Hindiyya, Mystic and Criminal, 1720–1798: A Political and Religious Crisis in Lebanon by Bernard Heyberger (review)

Abstract

isfaction in writing for themselves. Bottoni raises an important question that, unfortunately, she does not attempt to answer: how, at least in the beginning, could a young woman obey her director’s command if she were completely illiterate or possessed only minimal skill in putting quill to paper? The author dutifully cites most of the scholarship on early-modern female literacy but does not put it to use. Nor does she make more than superficial observations about the handwriting samples reproduced in the book. Unsurprisingly, Boccherini, educanda in and then professed member of a Third Order Franciscan house, wrote in a fluent cursive hand. Among the three who had received little or no education, Colle and perhaps Brondi (many of whose writings survive only in copies made by others) wrote in print, without joining the letters in words. Biondi remains a mystery. Despite the author’s dismissive remarks to the contrary, she mastered a sophisticated cursive hand. She must have had help. Who provided it? Was it her inflexible first director, the Oratorian Antonio Gaetano Buti, or someone else? The answer may not be certain, but at least Bottoni might have speculated.