The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain ed. by Grace E. Coolidge (review)

The Formation of the Child in Early Modern Spain provides a valuable Spanish contribution to the growing literature on the history of the European child. Drawing together twelve historians, art historians, and literary scholars to explore how early modern Spain understood infancy and childhood, and more specifically the role of education, discipline, and parental and institutional care in these life stages, this collection clearly illustrates the particular investments that the Spanish placed in childhood as a developmental stage, along with the allowances that people were expected to make for childhood behaviours.

The book is separated into three parts. The first comprises four chapters that look at representations of childhood in literature and art: Rosilie Hernández examines Old Testament exemplars of ideal motherly behaviour; chapters by Carmen Marín Pina and Anne Cruz explore, respectively, mother–daughter and father–son relationships in novels; and Charlene Villaseñor Black considers paintings of the education of the Virgin Mary. All four authors carefully tease out the tensions between ideal forms of behaviour and the abilities of ordinary children to achieve them; tensions that often emerge within the works themselves.

Part II consists of four chapters that look at the childhoods of Spanish monarchs across the seventeenth century. Together, they provide a comprehensive discussion of the subject and particularly highlight the challenge, typically faced by royal children, of balancing the demands of exercising royal authority, with the practical limitations – physical, emotional, educational – of being a child. They demonstrate the distinctive care and concern provided both by parents and courts that saw such children as important to national security.

Part III looks at the positioning of children in society. Darcy Donahue explores a didactic dialogue that situates the child as the parent of the adult, while in her contribution, editor Grace Coolidge places children as a key dimension of family lineage, with education seen as an investment in family, as much as individual, identity. Edward Behrend-Martinez and Valentina Tikoff investigate attitudes towards child abuse and the use of orphanage wards to care for children. They seek to balance constructions of caring with forms of discipline that overlap with cruelty and control of children.

A coherent collection, brought together by a strong Introduction, Formation of the Child provides a timely and interesting contribution to the field.