Una famiglia diversa....ma pur sempre una famiglia

Abstract

Several studies showed how family is the main pillar of society and of the evolution from childhood to adulthood. Thus, studies on abandoned children argued about those who could not have had a traditional family, so they received education from bodies, institutes and private or state hospices. This apparent family crisis, manifested by its absence, give youngsters an alternative opportunity to grow through the development of a different idea of family, in which the role of parents was assigned to the state, to directors, to sentinels, the staff of such institutes, who often were endowed with the role of educating those children. At the end of 19th century, there were 973 ‘Opere Pie’ (good works), under the denomination of orphanages, hospices, retreats, which had the scope to provide shelter, support, education and training to poor children, orphans or abandoned from parents and relatives. New methodologies of historical-educational research witnessed how the different children and youngsters were brought up to be part of the society. The present study aims to analyse the educational path of orphans and abandoned children in Lecce, with a specific focus on the Hospice Garibaldi, comparing it to similar, contemporary institutions in the national framework of the late 19th century, as the Orphanage Loffredo of Orphans and Abandoned in Cardito (Naples), the Hospices of abandoned childhood of the Province of Genoa, of the ‘Istituto de’ Trovatelli’ in Palermo, the County Hospices of Bari and Turin. By consulting statutes and scopes of those institutions, we aimed at the reconstruction of how such bodies took the place of family education, and the reasons standing behind the huge number of orphans and abandoned children. Research on papers stored in the State Archive of Lecce proceeds with the examination of further folders about Hospice Garibaldi, such folders represent a practical example of wat was educational activity in those institutes. The analysed documents mainly involve the activities of some sheltered people, with a system of awards and punishments, some papers about re-education of orphans and abandoned, defined as ‘idle and tramp’, sheltered under the authority of the court. Through a comparison of traditional family education between 19th and 20th centuries, we aimed to reconstruct the educational environment of orphans, the reasons why parents delegated education to such institutions, and if this type of ‘family’ managed to substitute to parental education to guide youngsters in entering society in the 19th century.