Title Cultures of charity : women, politics, and the reform of poor relief in Renaissance Italy / Nicholas Terpstra

Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (x, 379 pages) : illustrations, map Series I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history. Contents 1. Showing the Poor a Good Time: Gender, Class, and Charitable Cultures -- Two Cultures of Charity -- "Good Mothers of the Family" -- 2. Worthy Poor, Worthy Rich: Women's Poverty and Charitable Institutions -- The Turning Wheel: Charitable Institutions and Life Cycle Poverty -- The Critical Decade -- Nights and Days at the Opera -- 3. Tightening Control: The Narrowing Politics of Charity -- Making It Work -- People versus Patricians: Civil Society and Controlling Charity -- 4. Meeting the Bottom Line: Alms, Taxes, Work, and Legacies -- Begging for Beggars: Keeping the Opera Pia dei Poveri Mendicanti Afloat -- Taxation by Other Means -- Making a Workhouse -- Deeper in Debt and Richer all the Time: Building a Legacy -- 5. The Wheel Keeps Turning: Moving Beyond the Opera -- Enclosing the Circle: Shelters and the Reform of Poor Women -- Credit Where Credit Was Due: Investing in Marriage -- Beyond Charity: Mutual Assistance and the Working Poor Note continued: 6. Baroque Piety and the Qualita of Mercy -- Bringing Discipline to Practical Charity -- The Aesthetics of Poverty and the Qualita of Mercy Summary Renaissance debates about politics and gender led to pioneering forms of poor relief, devised to help women get a start in life. These included orphanages for illegitimate children and forced labor in workhouses, but also women's shelters and early forms of maternity benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and credit union savings plans Renaissance Italians pioneered radical changes in ways of helping the poor, including orphanages, workhouses, pawnshops, and women's shelters. Nicholas Terpstra shows that gender was the key factor driving innovation. Most of the recipients of charity were women. The most creative new plans focused on features of women's poverty like illegitimate births, hunger, unemployment, and domestic violence. Signal features of the reforms, from forced labor to new instruments of saving and lending, were devised specifically to help young women get a start in life. Cultures of Charity is the first book to see women's poverty as the key factor driving changes to poor relief. These changes generated intense political debates as proponents of republican democracy challenged more elitist and authoritarian forms of government emerging at the time. Should taxes fund poor relief? Could forced labor help build local industry? Focusing on Bologna, Terpstra looks at how these fights around politics and gender generated pioneering forms of poor relief, including early examples of maternity benefits, unemployment insurance, food stamps, and credit union savings plans Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes In English Print version record Subject Charities -- Italy -- Bologna -- History Poor -- Italy -- Bologna -- History Women -- Italy -- Bologna -- History Women. Charities Women women (female humans) SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Poverty & Homelessness. HISTORY -- Renaissance. Charities Poor Social conditions Women SUBJECT Bologna (Italy) -- Social conditions Italy Subject Italy -- Bologna Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2012018083 ISBN 9780674067929 0674067924 0674071743 9780674071742

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