- Gender, Honor, and Charity in Late Renaissance Florence
Philip Gavitt’s scholarly reputation was fully established with the publication of Charity and Children in Renaissance Florence: The Ospedale degli Innocenti, 1410–1536 (Ann Arbor, 1990), a pioneering and moving work in the field of Florentine philanthropy, civic responsibility, and state building. In the years since, he has extended his analyses on these vital issues and has published a number of excellent articles on them. His latest work incorporates revised and strengthened versions of some of these articles, as well as important new contributions to his chosen fields. It consists of an introduction that also serves as a platform for the presentation of the theoretical principles informing his approach to the various issues discussed in the book and six chapters, each tackling different issues, but each contributing to the formulation of a coherent and valuable assessment of the place of philanthropy in the development of the Florentine state. The book ends with a short but highly informative and somewhat controversial conclusion.
Not surprisingly, some of these chapters are based on evidence drawn from the hospital of the Innocenti. Outstanding in this regard is chapter 1, in which the relationship between the Innocenti and the Medicean state is analyzed. The central figures in this chapter are Vincenzio Borghini, the administrator of the Innocenti but also one of the most learned scholars of the period, and the Florentine grand dukes Cosimo and Francesco. Under the stewardship of Borghini, the Innocenti contributed in a number of different ways to the strengthening of the state and to the entrenchment of the Medici in power. Whereas the efforts of the government and of Borghini himself to deal with the intractable problem of the abandonment of children are clearly [End Page 805] set out, so, too, is the exploitation of the hospital’s resources and therefore indirectly also of the children, by the regime. This is also a theme in the fifth chapter, in which the focus is placed on the girls of the Innocenti and on the other five major Florentine institutions created to care for them. Once again, the commendable original objectives of caring for these girls is shown to have been somewhat tainted by poor execution and by outright exploitation.
The other major theme tackled in the book is the exploitation of ecclesiastical and charitable institutions by Florentine families of middle to high rank. Of particular interest here are Gavitt’s arguments regarding the strategies employed by these families to enhance their standing and future well-being. He rejects the argument that “a strictly patriarchal model governed gender relations” (p. 93) in the whole Mediterranean world, arguing instead that it was concern for the survival of the lineage that required the institutionalization of scores of young women and men. A great deal of evidence, spread over three major chapters, reinforces this view. Although the argument is sound and timely, it is perhaps somewhat overdrawn, especially when one considers that a vastly greater number of women than men finished up in institutions, and that of the men who did, only a minute number could be assessed as “enclosed.” Possibly too much is made, further, of the compliance of charitable as well as religious and quasi-religious institutions to the pressures of patrons with family interests at heart and their own agendas to fulfill. Given the number and vulnerability, both financial and structural, of such institutions, it is not surprising that such interference could occur. Whether it was widespread, especially after the reforms of Cosimo and of the Council of Trent in particular, is open to question.
These are minor observations, however, not intended to detract from this invaluable contribution to important and controversial fields of study. The book represents a very ambitious project with many objectives in view, some of them particularly difficult to fulfill given the variety of themes and problems raised. Gender, Honor, and Charity in Late Renaissance Florence is of great importance for our understanding of the city in an...