DC Public Library System

The kindness of strangers, the abandonment of children in Western Europe from late antiquity to the Renaissance, John Boswell

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 463-473) and index

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

The kindness of strangers

bibliography

17877506

John Boswell

the abandonment of children in Western Europe from late antiquity to the Renaissance

Child abandonment and child welfare in the ancient and medieval worldIn his first book, John Boswell defined and charted a whole new field of inquiry. In this one, he brings to bear what Michel Foucault called his "unfailing erudition" on an equally untouched topic. Intrigued by hints in Christian literature that children were routinely abandoned, not only in the ancient world, but well into the Middle Ages, and that these children did not die but were used as servants and prostitutes, or brought up in other households, Boswell undertook to explore the past of this remarkable subject. Using a wide variety of sources--including civil and canon law, trial records, foundling-hospital archives, and artistic representations--Boswell has pieced together the intriguing story behind ancient and medieval abandonment. He discovers that it was a widespread and familiar part of domestic life in most of Europe, a custom accepted and regulated by the church and civil authorities, often celebrated in literature, and, in the absence of reliable birth control, a practice that was often essential to the survival of the rest of the family. Against the background of modern concerns--both historical and social--about the family and its problems, Boswell's work provides a startling perspective on the difficulties faced by parents and children in earlier societies. It is a story that is moving for the desperation that drove parents to abandon their children, for the tenderness and generosity that inspired others to rescue them, and for the many subtle ways Western culture devised to see that abandoned children would be saved and reared by the kindness of strangers. --Adapted from dust jacket

Part I: Ancient patterns. Rome : the historical skeleton ; Rome : literary flesh and blood ; Fathers of the Church and parents of children -- Part II: The early Middle Ages. Variations on familiar patterns ; A Christian innovation : oblation ; Demographic overview -- Part III: The High Middle Ages. New demographics : 1000-1200 ; Oblation at its zenith ; The thirteenth century: abandonment resumes ; Literary witnesses -- Part IV: The later Middle Ages. Continuities and unintended tragedy ; Conclusions