Charity and Power in Early Modern Italy: Benefactors and their Motives in Turin, 1541-1789

by Sandra Cavallo

Overview

This is the first thorough study of charity and of medical and poor relief in post-Renaissance Italy. It departs from current interpretations by putting much greater emphasis on the various circumstances that motivated individual men and women to become involved in charity, and argues that conflicts and tensions in their social and political surroundings were crucial in prompting their charitable activity and defining perceptions of the needy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521460910
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/09/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in the History of Medicine
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Sixteenth-century municipal plans for poor relief; 2. Civic charity in the age of state formation; 3. Motivations for charity; 4 Charity and gender; 5. Hospitals and poor relief in the age of absolutism; 6. The state system of relief; Conclusion; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"A brief review cannot do justice to the rich texture and human detail of this study. Skillful exploitation of the neglected types of power allows Cavallo to revise the widely accepted views of changing systems of poor relief in the early modern period. especially those of Geremek and Foucault....Sandra Cavallo...performs a useful service in restoring charity and poor relief to its social context." Canadian Journal of History

"This detailed study is a solid contribution to the study of both carità and the history of hospitals. It is a welcome addition to the Wellcome Trust's support for scholarship in the history of medicine....learned and meticulous..." Bibliotheque D'Humanisme

"A pioneering contribution to current discussions of material aspects of charity." Choice

this book demands close reading, both for the tightness of its arguments and for the importance of what it has to say....Her arguments command serious attention, for they are solidly grounded in archival documentation, especially Turin's rich fund of notarial deeds and wills....Dr. Cavallo's book is crammed with novel, challenging arguments....Her book leaves few orthodoxies unscathed, and will form the point of departure for reinvigorated debate on these issues." Geoffrey Symcox, Journal of Modern Italian Studies

"...elegant and cautiously argued volume...What emerges is not merely a well-researched book, but a meticulously crafted conceptual framework. Cavallo takes no current orthodoxy for granted and therefore each observation is fresh, perceptive, and authoritative...These findings...have important implications for the history of women in institutions...this book is a significant achievement, intellectually challenging, historiographically conscious, methodologically sound, and a major contribution to our knowledge of the early modern city and its elites." The Sixteenth Century Journal

"This book deserves wide readership.... Cavallo's contributions are many, and she points the way for future research. She creatively relates adjusted patterns of charity and the promotion by charitable organizations..." William V. Hudon, American Historical Review

From the Publisher