The Innocents of Florence

As revolutionary in its mission as it is in its architecture, the Hospital of the Innocents took one of Florence's most intractable social problems: an appalling number of abandoned babies, providing the hope of a dignified life to these blameless children of poverty, slavery, and misfortune. Joseph Luzzi's harrowing, heartfelt book gives these Innocents something else: their own history.--Ingrid Rowland, coauthor of The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art Joseph Luzzi's compact study of a single orphanage in Florence is a marvelous -- and sobering -- history of how we think about so-called abandoned children and childhood itself. He helps us understand family structure in Italy, certainly, but he also offers insights into artistic patronage during the Renaissance, Italian unification in the nineteenth century and post-World War II notions of human and children's rights. A remarkable achievement.--John T. McGreevy, author of Catholicism: A Global History from the French Revolution to Pope Francis This is an extraordinary book: deeply researched, beautifully written and morally urgent. With clarity and compassion, Joseph Luzzi brings to life the heartbreaking realities faced by Florence's abandoned children, offering profound insights into Renaissance attitudes toward childhood, honor and social worth. A work of both scholarship and conscience, it challenges us to reckon with the past - and reminds us why the lives of children have always mattered.--Ross King, author of The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance