#118 The Innocents of Florence: A Conversation with Professor Joseph Luzzi

Saturday, March 7th Live on Zoom

10am Los Angeles / 1pm New York / 6pm London / 7pm Florence

During the Renaissance, a Florentine orphanage opened and began admitting children in 1445, ultimately rescuing thousands of children and revolutionizing childhood foster care and education amid the splendor of exceptional Renaissance art and architecture.  Florence’s Ospedale degli Innocenti/Hospital of the Innocents was Europe’s first orphanage for abandoned children.  In an era when children were often trafficked or left to die or roam the streets, an orphanage devoted to their care and protection was a striking innovation of profound humanism.  The building in Florence, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, was a symbol of Florence’s cultural and architectural brilliance.  Over 500 years, it ultimately became a haven for more than 400,000 abandoned children.

With deep knowledge of the literary and artistic environment in which this new understanding of childhood flowered, in The Innocents of Florence Luzzi explores how Florence’s Innocenti taught and cared for young children but also discusses the flaws – especially as the organization struggled with rampant disease and political upheaval.  Luzzi’s is the first comprehensive “biography” of a groundbreaking humanitarian institute that shaped education and childcare for generations to come, even up to the present day.

Joseph Luzzi received his PhD from Yale University.  He is the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard College, where he also teaches courses on film and Italian Studies.  He is the author of eight books, including his recent Botticelli’s Secret: The Lost Drawings and the Rediscovery of the Renaissance (Norton, 2022), and an essayist in newspapers, magazines, and journals, as well as a widely sought-after speaker who has presented worldwide on literature, art, film, and the power of the humanities.  Among his honors are a Dante Society of America prize, Yale teaching prize, a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Award, and fellowships from the National Humanities Center and Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center.  The first American-born child in his Italian immigrant family, Luzzi was named Cittadino Onorario, an Honorary Citizen of Acri, Calabria, in 2017.  He is the founder of the Virtual Book Club, an international online community devoted to exploring some of the best books ever written.

To RSVP: Paola50122@gmail.com

Minimum suggested donation: $28

This talk is free for Friends of Paola's Studiolo!

Look forward to seeing you on Zoom!