Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-11-17
CHILDREN OF FLORENCE.
The Hospital Of the Innocent, the Most Famous
Founding Institution.
From the Elnstssnth Century.


| tine love of little children than is to
be found in the names of the great
masters of that magnificent period
who gave their work to adorn with
exquisite and tender sentiment tho
| refuge of destitute and nameless in
fancy.
In the gloom OF the cloister, over
the entrance to the Church of the In
nocenti, CLEANS a beautiful della
Robbia relief of the Annunciation,
surrounded with it's lovely garland of
cherub heads. In the church itself,
behind the altar, Ghirlandajo's
Alteration of the Magi," with the
two little murdered innocents who,
kneeling in their white robes before
the Saviour, have entered into glory,
conveys the same feeling of gentle
compassion for the young and help
less which Is the dominating note in
all the decoration of the hospital.
We find it again in the pictures in
the board room, in the work of Piero
di -Cosimo, Ghirlandajo's predella,
NsA'N a. NAAAN AAOol NNAlutA plCluAG VI
Filippo Lippis, in which a boy angel
brings the Christ Child to the Ma
donna. 1t repeats itself in the min
utest detail of decoration IN the in
rerIor, In the winged heads of The
is always the same isgifs6 OF ana ar f hhlSefs
with Brunelleschi's bold and simple
design, as in the medallions over the
arcade without. The hospital was
for a time generously assisted Oy
the Medicean Grand Dukes, whose
busts stand under the arcades, pa
irons of the artists who were en-
ployed upon the building, but it was
placed at the outset especially under
the management of the Guild of Silk
Weavers, who endowed it with a tax
on every pound of silk spun or woven
in Florence. Very soon a Papal bull
raised it to the dignity of an "ecclesi-
astical place." a dignity which it en-
joys to the present day.
For a time after it's foundation
very few babies were brought to the
hospital; perhaps the mothers were a
little shy of the sumptuous building
and the Grand Ducal patronage.
Their anonymity was, however, COM
pletely secured, for the babies were,
as they still are, of so tender an age
that they could be passed through the
bars of window which has only re-
Gently been walled up. The first in
FAINT to be received was baptized on
February 5, 1445, and was named
Agata Smeralda. Gradually in those
early days the society increased it's
funds by the absorption of smaller
analogous institutions, such as the
Hospital of La Scala, and in time it
became possessed of considerable
property in the city. Everybody who
knows the streets of Florence must
have noticed over the doors of GER
tain houses the sign of the swaddled
babies, painted on plaster, which
marks them as the property of the
Innocenti. In spite of so prosperous
beginning the Hospital of the In
nocents has passed through more
than one severe financial crisis.
More especially was this the case
during the occupation of the French,
when Napoleon, with his particular
genius for using up waste material,
decreed that all foundlings of the
male sex over the age of fourteen
should be enrolled in boy regiment,
while those between eleven and four
teen should be utilized as middies.
Four centuries and a half have passed
since Agata Smeralda was received,
with how much interest and i'll sup
pressed agitation we may imagine by
the initiators of this princely scheme.
Much water has flowed under the
bridge since then, and at the present
day between 1000 and 5000 found
lings are annually supported by the
society, although comparatively few
of them are housed in the actual
building.
The history of the Innocent Hos
pital is a curious and instructive
study in evolution. Here the babies
are still swaddled in the approved
Tuscan fashion, which has never
changed with the ages and which is
immortalized in the della Robbia me-
dallions. And not so long ago an ad-
ministrative council was formed
whose object is to see that every new
est and most sanitary invention and
practice is employed for the benefit
of these nameless waits, who are
lodged and fed and nursed upon the
best and most scientific principles in
Europe. No heir to kingdom could
be reared upon more hygienic meth
DDS.