Military Orders and women in medieval Italy

A systematic study on this topic has never been carried out, due to great dispersion of available Italian primary sources. The aim of this paper is to approach the issue from four different directions: at first, the presence of women as professed members of the Hospital of St. John and, in some possible cases also of the Temple. This theme is related to the female congregations or communities under the patronage or protection of the military orders and to the rather well documented issue of their lay sisters and familiars. That will bring us also to the noblewoman acting as orders’ supporters and protectors. Finally, the relations to the women were not always for the orders’ benefit and there are many examples, mostly in the case of the Teutonic Order, of misbehaviour involving prostitutes, concubines and other “bad women”.