Nicholas Perez's Reviews > Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy

UPDATE 4/12/2022: If y'all are coming here after watching Paul Verhoeven's film, y'all are gunna be greatly disappointed.

UPDATE 4/12/2020: Below in my initial review, I accuse Brown and the publishers for using the terms "lesbian" and "lesbian affair" as a way to draw in readers. Having done some historical research on the usage and prevalence of both the terms "lesbian" and "bisexual", I must admit that my accusation is unfounded. Although, both lesbian and bisexual women have existed forever (I still believe Benedetta Carlini falls into the later), the term "lesbian" itself was applied to any woman who engaged romantically and sexually with another woman, whether or not they also engaged with men, up until the late 1980s when "bisexual" started to take off. Immodest Acts was first partially published as an article entitled "Lesbian Sexuality in Renaissance Italy: The Case of Sister Benedetta Carlini" in a 1984 edition of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. Brown most likely did her research in the earlier part of the 80s when "bisexual" hadn't taken root yet. So, for clarification my below accusation is probably unfounded; but whether or not Brown considers Carlini bisexual is another matter that might never be answered.


I decided to read this book after hearing that there was going to be a movie about Bendetta Carlini, which will be, let's face it, a nunsploitation film.

To get to the point, I share the other reviewers' criticism towards the book's subtitle and the back cover's statement that this was an affair between two women. At most, Benedetta may have been bisexual due to her erotic visions of marrying Christ and the other nuns witnessing her being affectionately close to a priest. Also, Bartolomea Crivelli, the woman Benedetta was sexually involved with, claimed that she was sexually assaulted; we really shouldn't be calling sexual assault an affair. It appears Judith Brown may have use "lesbian" and "lesbian affair" as an attempt to to draw people to her work.

All of that aside, this really is a wonderful biography and study of a relatively unknown Catholic mystic. Her visions were interesting and inquire investigation and the mixture of her rural mountain spirituality with that of the urban is an interesting development from an anthropological point of view. The investigations themselves and Benedetta's responses were all interesting on their own. Brown does a wonderful job of contextualizing the religious and sexual concepts of time. It's just a shame about how the book is promoted.