Abandoned children of the Italian Renaissance : orphan care in Florence and Bologna
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Abandoned children of the Italian Renaissance : orphan care in Florence and Bologna
(The Johns Hopkins University studies in historical and political science, 123rd ser. ; 4)
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005
Available at 9 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
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  United Kingdom
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-341) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Nearly half of the children who lived in the cities of the late Italian Renaissance were under fifteen years of age. Grinding poverty, unstable families, and the death of a parent could make caring for these young children a burden. Many were abandoned, others orphaned. At a time when political rulers fashioned themselves as the "fathers" of society, these cast-off children presented a very immediate challenge and opportunity. In Bologna and Florence, government and private institutions pioneered orphanages to care for the growing number of homeless children. Nicholas Terpstra discusses the founding and management of these institutions, the procedures for placing children into them, the children's daily routine and education, and finally their departure from these homes. He explores the role of the city-state and considers why Bologna and Florence took different paths in operating the orphanages. Terpstra finds that Bologna's orphanages were better run, looked after the children more effectively, and were more successful in returning their wards to society as productive members of the city's economy.
Florence's orphanages were larger and harsher, and made little attempt to reintegrate children into society. Based on extensive archival research and individual stories, Abandoned Children of the Italian Renaissance demonstrates how gender and class shaped individual orphanages in each city's network, and how politics, charity, and economics intertwined in the development of the early modern state.
Table of Contents
List of Tables, Graphs, and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Down and Out and Off the Streets: Sheltering Renaissance Children
Chapter 1: Opening a Home
Chapter 2: Entering a Home: Prescriptions and Procedures
Chapter 3: Making a Home with Girls
Chapter 4: Making a Home with Boys
Chapter 5: Running a Home
Chapter 6: Leaving Home
Conclusion: The Politics of Renaissance Orphanages
Appendix: Institutional Finances
Notes
Bibliography
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