-sanitary and economic situation of the pandemic period (1630-1633), reading it in parallel with the activity of the Florentine Jesuits whose pastoral work and example played a very important role in stimulating and directing her edicational projects. Finally, the article shows that Eleonora Ramirez’s educational project was a reaction to the devastating social effects of the plague, which tragically affected the weaker social strata and women in particular.