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Dipartimento di Giurisprudenza | Department of Law 129

The monastery welcomed women coming from the highest Modenese
aristocracy. Between the XVI and XVII centuries – a period of pros-
perity for the religious community – a renowned group of musician
nuns was born around the figure of sister Sulpizia Cesis (1577-1622
post), count Annibale’s daughter, a capable performer and composer
of motets published in 1619. Around 1630, San Geminiano monas-
tery came to house almost 90 nuns together with boarding students,
servants, unmarried women and widows that often found shelter in
the monasteries. During the first half of the 17th century, three Este’s
women lived in the monastery: sister Giulia Felice (1588?-1646), bi-
ological daughter of cardinal Alessandro, duke Cesare’s brother; sister
Angela Caterina (m. 1661), at the time called Princess Eleonora, duke
Cesare’s daughter – both nuns were dedicated to music – and Beatrice
Bentivoglio (1604-1683), daughter of marquis Ferrante and Beatrice
d’Este from San Martino, who was a boarding student from 1611 and
1618, future founder of the convent of the Discalced Carmelites of
Modena.
Thanks to the progressive enlargements due to the acquisition of ad-
joining buildings, San Geminiano became one of the largest monas-
teries in the city. The construction of a new dormitory for the nuns
dates to 1536 – achieved after the demolition of the porch on via San
Geminiano, while in 1539 a new edifice towards the neighbouring San
Paolo monastery was raised. New buildings were being built around
the complex, the monumental cloister with a porch and loggia, on
which two university classrooms are now overlooking. The cloister – a
suggestive example of renaissance architecture – opens on three sides
through a large columned porch, with round arches and groin vaults.
On the upper level a loggia with small columns, small round arches and
wooden trusses covering is located. Each arch of the underlying porch
correspond to two little arches of the loggia. Despite the fact that these
elegant and spacious buildings convey an overall vision of harmonious

Porticato al primo piano dell’ala occidentale, Porch on the first floor of the Western Wing,
The San Geminiano Monastery’s Cloister
Complesso di San Geminiano, Modena San Geminiano Monastery, Modena