Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is Danish wartz. Just a bit of housekeeping before we begin.
Speaker 1: If you want to support the show, we have merch
Speaker 1: and we have a Patreon. Both of those are linked
Speaker 1: in the episode description. The merch is amazing. I use
Speaker 1: my mugs pretty much every morning and over on the
Speaker 1: Patreon there is exclusive merch like stickers. There are episode scripts,
Speaker 1: and there's also a weekly recap bonus podcast that I
Speaker 1: do with a friend of mine recapping the television series
Speaker 1: Rain about Mary, Queen of Scott's. So if that sounds interesting,
Speaker 1: head there and thank you for listening. Having a daughter
Speaker 1: was expensive business in early modern Europe. From the moment
Speaker 1: of a girl's birth. One cost in particular would have
Speaker 1: loomed over her family's head her dowry. The dowry was
Speaker 1: the payment traditionally made upon marriage from the bride's family
Speaker 1: to the grooms, meant as part of the formal transfer
Speaker 1: of the bride to her new family and as a
Speaker 1: starting fund for the couple's new life. In the modern day,
Speaker 1: it's an outdated, misogynistic practice, but in the early modern
Speaker 1: period it was an essential component of the right of
Speaker 1: passage of marriage. If families could not afford it outright,
Speaker 1: many young women worked on their own to save up
Speaker 1: for a dowry. Marriage often meant, among many other things, security,
Speaker 1: and that was worth every penny. Of course, as this
Speaker 1: podcast can attest, marriage was rarely as simple as saving
Speaker 1: up a few ducats and then finding some nice enough
Speaker 1: boy to drag to the church. The dowry market, like
Speaker 1: any economic market, fluctuated over time when there were more
Speaker 1: young women than men in a given area. For example,
Speaker 1: a larger dowry might be necessary to catch a suitor's
Speaker 1: attention in a sea of options. During those times of inflation,
Speaker 1: one can imagine the astronomical sums required to secure any match,
Speaker 1: let alone an advantageous one. But difficult as arranging a
Speaker 1: marriage might be, it was dangerous, not to mention expensive,
Speaker 1: to let a young, unmarried daughter linger in her father's house.
Speaker 1: In a society that prized the chastity of women above
Speaker 1: pretty much everything else, an unmarried adult daughter was a
Speaker 1: sharefire recipe for an illegitimate grandchild, or even just the
Speaker 1: rumor of one, and all of the scandal and shame
Speaker 1: that would come with it. When the population of unmarried
Speaker 1: women was high, things became even more challenging. Women without
Speaker 1: families to support them often put pressure on their cities
Speaker 1: systems of charity, or they were drawn to the relative
Speaker 1: freedom and potential income they could gain from sex work,
Speaker 1: which threatened both public resources and, in early modern eyes,
Speaker 1: public morality. For many Catholic families, the only affordable option
Speaker 1: in an inflated dowry market to still protect the chastity
Speaker 1: of their daughters was the convent. It was certainly not
Speaker 1: entirely free to promise your daughter to Jesus Christ. Many
Speaker 1: convents charged small dowries to help cover their new wards
Speaker 1: as upkeep, but it was often substantially cheaper than marrying
Speaker 1: your daughter to an earthly husband. Even some of the
Speaker 1: more wealthy and influential families sent their daughters to convents,
Speaker 1: be it as a temporary means of protecting their chastity
Speaker 1: like Mary, Queen of Scot's, or as a more permanent
Speaker 1: solution when marriage was unaffordable or otherwise unattainable. Scores of
Speaker 1: women and girls ended up in convents that way, sent
Speaker 1: away from their families, sometimes from a very young age
Speaker 1: to a new life that, depending on the convent, could
Speaker 1: either mean relative freedom and comfort, or harsh enclosure and
Speaker 1: a penitent lifestyle. In any case, it was a much
Speaker 1: more restricted life than likely any of the young girls
Speaker 1: had imagined for themselves. Perhaps unsurprisingly than many of the
Speaker 1: women and girls sent to the convents by their families
Speaker 1: out of financial expediency did not share the religious devotion
Speaker 1: we might expect from nuns today. Although those who were
Speaker 1: sent to convents as children would not be nuns and
Speaker 1: therefore not technically bound to the church, once they reached
Speaker 1: marriageable age, many found they had few other options than
Speaker 1: to take their vows. Some surely found that convent life
Speaker 1: suited them, but many resented their families for placing them
Speaker 1: there against their will. Some wished for marriage, others simply
Speaker 1: to be let out of the walls of enclosure. Entering
Speaker 1: a convent was a choice made for them by their families,
Speaker 1: by the economic conditions of the time, and by the
Speaker 1: world in which they lived that prized female chastity above
Speaker 1: all else. Records from the period see some of these
Speaker 1: women reclaiming their freedom in ways both big and small
Speaker 1: in the convent that allowed it. Some sisters took up trades,
Speaker 1: becoming skilled artisans and earning money for the convent, and,
Speaker 1: if they were lucky, contact with the outside world. A
Speaker 1: few were drawn to more scholarly or artistic pursuits, occasionally
Speaker 1: earning fame from within the convent for their contributions, and
Speaker 1: of course, some even went so far as to appeal
Speaker 1: to the Pope, begging to have their vows to Jesus annulled.
Speaker 1: But others found more transgressive ways to escape the confines
Speaker 1: of the cloister. One in particular, a woman first named
Speaker 1: Marianna de Lavia Imrino and then Sister Virginia Maria, later
Speaker 1: known simply as the Nun of Manza, found her freedom
Speaker 1: in the arms of a lover, or so she thought.
Speaker 1: This is a story that travels through plague into a convent,
Speaker 1: passed love, and brutal murder into one of the creepiest
Speaker 1: scandals we've ever covered on this podcast. I'm Danish Schwartz
Speaker 1: and this is Noble Blood. Mariana de Lvia Imrino was
Speaker 1: just a few months past her thirteenth birthday when her
Speaker 1: father decided to place her in the convent of Santa
Speaker 1: Margarita a big change, to be sure, but that was
Speaker 1: far from the first time in young Marianna's life that
Speaker 1: her world had been turned upside down. She was born
Speaker 1: in Milan, now in Italy but then a Spanish duchy,
Speaker 1: in fifteen seventy five, the first and only child of
Speaker 1: Martin de Lvia and his wife, Virginia Maria Marino. Virginia
Speaker 1: Maria was the daughter and heir of one of the
Speaker 1: wealthiest men in Milan. She had also been married once before,
Speaker 1: and she was the widow of Ercolepio, Count of Sassuolo,
Speaker 1: with whom she had had a son, Marco and four daughters.
Speaker 1: Martin de Levia, for his part, also boasted an illustrious lineage.
Speaker 1: He was the great grand son of the great Antonio Delivia,
Speaker 1: who had led the army of the Spanish Empire under
Speaker 1: King Charles the fifth. As a reward for his valor,
Speaker 1: Charles had granted Antonio the duchy of Milan upon the
Speaker 1: death of Duke Francesco the second Sforza. Delivia was rewarded
Speaker 1: also with the fiefdom of Monza, a small city about
Speaker 1: nine miles northeast of Milan that, despite its small size,
Speaker 1: offered considerable revenue. By the time Mariana was born, her father, Martin,
Speaker 1: had had a significant military career of his own, and
Speaker 1: he had inherited his great grandfather's county of Monza as
Speaker 1: a fiefdom, although he alternated sovereignty with his brother. With
Speaker 1: all of Mariana's family's wealth and influence, the little girl
Speaker 1: seemed slated for a charmed life. Then all at once,
Speaker 1: disaster strung. When Mariana was barely a year old, in
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy six, the plague came to Milan. As plagues do,
Speaker 1: it tore through the city, causing not only mass death,
Speaker 1: but also economic devastation as workers and consumers alike died
Speaker 1: or left, crops went unattended, and trade all but disappeared.
Speaker 1: Virginia Maria, Marianna's mother, died that year. We don't know
Speaker 1: if plague was the cause, although it seems a likely possibility.
Speaker 1: What we do know is that her death and the
Speaker 1: events that followed would irrevocably change the course of her
Speaker 1: youngest daughter's life. In the midst of her sickness, Virginia
Speaker 1: Maria had made her last will and testament. She chose
Speaker 1: to name as her heirs the infant Mariana and her
Speaker 1: son from her first marriage, Marco, with the vast majority
Speaker 1: of her state to be divided equally between the two
Speaker 1: of them. It certainly seems an odd choice, given that
Speaker 1: Virginia Maria had four other daughters from her earlier first marriage.
Speaker 1: Maybe she assumed they would be taken care of. Perhaps
Speaker 1: she thought her daughters might forgive her for choosing to
Speaker 1: ensure the livelihoods of her son, who would have to
Speaker 1: start his own household, and her infant daughter, who was
Speaker 1: further away from the protection that marriage could offer. It was,
Speaker 1: as you might have guessed, a grave miscalculation. Within just
Speaker 1: days of their mother's death, Marco's sisters, Marianna's half sisters,
Speaker 1: represented by their uncle, went to court to contest the will,
Speaker 1: arguing that they should have also received fair shares of
Speaker 1: the estate. The legal battle that ensued defined the early
Speaker 1: years of Marianna's life, and she would spend her early
Speaker 1: years with no sense of stability or certainty. Mere months
Speaker 1: after Virginia Maria died, Martin de Laviat left his infant
Speaker 1: daughter in the care of an aunt, and he went
Speaker 1: off to Flanders on a long military campaign. Despite her
Speaker 1: father's absence, the dispute over the will continued, and Marianna
Speaker 1: spent the next three years in limbo as the adults
Speaker 1: in her life argued over assets or just abandon her
Speaker 1: altogether as an afterthought. Finally, in fifteen eighty, Martin briefly
Speaker 1: returned home to Milan to put an end to the
Speaker 1: inheritance suit. It was clear, however, that his goal was
Speaker 1: not to protect the interests of his only child. In fact,
Speaker 1: the so called compromise he reached with his stepdaughters practically
Speaker 1: amount to theft from Mariana. He gave the po children
Speaker 1: more than half of their mother's estate, and the remaining
Speaker 1: portion was set aside vaguely for Martin and Marianna, meaning
Speaker 1: in effect just for Martin. Since Marianna was a toddler.
Speaker 1: Allowing the case to continue to linger would certainly not
Speaker 1: have benefited Mariana, but Martin was almost certainly more concerned
Speaker 1: with just closing the case so that he could return
Speaker 1: to his military campaigns. Over the years, his family's prestige
Speaker 1: had begun to wane, and he wagered that he could
Speaker 1: better restore it by serving the Spanish king, who was
Speaker 1: now Philip the second. Mary Tudor's husband, as opposed to
Speaker 1: squabbling over his dead wife's affairs or well providing for
Speaker 1: the future of his lineage. His baby was a girl,
Speaker 1: after all, not an heir that in any way would
Speaker 1: have mattered to him. The inheritance debacle feels definitive, and
Speaker 1: it is certainly very telling about all parties involved. But
Speaker 1: this was not the moment that Martin Delivia consigned his
Speaker 1: daughter to the cloister. For a while, it seemed like
Speaker 1: he was indeed planning to arrange a marriage for Mariana.
Speaker 1: A letter from fifteen eighty six sees him discussing her
Speaker 1: prospects and floating a potential dowry of seven thousand lira,
Speaker 1: which was nothing to sneeze at, but I should note
Speaker 1: it paled in comparison to the fifty thousand that he
Speaker 1: had been promised from his late wife's family when they
Speaker 1: had gotten married. The final blow to Mariana's future came
Speaker 1: a few years later, in fifteen eighty eight, when her father,
Speaker 1: Martin remarried. His new wife lived in Valencia, nearly eight
Speaker 1: hundred miles from Milan and from Mariana. By now, it
Speaker 1: had been over a decade since the wandering military man
Speaker 1: had shared a roof with his daughter, and the prospect
Speaker 1: of paying a dowry would have loomed large as Mariana
Speaker 1: got older. His new marriage, on the other hand, brought
Speaker 1: with it the promise of career promotion, more income, more
Speaker 1: influent and of course, male heirs. Here, he must have thought,
Speaker 1: was a perfect opportunity to start fresh and save a
Speaker 1: little money in the process. Martin brought his only child
Speaker 1: to the Monastery of Santa Margharita, a small Benedictine convent
Speaker 1: in his own county, Mansa, in late fifteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: A few months later, in early fifteen eighty nine, he
Speaker 1: briefly returned to settle the matter of Marianna's inheritance once
Speaker 1: and for all. He promised her a six thousand lira
Speaker 1: deposit to be delivered to the convent through an intermediary
Speaker 1: that would accrue an annual income of three hundred lira.
Speaker 1: We don't know if Martin actually saw his daughter on
Speaker 1: that fifteen eighty nine visit, but we do know that
Speaker 1: Marianna never saw her father again after that, and that
Speaker 1: she never received her inheritance, although records show she did
Speaker 1: receive some income from the convent's revenues. The scholar Luigi
Speaker 1: Serbi estimates that out of an approximate forty thousand lira,
Speaker 1: Marianna was owed in total, her father stole nearly twenty
Speaker 1: eight thousand. On August twenty sixth, fifteen ninety one, Gaspare Visconti,
Speaker 1: the Archbishop of Milan, made the short journey to Mansa
Speaker 1: to witness the consecration of four nuns who had completed
Speaker 1: their noviciots and were preparing to take the profession. These
Speaker 1: girls each had spent several years deep in prayer, reflection
Speaker 1: and manual labor, and were getting ready to make a
Speaker 1: lifelong commitment to the convent. Among these novices was one sister,
Speaker 1: Virginia Maria, a young girl of about sixteen whose late
Speaker 1: mother's given name had just happened to make for a
Speaker 1: perfect religious name. Despite these circumstances of her arrival at
Speaker 1: Santa Margarita, Marianna, whose given name we will continue to
Speaker 1: use for clarity's sake, made an excellent nun. She took
Speaker 1: her vows in September fifteen ninety one and soon garnered
Speaker 1: a reputation in Manza for her admirable conduct. The famed
Speaker 1: priest and historian Giuseppe Ripamonti, who lived in Manza around
Speaker 1: this time and who would later write a good deal
Speaker 1: about Marianna's life, described her character during these early years
Speaker 1: as quote modest, circumspect, most affable, suffused, with an enviable candor,
Speaker 1: a friend to everyone, as educated in literary disciplines, as
Speaker 1: a well mannered, obedient, not at all spiteful young girl
Speaker 1: could be at the time an example of perfect social behavior.
Speaker 1: In addition to praise, Marianna also garnered power from the convent.
Speaker 1: Although she had taken the profession, her wayward father soon
Speaker 1: delegated his duties to her as sovereign of Mansa. She
Speaker 1: took over in fifteen ninety six at twenty years old.
Speaker 1: Records show her issuing edicts, ordering arrests, and offering pardons,
Speaker 1: among other official duties. In December fifteen ninety six, for example,
Speaker 1: she prohibited fishing in a stretch of river that ran
Speaker 1: next to the Franciscan convent of Santa Maria, granting the
Speaker 1: convent's friar's exclusive use of the area. By all accounts,
Speaker 1: she was as beloved as a feudal lady as she
Speaker 1: was a well behaved nun. She was also working her
Speaker 1: way up within the convent, earning the roles of sacristan,
Speaker 1: which meant that she was responsible for the convent sacristy,
Speaker 1: where vestiments and other sacred objects were kept, and she
Speaker 1: also got the job as supervisor of the secular girls
Speaker 1: housed in the convent. It was through that role as
Speaker 1: supervisor that Marianna first met Jean Paulo Osio. The illustrious
Speaker 1: Osio family had been a staple in Lombardy, the region
Speaker 1: in which both Milan and Manta are situated, for centuries,
Speaker 1: but by this time the branch of the family living
Speaker 1: in Mamsa had begun to develop a less than illustrious reputation.
Speaker 1: Born in fifteen seventy two, John Paolo Osio was no
Speaker 1: exception charismatic, libertine, and prone to violence. He was every
Speaker 1: bit whatever you're thinking if I say sixteenth century rake.
Speaker 1: Despite all that, he had a good relationship with the
Speaker 1: Convent of Santa Margarita, frequently hiring servants from the convent
Speaker 1: to run errands for his household. This relationship was born
Speaker 1: mostly out of proximity. His property abutted the convent so
Speaker 1: closely that someone standing in the convent garden could see
Speaker 1: into his home quite easily, and vice versa. Although she
Speaker 1: almost certainly would have met her neighbor earlier, or at
Speaker 1: least known of him. Marianna's first documented encounter with John
Speaker 1: Powlow was in the fall of fifteen ninety seven, and
Speaker 1: it was less of a meet cute and more of
Speaker 1: a bad omen for things to come. One day, as
Speaker 1: she was walking through the convent garden, she came upon
Speaker 1: John Polo alone with one of her pupils flirting. He had,
Speaker 1: it turned out, been taking advantage of the closeness of
Speaker 1: his property to the convent by climbing a tree so
Speaker 1: that he could spy on the secular girls, and he
Speaker 1: was attempting, in this case to start an affair with
Speaker 1: one of them. The actual extent of his success in
Speaker 1: the matter isn't clear from the record, although in this
Speaker 1: period the circumstances there being alone unsupervised in a convent
Speaker 1: were damning enough. The girl was quickly dealt with. As
Speaker 1: she was a secular who had not yet made any vows.
Speaker 1: She was able to be removed from the convent by
Speaker 1: her horrified mother, and she was married off within weeks.
Speaker 1: For her part, Marianna gave John Paolo such a scolding
Speaker 1: that he reportedly left the convent that day, hanging his
Speaker 1: head in shame. News of Marianna's quote great rebuff of
Speaker 1: John Paolo traveled quickly through Monsa, the sixteenth century equivalent
Speaker 1: of the juiciest celebrity gossip, and a few days later
Speaker 1: the story developed a new and significantly darker twist when
Speaker 1: John Paolo murdered Giuseppe Moltena, a man who had worked
Speaker 1: in the service of the Delevia family as a tax agent.
Speaker 1: Some believed that he had committed that murder out of
Speaker 1: anger at Mariana, an act of revenge for her rebuke.
Speaker 1: Others whispered that it was actually jealousy, that Marianna had
Speaker 1: been having an affair with Molteno and John Poolo had
Speaker 1: wanted her all to himself. These are not impossible motives,
Speaker 1: although Mariana would later deny any impropriety with the deceased,
Speaker 1: but the actual reason for the killing likely had little
Speaker 1: to do with Marianna herself. I mean, it was sort
Speaker 1: of a tangential connection in the first place. It seems
Speaker 1: that John Paolo had been conspiring with another of the
Speaker 1: Deleva financial advisers to skim off the top of the
Speaker 1: family's books, hoping that it wouldn't be noticed by the
Speaker 1: absent Martin or the enclosed Mariana, and he and his
Speaker 1: inside man had plotted the murder together, either to prevent
Speaker 1: being found out or to maximize their own profits. This
Speaker 1: theory is supported by the fact that only a few
Speaker 1: weeks after the murder, that second financial adviser was fired
Speaker 1: by the de Leva family and promptly replaced. John Paulo
Speaker 1: reportedly tried to appeal to Marianna, who was not only
Speaker 1: a member of the family that he may have been
Speaker 1: trying to defraud, but who also held his fate in
Speaker 1: her hands as the sovereign of Mansa. The story goes
Speaker 1: that shortly after the murder, Marianna happened to be passing
Speaker 1: through the room of one of her fellow sisters that
Speaker 1: had a view into the Osio garden. John Paulo, seeing
Speaker 1: Marianna in the window, caught her attention and shouted up,
Speaker 1: asking to send her a letter, presumably to explain himself,
Speaker 1: to proclaim his innocence, or maybe to beg for her favor. Marianna,
Speaker 1: scrupulous as ever, was enraged. Not only had this man
Speaker 1: once seduced her student and then gone on to commit
Speaker 1: a heinous murder, but here he was not even in hiding,
Speaker 1: but strolling about his garden and asking her to abuse justice.
Speaker 1: She immediately ordered his arrest. John Paolo fled Manza and
Speaker 1: was sentenced in absentia to exile. John Paolo remained in
Speaker 1: exile for about a year while his friends and family,
Speaker 1: as well as the mother superior of the convent and
Speaker 1: even members of Marianna's own family, pressured her to give
Speaker 1: him grace. She relented in fifteen ninety eight, and Joan
Speaker 1: Paolo was officially granted pardon and allowed to return to
Speaker 1: his residence in Monza. When he returned, Marianna's anger head
Speaker 1: seemingly cooled. Perhaps she took the concept of giving grace
Speaker 1: to heart. But that wasn't all. And here's the biggest
Speaker 1: plot twist so far. Apparently, the scrupulous, modest nun looked
Speaker 1: out her window one day at her murderous playboy neighbor,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden fell in love. Could you
Speaker 1: ever see anything more beautiful? Years later, one of Marianna's
Speaker 1: fellow nuns would recount having heard Marianna make that remark,
Speaker 1: presumably while resting her cheek on her hand and between
Speaker 1: dramatic lovelorn sighs while sitting at her window after catching
Speaker 1: a glimpse of John Pawlow in his garden. Somehow, and
Speaker 1: I wish I knew more so I could tell you more.
Speaker 1: The debaucherous no no woman had managed to charm Marianna.
Speaker 1: She had even been willing to give him another chance,
Speaker 1: after he had started off by throwing a letter over
Speaker 1: the wall separating his garden from the convents, a first
Speaker 1: attempt at flirting that must have seemed cute until she
Speaker 1: opened the letter to reveal a note so sexually explicit
Speaker 1: that she recoiled in disgust. Undeterred, John Paolo had been
Speaker 1: enlisted the help of a local priest and friend of his,
Speaker 1: Paolo Aragone. Father Paulo reminded John Powlo that he was
Speaker 1: trying to start an affair with a nun. He was
Speaker 1: not perhaps ethical enough to advise John Powlo to pursue
Speaker 1: someone else, but he was certainly wise enough to advise
Speaker 1: a change in tactic. The priest wrote a new letter
Speaker 1: for Joan Paulo to throw over the wall. This one
Speaker 1: contrite and chaste and romantic, and that letter sealed the deal.
Speaker 1: Once they got over the first few minor hurdles. You
Speaker 1: know the fact that she had caught him in the
Speaker 1: garden with another girl. The murder, the exile, and then
Speaker 1: the sexually explicit letter in the convent garden. The affair
Speaker 1: must have felt like a chivalric romance. There was Marianna
Speaker 1: enclosed in her tower, and here was her prince calling
Speaker 1: up to her with promises of not only romance but freedom.
Speaker 1: Furtive glances and gifts passed through intermediaries, accompanied by secret
Speaker 1: letters thrown over the garden wall. Although Marianna was surely
Speaker 1: smitten by John Powlow and by Father Paulo's continued ghostwriting,
Speaker 1: at first, Marianna declined to take their relationship further. She
Speaker 1: was a nun, after all, and she had made vows
Speaker 1: of chastity as an enclosed nun. In particular, she maintained
Speaker 1: that neither of them could violate the boundaries of enclosure.
Speaker 1: She couldn't leave and he couldn't enter, a stalemate that
Speaker 1: likely fueled Marianna's romantic fantasy and made John Powlo all
Speaker 1: the more determined to break her resolve, He continued to
Speaker 1: press the issue, and Marianna finally gave in in August
Speaker 1: fifteen ninety nine. Coincidentally, not long after her father died,
Speaker 1: she agreed to a secret nighttime meeting in the Confessor's parlor.
Speaker 1: A local blacksmith forged a copy of a key to
Speaker 1: the parlor which had been given to him by Sister Otavia,
Speaker 1: a friend of Mariana's. Sister. Otavia then threw the new
Speaker 1: key over the garden wall into the Oussio property so
Speaker 1: that John Powlo could enter Unseen. The moment Marianna laid
Speaker 1: eyes on John Poulo in the parlor through the grill
Speaker 1: separating them, she was overcome by emotion, a desire perhaps
Speaker 1: unlike an anything else she had ever felt in her
Speaker 1: young life, muddled by the sinking, guilty feelings of realizing
Speaker 1: she had gone past a point of no return. Her
Speaker 1: emotions were so strong, in fact, that she immediately took ill.
Speaker 1: She remained indisposed for several months and told John Powlo
Speaker 1: she could not see him anymore. He meanwhile continued to
Speaker 1: bombard her with gifts and letters. By Christmas, Marianna both
Speaker 1: recovered and relented, and the affair began in earnest when
Speaker 1: she allowed John Powlo to sneak into her room. Soon
Speaker 1: they were meeting two or three times a week for secret,
Speaker 1: forbidden trysts in the convent. As the affair progressed, the
Speaker 1: web of people who became complicit in it also grew
Speaker 1: larger and more complicated, between the blacksmith making keys, father
Speaker 1: Paolo writing letters, and a handful of Marianna's fellow nuns
Speaker 1: helping to sneak John Powlo in and out of the convent.
Speaker 1: Soon those fellow nuns would have another job, helping Marianna
Speaker 1: conceal a pregnancy. Marianna gave birth to a stillborn boy
Speaker 1: in sixteen o two. She was devastated not only by
Speaker 1: the loss of her child, but also by an overwhelming
Speaker 1: sense of guilt that hit her all at once. By now,
Speaker 1: she and John Poolo had been brazenly carrying on their
Speaker 1: affair for over a year. She had violated her vows
Speaker 1: again and again, and now she had to rely on
Speaker 1: her fellow nuns to sneak her baby's body out of
Speaker 1: the convent. She had to end the affair, despite her
Speaker 1: feelings of guilt, however, and despite her resolve to and
Speaker 1: the affair for good, she still felt herself drawn to
Speaker 1: John Paolo. Later, Marianna would claim that she had tried
Speaker 1: to rid herself of her feelings using the magical practice
Speaker 1: of coorophagia, believing that she had been struck with a
Speaker 1: love sickness that was the result of a curse. She
Speaker 1: somehow got her hands on Pardon Me Jean Paulo's dried
Speaker 1: feces and consumed it as a medicinal in a series
Speaker 1: of broths and teas in a desperate attempt to break
Speaker 1: the spell. When that didn't work, she contemplated throwing herself
Speaker 1: into the well on the convent grounds. Reportedly, she hesitated
Speaker 1: upon seeing an image of the Virgin nearby, and Sister
Speaker 1: Otavia then found her and talked her off the ledge.
Speaker 1: Throughout this time, Jean Paolo never ceased his campaign of
Speaker 1: what we might now call love bombing, continuing to send
Speaker 1: letters and gifts with entreaties to resume the affair, even
Speaker 1: as Marianna entered a period of intense prayer and penance.
Speaker 1: She continued to reject him for months, even sending him
Speaker 1: away at one point on a pilgrimage to Rome and Loretto,
Speaker 1: hoping he might come to his senses about the affair too.
Speaker 1: After months of endless pushing, Marianna gave in again. Whether
Speaker 1: because she genuinely missed John Paulo or because he truly
Speaker 1: just broke down her resolve, we'll never know who among
Speaker 1: us hasn't gone back to an ex who's bad for us,
Speaker 1: But in any case, the affair started back up, and
Speaker 1: within months Marianna was pregnant again. After nine months of
Speaker 1: pretending to have a spleen disease to explain the swelling,
Speaker 1: she gave birth to a daughter on August eighth, sixteen
Speaker 1: o four, whom she named Alma Francesca Margarita, before giving
Speaker 1: her to her trusted fellow nuns to deliver to John
Speaker 1: Poolo under cover of night. Somewhat contrary to character, John
Speaker 1: Paulo actually turned out to be quite a loving father.
Speaker 1: He brought little Alma to Milan to have her baptized
Speaker 1: openly with a noble godfather, befitting her station, and he
Speaker 1: chose to keep her close in Mansa, despite the rumors
Speaker 1: that were beginning to swirl. He formally recognized her as
Speaker 1: his daughter in sixteen o six, giving her all the
Speaker 1: inheritance rights and public status of a legitimate child. He
Speaker 1: never named Marianna as the mother, instead naming a woman
Speaker 1: named Isabella de Metta. By that time, however, few believed him,
Speaker 1: especially given the unusual frequency of little Alma's visits to
Speaker 1: the Santa Margarita monastery. In fact, by this time, the
Speaker 1: truth was obvious to just about everyone in Mansa. In
Speaker 1: addition to Almah's suspiciously frequent visits, as many as three
Speaker 1: or four times a week, according to some sources, several
Speaker 1: nuns would later testify that many times they saw Marianna
Speaker 1: sneak out of the monastery, violating her sacred vow of seclusion,
Speaker 1: over to the Osio estate to spend the night with
Speaker 1: her daughter and her lover. It was really only Marianna's
Speaker 1: noble status, coupled with John Powlo's trademark violent streak, that
Speaker 1: kept people from saying anything at the time or from
Speaker 1: reporting them to the ecclesiastical authorities. But by the summer
Speaker 1: of sixteen o six, the delicate balance Marianna and John
Speaker 1: Paolo had managed to maintain over the years finally began
Speaker 1: to crumble, all thanks to a young girl named Katerina
Speaker 1: del Cassini. Katerina was a teenager and a secular in
Speaker 1: the convent who had not taken any vows as of yet.
Speaker 1: In fact, word around the convent was that she wouldn't
Speaker 1: be allowed to because of her rebellious obst and character
Speaker 1: and alleged thefts from the monastery's pantry, both behavior unfitting
Speaker 1: of a nun. She, like Mariana and many others before her,
Speaker 1: had been placed at Santa Margarita against her will. But
Speaker 1: unlike Mariana, Katerina seemed completely uninterested in assimilating into convent
Speaker 1: life or even pretending to, often threatening to escape and
Speaker 1: disrespecting just about everyone she could. Recently, her behavior had
Speaker 1: begun too great on Marianna, who still held authority over
Speaker 1: the seculars and was therefore responsible for Katerina. In late
Speaker 1: July sixteen oh six, Marianna hit her breaking point when
Speaker 1: Katerina soiled the bed of Sister Dania Merita, the organist
Speaker 1: of the monastery whose talents had always delighted Mariana. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I have no details about what it meant that Katerina
Speaker 1: soiled that poor woman's bed, but whatever it was, as punishment.
Speaker 1: Marianna convinced the Mother Superior and the monastery's confessor to
Speaker 1: have Katerina imprisoned in the woodshed in the convent garden
Speaker 1: while they figured out what to do about her out
Speaker 1: of control behavior. Katerina, in true teenage fashion, was incensed
Speaker 1: at what she considered unfair treatment by Marianna and her allies.
Speaker 1: She had just been disrespectful, and she was locked in
Speaker 1: a woodshed. Meanwhile, after everything Marianna herself had been doing
Speaker 1: for years, she not only was walking free but continued
Speaker 1: to enjoy high status. Then Katerina remembered that in just
Speaker 1: a few days time, the vicar Monseigneur Pietro Barka would
Speaker 1: be coming to the convent for the monastery's elections, and
Speaker 1: she saw an opportunity. Katerina threatened Mariana, saying that if
Speaker 1: she didn't release her when the Monseigneur arrived, she was
Speaker 1: going to tell him everything about the affair, about Little Alma,
Speaker 1: about every sinful detail of the ways Marianna had broken
Speaker 1: her sacred vows. Even if he had already known about
Speaker 1: it vaguely, as did many people in Monts at the time,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't be able to ignore a report made to
Speaker 1: him directly. The punishment for such brazen, repeated crimes would
Speaker 1: be much more severe than simply being stuck in a
Speaker 1: woodshed for a few nights. Where the affair had at
Speaker 1: first felt like freedom to Mariana, now it was as
Speaker 1: though the walls were closing in on her. If Katerina
Speaker 1: followed through on her threat, Mariana would lose everything. In
Speaker 1: a panic, she gathered her four closest confidants from the convent,
Speaker 1: sisters Otavia, Benedetta, Candida Colombo, and Sylvia, and had them
Speaker 1: send a message to Jean Paulo. The night before the election,
Speaker 1: the six of them snuck into the woodshed to try
Speaker 1: to talk some sense into Katerina. As the nuns would
Speaker 1: later tell it, they tried first to reason with her,
Speaker 1: but the stubborn girl stuck to her guns. According to
Speaker 1: Mariana's later testimony, the girl rebuffed any attempt at negotiating,
Speaker 1: even crying out, I don't want to hear your chatter anymore,
Speaker 1: but I want to be your ruin and that of
Speaker 1: your lover, and tomorrow morning you all will come here
Speaker 1: to this place where I am. The threat of imprisonment
Speaker 1: hung in the dark, dank air of the makeshift cell
Speaker 1: where they all stood at that It was Jean Paolo
Speaker 1: who had heard enough. He grabbed a wooden board that
Speaker 1: had an iron rod running through it, which he had
Speaker 1: taken from the monastery's workshop, and struck with one blow
Speaker 1: to the head, then another, and another. Jean Paolo killed
Speaker 1: Katerina as Marianna and the other nuns looked on in horror.
Speaker 1: The nuns and the nobleman stood over the body of
Speaker 1: the young girl as the reality of what they had
Speaker 1: done settled in. Perhaps in between suggestions for how to
Speaker 1: hide the body, they attempted to justify their crime. Katerina
Speaker 1: was unruly and indignant, and she was going to reveal
Speaker 1: Marianna and John Powlo's many, many indiscretions to the Monseigneur,
Speaker 1: destroying not only their individual reputations, but likely the reputation
Speaker 1: of the convent as well. She would have ruined everything well,
Speaker 1: as it would turn out, she still could. That's the
Speaker 1: first part of the salacious and tragic story of the
Speaker 1: Nun of Mansa. But stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear about the novel that would make her
Speaker 1: one of the most famous nuns UN's gone bad. In history,
Speaker 1: the story of Marianna de Laivier Marino and her affair
Speaker 1: with John Paolo Ossio might have been relegated to the
Speaker 1: annals of Curious local history if not for the nineteenth
Speaker 1: century author Alessandro Manzoni, who read the proceedings of Mariana's
Speaker 1: later trial and was captivated by her complex and at
Speaker 1: times contradictory character. His eighteen twenty seven novel, translated in
Speaker 1: English as The Betrothed, is often named as the most
Speaker 1: famous and widely read work in the Italian language other
Speaker 1: than Dante's Divine Comedy, and the one character in the
Speaker 1: story is based on Marianna. The Betrothed tells the story
Speaker 1: of the young lovers Renzo and Luccia, who, after having
Speaker 1: their weddings forwarded by an evil baron who has his
Speaker 1: own eyes set on Lucia, go on a series of
Speaker 1: adventures and run into a series of obstacles as they
Speaker 1: try to outsmart the baron and have their love legally recognized.
Speaker 1: Their travels take them to Monza, where they come upon
Speaker 1: a nun named Gertrude, who, over the course of several
Speaker 1: chapters and through a series of flashbacks reveals the story
Speaker 1: of her toward affair with a nobleman, an evil man
Speaker 1: who had made her an accomplice in his murder of
Speaker 1: another nun, and who would later in the novel force
Speaker 1: Gertrude to aid in the kidnapping of the young Lucia,
Speaker 1: and who would later in the novel force Gertrude to
Speaker 1: aid in the kidnapping of the young Lucia, who throughout
Speaker 1: the book never seems to be able to catch a break.
Speaker 1: Manzoni's novel allowed Marianna's story to take on new life,
Speaker 1: and The Nun of Monza became a staple of Italian
Speaker 1: literature into the twentieth century. It has been adapted to
Speaker 1: film with varying levels of faithfulness to the historical facts
Speaker 1: at least seven times since nineteen sixty two, inspiring comedies,
Speaker 1: several historical dramas, an erotic drama, and most recently, a
Speaker 1: modern thriller complete with a gun toting nun detective. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: if that sounds incredibly interesting to you, most of these
Speaker 1: adaptations are in Italian. It's the earlier films, however, namely
Speaker 1: the Italian historical dramas that came out of the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: where we see one of Mariana's more interesting modern influences.
Speaker 1: As it turned out, Mariana's story, that of a young
Speaker 1: girl placed in a convent against her will who fell
Speaker 1: prey to temptation, offered a perfect opportunity to explore the
Speaker 1: tension between sexuality and romance and religious enclosure, and the
Speaker 1: violence that might ensue when that tension came to boil.
Speaker 1: That plot structure gained popularity, especially in Italy through the
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and became one of the standard templates for
Speaker 1: a popular genre of film still popular today, especially in
Speaker 1: American horror movies, that has come to be known as nonsploitation.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mank. Noble Blood is created and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by
Speaker 1: Hannah Johnston, Hanna Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman.
Speaker 1: The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and
Speaker 1: rima il Kaali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive
Speaker 1: producers Aaron Manke, Alec Williams and Matt Frederick. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.