Women's Reformatories and Prisons in the Early Modern Age: Morality, Welfare and Repression of Women in the 17th and 18th Century

The development of absolute monarchies and the appearance of different social dynamics from those of medieval times at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century favoured the appearance of new penalisation. As far as women were concerned the new penalisation was limited initially to establishing separate prison accommodation for men and women. The intention was to avoid sins of the flesh without mention of the existence of a greater reformatory interest. From the 16th century and particularly after the Council of Trento, “Casas de Recogidas” (Women's Reformatories) appeared in the main cities that were concerned with receiving and reforming women of “bad repute”. Initially these institutions held women whose arrival was apparently voluntary. The publication in 1608 of Magdalena de San Jerónimo's Razón y Forma de Galera (prison purpose and design) provoked the construction of women's prisons with clearly reformatory purposes. The criminalisation of women for reformatory purposes was prior to that of men.We have paid special attention to the case study of Salamanca within the wide network of Spanish cities that had establishments of this type. For this study we have used the documentation of the archives of the Cathedral of Salamanca and the Diocesan of Salamanca.