Meet the women of Santa Maria della Stella

Archaeological scientists in the archives, historians in the lab -- the TeamNun way!

TeamNun spent an exciting four days in January 2025 immersed in the archives of the Diocese of Saluzzo (Piedmont). We explored hundreds of documents from the women's monastery of Santa Maria della Stella, including foundation charters from the 13th century and visitation records from the 19th century. The archives of Santa Maria della Stella are a largely untapped resource, offering valuable insights into the daily lives of the religious women in this Cistercian monastery.

Our team is working to illuminate the spiritual, economic, and social dimensions of this little-studied women's community -- bringing together normative texts (eg the Rule of St Benedict and Cistercian customaries) with documents of practice (eg charters, letters, reeipts) with the 48 sets of human skeletal remains from the final stages of the community currently study under in Dr Boano's lab in Torino.

Many thanks to the helpful and welcoming women of the Archivio Diocesi Sulluzo for their hospitality -- opening up the archives to us well beyond the normal extent of access hours.

We are grateful to Dr. Michaele Scanavino and the Fondatione Cassa di Risparmio di Saluzzo for their ongoing support of our research on these fascinating women.

Our team was also delighted to "meet" eightheenth-century archivist Carlo Franchi, who worked tirelessly to bring order and structure to this vast collection of documents. Franchi, who was a prominent archivist in Torino, devised the system of categories and folders that still define the archive today, and make it possible for us to access the community's records efficiently. We promise that every folder was put back in proper order!

Stay tuned as we create integrated historical-osteobiographical profiles for some of these feisty and outspoken religious women!