'Gavitt provides stimulating insight into crucial issues that although long debated in the historiography of Renaissance Florence have been only sporadically addressed for the history of the city in the sixteenth century.' The American Historical Review
Introduction; 1. Charity and state-building; 2. Gender, lineage ideology, and the development of a status culture; 3. Law and the majesty of practice; 4. Innocence and danger: pedagogy, discipline, and the culture of masculinity; 5. From putte to puttane: female foundlings and charitable institutions; 6. Unruly nuns: convents and cloistering; Conclusion.