Much of the material on nunneries is delicate work on uncertain and poorly-documented foundations.
The nunnery was founded in the fourteenth century; then for a long time the area was left alone.
Requirements for increasingly strict enclosure inevitably loom large in the study of nunnery rules.
Let us begin by considering the physical relationship of the church, the professional space of the clergy, to the nunnery.
Pursuing a religious calling and entering a nunnery provided another acceptable option for women besides marriage.
The monasteries and nunneries are havens where destitute newcomers may hope to find some security and opportunities for education and social advancement.
The number of nunneries rose; they thus owned more and more of the city centre in perpetuity and developed more assertive building projects.
Smith's study of these simultaneously explores the physical structure of nunneries and the rules' construction of them as sacred space.
