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Lost Girls: Sex and Death in Renaissance Florence Paperback – Illustrated, September 1, 2012
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In 1554, a group of idealistic laywomen founded a home for homeless and orphaned adolescent girls in one of the worst neighborhoods in Florence. Of the 526 girls who lived in the home during its fourteen-year tenure, only 202 left there alive. Struck by the unusually high mortality rate, Nicholas Terpstra sets out to determine what killed the lost girls of the House of Compassion shelter (Casa della Pietà).
Reaching deep into the archives' letters, ledgers, and records from both inside and outside the home, he slowly pieces together the tragic story. The Casa welcomed girls in bad health and with little future, hoping to save them from an almost certain life of poverty and drudgery. Yet this "safe" house was cruelly dangerous. Victims of Renaissance Florence’s sexual politics, these young women were at the disposal of the city’s elite men, who treated them as property meant for their personal pleasure.
With scholarly precision and journalistic style, Terpstra uncovers and chronicles a series of disturbing leads that point to possible reasons so many girls died: hints of routine abortions, basic medical care for sexually transmitted diseases, and appalling conditions in the textile factories where the girls worked.
Church authorities eventually took the Casa della Pietà away from the women who had founded it and moved it to a better part of Florence. Its sordid past was hidden, until now, in an official history that bore little resemblance to the orphanage’s true origins. Terpstra’s meticulous investigation not only uncovers the sad fate of the lost girls of the Casa della Pietà but also explores broader themes, including gender relations, public health, church politics, and the challenges girls and adolescent women faced in Renaissance Florence.
- Print length264 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherThe Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication dateSeptember 1, 2012
- Dimensions6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101421407728
- ISBN-13978-1421407722
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Editorial Reviews
Review
―Erin Schowalter, Feminist Review
Lost Girls is a fine addition to any history collection, especially those with a focus on the Renaissance.
―Midwest Book Review
The Casa della Pietà, or House of Compassion, was one of Renaissance Florence's earliest shelters for orphaned or otherwise abandoned adolescent girls . . . Of the 526 girls who lived there during the 14 years it was open, 324 died there. What was killing these girls? Terpstra attempts to solve this mystery.
―Choice
[Terpstra's] study of Pietà can be recommended highly not only to those interested in women's history, social history, medical history, and economic history but also to anyone who cares about the historian's craft.
―Jonathan Davies, Reviews in History
A masterpiece of historical writing and an invaluable contribution to the study of premodern Italy . . . This book should be welcomed by anyone interested in social history, gender history, the history of sexuality, religious history or the history of medicine.
―Tamar Herzig, Journal of Modern History
Energetic, archival scholarship.
―Elizabeth S. Cohen, Literary Review of Canada
Unusual and ingenious . . . Those interested in the history of early-modern Catholic Europe and Catholic institutions on the Italian peninsula will find much to think about while reading this book.
―Kate Lowe, Catholic Historical Review
It is well written and well researched by an established and erudite historian of this period, and it treats a difficult subject: the situation of Florentine orphaned or abandoned adolescent girls in the sixteenth century.
―R. Burr Litchfield, Renaissance Quarterly
Terpstra weaves literary evidence, intelligent guesswork, and vivid historical imagination into an eminently readable micro-history that forms part of a growing body of scholarship that challenges long-held historical assumptions about female honor in the Mediterranean world.
―Philip Gavitt, American Historical Review
In this finely crafted microhistory he exposes the social and cultural contradictions often lost in more general studies that were critical to the existence and functioning of the Casa della Pietà.
―Duane J. Osheim, Sixteenth Century Journal
Nicholas Terpstra uses the puzzling deaths of teenaged girls in a Florentine asylum for the poor to take us into many surprising corners in the life of working people, and especially women, in that sixteenth-century city―sexual, medical, religious, and more. A fascinating Renaissance mystery story and a wonderful read!
―Natalie Zemon Davis, author of The Return of Martin Guerre
This is history with a decidedly human face. The author’s vivid descriptions of urban life and its material realities are unsurpassed. It’s no exaggeration to say that this book makes the streets of Renaissance Florence come alive like no other.
―Sharon T. Strocchia, author of Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence
Review
This is history with a decidedly human face. The author’s vivid descriptions of urban life and its material realities are unsurpassed. It’s no exaggeration to say that this book makes the streets of Renaissance Florence come alive like no other.
-- Sharon T. StrocchiaFrom the Inside Flap
In 1554, a group of idealistic laywomen founded a home for orphaned and homeless adolescent girls in one of the worst neighborhoods in Florence. Of the 526 girls who lived in the home through its first fourteen years, only 202 survived. Struck by the unusually high mortality rate, Nicholas Terpstra sets out to determine what killed the lost girls of the Casa della Pietà. As he uncovers their sad fate, he also explores broader themes, including gender relations, abortion, syphilis, religious politics, and the challenges adolescent girls faced in Renaissance Florence.
Terpstra weaves literary evidence, intelligent guesswork, and vivid historical imagination into an eminently readable micro-history that forms part of a growing body of scholarship that challenges long-held historical assumptions about female honor in the Mediterranean world.--American Historical Review
A masterpiece of historical writing and an invaluable contribution to the study of premodern Italy.--Journal of Modern History
The book contains fascinating, and sometimes shocking, information about Terpstra's topic. I appreciated that Terpstra does not exclusively limit himself to the subject of Casa della Pietà, but uses the mystery of what happened to the home's residents as a way to examine related issues.--Feminist Review
--Sharon T. Strocchia, author of Nuns and Nunneries in Renaissance Florence "American Historical Review"From the Back Cover
In 1554, a group of idealistic laywomen founded a home for orphaned and homeless adolescent girls in one of the worst neighborhoods in Florence. Of the 526 girls who lived in the home through its first fourteen years, only 202 survived. Struck by the unusually high mortality rate, Nicholas Terpstra sets out to determine what killed the lost girls of the Casa della Pietà. As he uncovers their sad fate, he also explores broader themes, including gender relations, abortion, syphilis, religious politics, and the challenges adolescent girls faced in Renaissance Florence.
"Terpstra weaves literary evidence, intelligent guesswork, and vivid historical imagination into an eminently readable micro-history that forms part of a growing body of scholarship that challenges long-held historical assumptions about female honor in the Mediterranean world."―American Historical Review
"A masterpiece of historical writing and an invaluable contribution to the study of premodern Italy."―Journal of Modern History
"The book contains fascinating, and sometimes shocking, information about Terpstra’s topic. I appreciated that Terpstra does not exclusively limit himself to the subject of Casa della Pietà, but uses the mystery of what happened to the home’s residents as a way to examine related issues."―Feminist Review
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Product details
- Publisher : The Johns Hopkins University Press; Reprint edition (September 1, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 264 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1421407728
- ISBN-13 : 978-1421407722
- Item Weight : 13.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,627,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,822 in Italian History (Books)
- #5,968 in General Gender Studies
- #8,214 in Women in History
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The problem, however, lies in the editing. Though Terpstra's habit of referring to the three girls he mentions near the beginning gets somewhat annoying (how many times do we really need to hear the phrase "girls like Margherita, Maria, and Maddelena"?), what's even more disturbing is how many sentences appear to have been left unchecked. The book is riddled with editing errors. For example, near the end, when Terpstra is considering the effects of French pox (most likely syphilis, in modern terms), the following sentence appears:
"They were more likely to visit prostitutes and brothels and were more likely to be exposed to the disease and later to pass it on to their wives, who could in turn infect pass it on to their children." (pp. 160-161)
It's fairly clear that Terpstra meant either to claim that mothers could "infect" or "pass it on to" their children, but the sentence construction makes no sense as-is. In these instances I think that the Johns Hopkins University Press has done the book a disservice.
Nevertheless, this book is otherwise quite good and is definitely worth reading.