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Article: Orphanages
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Orphanages
In the middle of the fourteenth century, religious orders, confraternities, and municipalities established orphanages and foundling hospitals all over Europe as a response to the plague and to increasing poverty. A Parisian confraternity founded an orphanage, H
ô
pital du Saint-Esprit-en Gr
è
ve, in 1366, and in Italy the Florentine Innocenti opened in 1444. Although most orphanages were established in western and southern Europe, a few were also established in eastern and northern Europe. The Church took care of abandoned and illegitimate infants, and from the fifteenth century on foundling hospitals could be found in many German, Italian, and French cities.
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