Chocolate, masses, and spiritual heritage : Female networks in early modern Turin around the Compagnia dell’ Umiltà (company of humility): seventeenth to eighteenth centuries

This essay aims to shed light on an interesting case-history studied in the volume L’Umiltà e le rose. Storia di una compagnia a Torino fra età moderna e contemporanea, ed. by A. Cantaluppi and B.A. Raviola (Olschki, Firenze 2017). The book is about a female charity association born in Turin, Duchy of Savoy, during the 1570s. It was a special moment for the court of Savoy: after the transfer of the Sabaudian capital from Chambéry to Turin, the city grew up quickly and the dynastic court became one of the most active in Northern Italy. In that dynamic frame, very much conditioned by the Counter-Reformation, in 1563 was created by seven men a strong (and longlasting) brotherhood named Compagnia di San Paolo, composed by merchants and members of the ducal entourage and also inspired by the rising Society of Jesus.