Buildings

Le Convertite

The convent was first home to Augustinian nuns to provide a place for repentant prostitutes ("per quelle molte donne di mala vita che si convertono al bene.") According to Sharon Strocchia, the Convertite was the largest convent in Florence in 1368 with twenty-five repentant prostitutes living there. It was also among the poorest convents in the city in 1427 with gross assets of 515 florins as compared to the two richest convents at S. Pier Maggiore (9,658) and S. Felicita (9,423). In 1442, the convent began to receive income in the form of fines paid by convicted sodomites and five years later contracted with the silk merchant Tommaso Ridolfi to spin gold thread, providing technical instruction to the first generation of artisan nuns and allowing the convent to survive and grow. In 1452 it passed to a group of Franciscan nuns from the convent of Santa Chiara which was just south of the Convertite in via dei Serragli. By the 1551 ducal census 65 Poor Clares were in residence, a population that ballooned to 239 in the 1632 census.