There are places in the city where time seems to have stopped. Where entering is like stepping into an oasis, and the noise of the hustle and bustle is muffled to give way only to the soft murmur of water. The grounds of the Reial Monestir de Pedralbes have that ancient charm hidden behind its stone walls, and going there is always a guarantee of enjoyment and discovery.
And its line of temporary exhibitions is not to be missed, not only because of the theme focused especially on silenced women in history, but also because of the exhibition approach, which seeks to integrate certain external elements or agents that turn our visit into a sensory experience.
This is the case of its current proposal around Juliana Morell, a forgotten humanist of the 16th century, whose name, curiously, is one of the three women's names that appear on the walls of the paranymph of the Universitat de Barcelona. Its curator, Georgina Rabassó, a specialist in the tradition of female philosophical thought between the Middle Ages and early modernity, wondered who the woman behind that name was and, as a result of her research, this exhibition was born.
Despite the fame she acquired in Europe as a learned woman, copies of Morell's works have not been foundArticulated chronologically, the exhibition tells us the eventful life of Juliana Morell in different areas, which present her origins, her formation, her vicissitudes and the culminating moment of her life, in which she managed to free herself from the yoke of her progenitor and thus achieve her own freedom. And all of this, told with exquisite attention to detail, which turns the visit into an experience for the senses.
In 1594, Juliana Morell was born in Barcelona, the illegitimate daughter of a cloth merchant of Jewish convert descent. At a very early age, her intellectual capacity already stood out, and her father did not miss the opportunity for her to begin an exhaustive humanistic education in philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence, which would also lead her to master various languages. A privileged education for a woman of her time.
At the age of 7, she moved to France following in her father's footsteps, who fled accused of murder. But her education did not stop, and at the age of 12, she defended a thesis in logic and ethics at her home in Lyon, which allowed her to obtain a doctorate in philosophy outside the university, since access was not allowed to women. The copies made of her theses were received by Hispanic queens at the head of different governments and Pope Paul V but, despite the fame she acquired in Europe as a learned woman, copies of her works have not yet been found.
But the true turning point came when, faced with her father's interest in marrying her off, she refused, choosing to become a Dominican nun, entering the convent of Santa Práxedes in Avignon. Faced with her father's refusal to pay her dowry, she had the patronage and financial help of another woman, Charlotte Cathérine de la Trémoille, and was able to continue developing her thought and her writings, and cultivating poetry and music, in addition to uniting in her texts concepts as distant as rationalism with erotic mysticism.
During the exhibition tour, the attentive visitor will be able to perceive some details that will activate their senses, and which are divided into two main blocks, that transition from girl to woman. Along with the staging of the figurines contrasted with Juliana's wardrobe ---the blue velvet dress she wore to present her oral thesis, and the Dominican nun's habit--- which evidences through a ritual wardrobe the two states of her life, sensory details are added: from the soft singing of birds, the appetizing pomegranates, the pleasant carpet under her feet, the canvas of the exhibition panels, or the smell of holiness perceived in the second area.
The name of Juliana Morell, a forgotten humanist of the 16th century, is one of the three women's names that appears on the walls of the paranymph of the University of BarcelonaWithout a doubt, no element is trivial in this exhibition, and it is these subtle details that, precisely, seem to want to demonstrate, through our experientiality, that possibility of uniting rationalism (Juliana's ex-libris, the volumes of her private library, the acquisition of knowledge), with erotic mysticism (the smell of tuberoses, the soft touch of the carpet, the activation of the senses).
The research work of Commissioner Georgina Rabassó remains open, because despite Juliana Morell being considered one of the most erudite women of Modern Europe, her legacy was later made invisible, like that of so many other female thinkers.
That is why the exhibition project carried out periodically at the Reial Monestir de Pedralbes acquires even more value, in which, through studies on women and spirituality, female thought is made visible, and testimony is given to the struggle of women to access academic training, while also showing that individual and collective search for a space of their own in which to be able to think and feel for oneself.
Open until mid-April, I cannot help but recommend the guided tour on Sundays, whose accompaniment will delight any visitor who wants to discover one of the most interesting female proper names of the modern age.