Conventi di clausura a Firenze: architettura e topografia tra Controriforma e Barocco, in S. Bartocci, S. van Riel (a cura di), REUSO. La cultura del restauro e della valorizzazione. Temi e problemi per un percorso internazionale di conoscenza, (atti del 2° Convegno Internazionale sulla documentazione, conservazione e recupero del patrimonio architettonico e sulla tutela paesaggistica), Firenze 2014, pp. 967-974 (ISBN 978-88-6055-829-9)

CONVENTS IN FLORENCE: LATE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE STRUCTURES AND TOPOGRAPHY. Mario Bevilacqua-Università di Firenze With the Council of Trent the Catholic Church defined new rules for the life of nuns: their communities had to comply with strict rules of seclusion, the convent becoming a self-contained island within the urban fabric. All contacts between religious communities and lay society were reduced to a minimum, and put under strict regulations and control. During the second half of the 16th century the convent shapes its inner spaces and outer face according to its new functions; the need to withdraw from the dangers of the countryside as well as from the busy life of city centres, called for a new topography of women's sacred institutions within late 16th and 17th century Italian towns. Convents were re-located towards the city walls, where they could enjoy silence, air and light, acquiring vast areas to develop their simple and functional architecture, and open spaces such as cloisters and gardens, essential to secure health to women who would spend their entire life literally walled in. Since the 19th century, buildings meant for now extinguished or suppressed religious communities, with grand common spaces, halls, cloisters and gardens, have found new life as spaces for new communities. The case of Florentine convents is of special interest: the crown of sacred houses that defined the city's topography in the 16-18th centuries, has been partly preserved and re-used as community buildings, specially fit to house university structures.