Children in Florentine Times

Renaissance Italians loved their children just as much as modern ones do. Even though fathers, particularly wealthy or military ones, were largely absent, there is a wealth of letters between them and their children.

Children were educated as well as a family could allow. Most boys went to school 4-6 hours a day and then to work the rest of the day, and then went to university at age 15, where they studied grammar and basic arithmetic. Some very privileged children were also schooled in Greek, Latin, and other arts such as philosophy.

The Medici children had private tutors from a very young age. Piero particularly wrote some stirring letters to his father while Lorenzo was on the road, possibly with his tutor's help. Poor boys, of course, didn't get much schooling.

Mothers primarily handled day-to-day affairs, writing their husbands for advice and input. Some of the tutors had trouble with them and argued with them.

Bastard children had it rough sometimes. Sometimes the father of the children (the situation was almost always a privileged man having an affair with a slave kept as a mistress) acknowledged them and raised them alongside his own children. Most men had mistresses, and there's little indication that wives were particularly resentful of having bastards underfoot. One man had several bastards being raised at home alongside almost a dozen of his legitimate children. Other times the newborn infants were dropped off at orphanages around Florence to be cared for by wetnurses.

More to come..

This page last updated: July 10, 2009

All text copyright Vangelista di Antonio Dellaluna, except where otherwise noted. All portraits are understood to be copyright- free and are presented as research aids only.