I Segreti Del Chiostro – Storie E Ricette Dei Monasteri Di Palermo – 2019
The book I segreti del chiostro (The Cloister’s Secrets) was born from the desire to put in writing the stories and small curiosities of Palermo’s women’s monasteries and at the same time to try to focus attention on a gastronomic wisdom that has matured over eight hundred years of convent history in Sicily, an important spiritual and material inheritance that cannot be lost, but must be valorised and handed down to future generations. At the end of the volume, some brief, simple but heartfelt testimonies have been included to try to recount, through the eyes of those who were there, a multifaceted and complex world that no longer exists today.
Photo: Enzo Brai
Maria Oliveri
AuthorsMaria Oliveri holds a master’s degree in ‘Philosophy’ and a level II master’s degree in ‘Religious Sciences and Cultural Professions for the Territory’ from the University of Palermo. Passionate about history, art and anthropology, she is involved in the dissemination of Sicilian cultural heritage and archive research. She has written short stories for the web, collaborated with the quarterly magazine ‘Sapori di Sicilia’ and the free press ‘Buongiorno Palermo’ and ‘Genio Magazine’. Since 2022 he has collaborated as an author with the online magazine Balarm.
His plays Il racconto di suor Caterina Venero (2015) and Laura Lanza, infelice storia della Baronessa di Carini (2016) were performed in the Lanza di Trabia Crypt. With the publishing house Il Genio Editore he published: in 2017 the first edition of I segreti del chiostro. Storie e ricette dei monasteri di Palermo, which qualified as one of the three first finalists in the 2018 Castiglione di Sicilia literary competition, ‘Cento Sicilia, cento scrittori’; in 2019 the second updated edition of I Segreti del chiostro; in 2023 Le Impudiche paste delle Vergini; in 2025 Il trionfo della Gola. La pasticceria dei monasteri di Palermo.
He participated in the collective essays: In Santa Caterina edited by P. Araldi; Tra amiche (2023) edited by I. Margarese (Les Fleneurs); Palermo (2022) edited by A. Russolillo and S. Favarò, Lipari (2023) edited by M. C. Martinelli, P. Lo Cascio et alii; Isola d’Ischia (2023) edited by A. Russolillo, G. Ambrosino, S. Gervasio; Caltanissetta (2024) edited by S. D’Angelo, C. Caminiti, A. Russolillo, L. Sutera (all published by Villaggio letterario).
He participated in the collective volume Racconti storici (2023) published by Historica Edizioni.
He edited with Nicole Oliveri the catalogue of the homonymous exhibition Sacra et Pretiosa Cerae (2023) published by Il Genio Editore.
