INNOCENTS

This paper aims to clarify the various meanings of child care at the Hospital of the Innocents (Spedale degli Innocenti—hereafter abbreviated to be read as the Innocenti). The Innocenti was established in Florence, Italy in 1445, and accepted only abandoned children. There are many studies on the Innocenti, from its architecture to historical research on it as a hospital raising abandoned children. This year, 2019, marks the 600th anniversary of Brunelleschi’s construction of the Innocenti. A research project launched in 2007, resulted in research papers and booklets. In this study, I restructured the outcomes of the research project, according to the different eras, to reveal the Innocenti’s child care programs. In the first period, from 1419 to 1580, people atoning for their vanity saved and cared for abandoned children. In the second period, 1580 to 1700, abandoned children were placed in a manger between the Virgin Mary and Joseph’s statue, and cared for as the incarnate Jesus. During the third period, 1700 to 1875, foreign control modernized the Innocenti, and child care based on science began. In the fourth period, 1875 to 1900, the Innocenti became a public welfare facility, and doctors and nurses provided child care as a welfare service. キーワード:インノチェンティ捨子養育院、養護と魂の救済、養護と幼子イエス