Gender, honor, and charity in late Renaissance Florence
By: Philip Gavitt
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 290
ISBN-13: 9781107002944
Subjects: Charities; Family; History
Description: "This book examines the important social role of charitable institutions for women and children in late Renaissance Florence"--

"This book examines the important social role of charitable institutions for women and children in late Renaissance Florence. Wars, social unrest, disease, and growing economic inequality on the Italian peninsula displaced hundreds of thousands of families during this period. In order to handle the social crises generated by war, competition for social position, and the abandonment of children, a series of private and public initiatives expanded existing charitable institutions and founded new ones. Philip Gavitt's research reveals the important role played by lineage ideology among Florence's elites in the use and manipulation of these charitable institutions in the often futile pursuit of economic and social stability. Considering families of all social levels, he argues that the pursuit of family wealth and prestige often worked at cross-purposes with the survival of the very families it was supposed to preserve"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. Charity and state-building; 2. Gender, lineage ideology, and the development of a status culture; 3. Law and the majesty of practice; 4. Innocence and danger: pedagogy, discipline, and the culture of masculinity; 5. From putte to puttane: female foundlings and charitable institutions; 6. Unruly nuns: convents and cloistering; Conclusion.