Invitation to a nun’s 1805 investiture ceremony. Unrecorded.

[Nuns] / [Ephemera]. Il Maggior Pichi con la sua Consorte prega le Signore Dame e Cavalieri ad intervenire alla Monacale vestizione della lor Figlia Giovanna in questo Nobile Monastero della Stella, che succederà nella mattina delli 2. Ottobre. S.l. [Spoleto]: s.n., s.a. [1805]. [14.6 x 10.3 cm], [1] f. letterpress sheet. A few wrinkles, toning to right blank margin.
 
 
Unrecorded invitation to the investiture ceremony of Giovanna Pichi, who began the formal process of becoming a nun at the Monastero della Stella in Spoleto on the morning of 2 October 1805. The invitation was issued by the parents of the new nun and addressed to “le Signore Dame e Cavalieri.” Ephemeral material printed for the occasion of a “Monacale vestizione” sometimes survives today (e.g., poems composed for the event), but invitations such as this one are rarely encountered today.
 
This invitation (as invitations tend to be) is silent about the details of the event itself, but some information was later recorded in the press. The Diario Ordinario, for example, notes that Giovanna Pichi was from Ancona and that upon becoming a nun she took the somewhat unusual name of Suor Maria Imperatrice Eletta. Many masses were celebrated among the rich decorations designed for the ceremony, and the investiture itself was officiated by Giovanna Pichi’s uncle. Her parents financed refreshments, and all the nuns of the convent were in attendance. Men at arms were posted to ensure that there were no disturbances and that a good time was had by all.
 
Giovanna Pichi and her sister are recorded as having been students (“educande”) at Monastero della Stella in 1800 (La storia dell’anno 1800, p. 141), and Giovanna is known to have risen to the rank of abbess by 1837.
 
The stars at the corners of the typographical border surrounding the text of the invitation likely were chosen by the printer to refer to the Monastero della Stella.
 
 
This item is not located by OPAC/ICCU, OCLC or KVK.
 
*Diario Ordinario, (Rome: Cracas), no. 82 (12 October 1805), pp. 21-22; La storia dell’anno 1800. Divisa in sei libri. Parte terza, p. 141.