Santa Maria della Stella

Santa Maria della Stella was a female monastic community founded in Rifreddo (Piedmont, Italy) in 1219. The monastery was joined formally to the Cistercian Order after c. 1244. In 1592, as a result of the danger associated with regional upheaval and violence, the community was relocated within the town of Saluzzo in 1592. The written remains of Santa Maria della Stella are extensive, including visitation records, financial accounts (that detail food purchase), and various other archival materials. There are also standing remains from the monastic precinct that suggest the spatial situation of the monastery within the town of Saluzzo.

Santa Maria della Stella was the focus of the team's pilot study -- From Text to Teeth: The Nuns of Santa Maria della Stella -- which was generously funded by a grant from the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Our team is continuing our study of 49 nuns and lay sisters from the earliest eighteenth-century, correlating osteology and dental calculus analysis with textual witnesses to work activities, including leather work. These nuns are interesting in their own right, and they also offer us a strong reference case study. By identifying the skeletal markers of various activities at Santa Maria della Stella alongside the extensive archival sources, we hope to be able to identify other individuals from earlier communities for whom the textual record is not as strong engaging in these same work activities.