In this context the graphic and cultural experience of Blessed Camilla Battista da Varano, educated in grammar and rhetoric like the other women of the Varano family, acquires a special meaning, since it combines the intellectual stimuli of Humanism with the spiritual experience of the Franciscan Observance. Therefore, starting from the examination of Camilla’s writings (the Transito del Beato Pietro da Mogliano [1491], the Memoria on the Olivetan monk Antonio da Segovia [1492] and a letter addressed to her brother-in-law Muzio Colonna in 1515), Ms Giovè frames the writing of Camilla Battista da Varano in the context of the wide range of graphic examples from the 15th century, seeing it as an “interesting compromise” between simple publishing, Antigua calligraphy and some stylistic expressions of humanistic lower case. After a detailed analysis of the morphology of the individual letters in the writings, the scholar dwells on the structure of the manuscript containing the Transit (the “Ferretti-Brocco” Municipal Library in Mogliano), a manuscript in which the model of the ‘women’s libretto’ and that of the ‘Franciscan codex’ are superimposed on either side. Finally, da Varano’s experience is related to that of other religious women who were active in the 15th century, such as the Poor Clares of Monteluce in Perugia and Santa Lucia di Foligno or Illuminata Bembo and, above all, Caterina Vigri, who was able, like Battista da Varano, to represent her own spiritual world autonomously through writing.

Caterina Vigri is one of a number of Poor Clares linked to the Franciscan Observance, characterized for having created a synthesis between holiness and love for culture, for example, Cecilia Copoli from Perugia, Eustochia Calafato from Messina and Camilla Battista da Varano from Camerino. In addition to illuminating codes and her own works, Caterina de Vigri painted various religious subjects, kept in the Sanctuary of the Corpus Christi Monastery. One of her paintings, depicting Saint Ursula with her companions, and Saint Catherine kneeling in front of them, is in the National Picture Gallery in Venice.

The life and work of Caterina Vigri (1413-1463) are full of interest for those who wish to get close to a model that stands out for its holiness, with teachings in the search for evangelical perfection that could easily be applied to modern times. Often remembered for her incorrupt body, placed for five centuries in a seated position in the church of the Corpus Domini monastery in Bologna, founded by the Saint herself, Vigri was a very multifaceted figure who left us, in addition to her example, important mystical writings. Above all, the famous Treaty of the Seven Spiritual Weapons, an interesting text to train for religious life.

In 2018 the remains of an ancient Franciscan monastery at Oxford University were discovered by archaeologists. For the first time in many centuries, archaeologists were able to see substantial parts of one of the university’s largest medieval teaching institutions, a convent founded by Franciscan friars in 1224, which turned out to be of fundamental importance in the history of Oxford University.