Page 206 - Mediterranea-ricerche storiche, n. 48, aprile 2020flip

206 Beatrice Zucca Micheletto

granted economic privileges. In November 1770, for example, the
cloth manufacture implanted at the Ospedale di Carità of Nice
received an annual rent while in 1771 and 1774 the entrepreneur
Bonafous, and afterwards the notary Bertrand, were granted a
monopoly for managing the carding and spinning manufacture of the
Ospedale di Carità established in the community of Saint-Jean-de-
Maurienne .
17

Jobs and economic activities performed by the inmates

An in-depth analysis of the documentation has evidenced the range
of jobs and activities performed in the charity institutions. The inquiry
reveals three patterns that will be analysed in this and in the ensuing
sections : 1) the majority of the institutions hosted within their walls
workshops and shops run by external artisans who, in exchange for
favourable conditions, were required to employ internal labour force,
in addition to some external workers; in some cases, the workshops
were located outside the walls and the inmates (always males) were
allowed to go outside the premises during working hours; 2) two of the
most important Turinese institutions, namely the Ospedale di Carità
and the Albergo di Virtù hosted wool manufactures. In this case the
labour force was composed by external workers and inmates; 3) in
addition to this, a range of jobs and activities (from service to clerical
work) were performed to ensure the ordinary maintenance of the
institution and to cater for the needs of the hosts.
The city’s oldest hospital, the Ospedale di San Giovanni, which
received abandoned babies, required that once the children were old
enough they had to be trained and employed. Girls and (a few) boys
worked in the silk workshop within the hospital, while other boys were
placed in external workshops. Both the Ospedale di Carità and the
Albergo di Virtù followed similar policies. At the Ospedale, many of the
children who were placed in apprenticeship came from families in dire
financial straits, and they were usually admitted temporarily when
reached about seven years of age, to relieve their families. In 1664-65,
the Ospedale established a ribbon-making workshop, and in 1767-68
it added workshops producing shoes, bonnets and woollens. The
Albergo admitted children aged 11 to 15 who were sponsored by a
guarantor, usually a court member or royal artisan. In 1721, it hosted

17 F. A. Duboin, Raccolta cit., tomo 12, vol. 14, libro 7, Regio biglietto (…) all’ospedale
di carità di Nizza, per sostegno della sua manifattura, p. 225; Ibidem, Lettres-patentes
du Roi (…) de la maison de charité de Saint-Jean de Maurienne, pp. 238-239.

Mediterranea - ricerche storiche - Anno XVII - Aprile 2020
ISSN 1824-3010 (stampa) ISSN 1828-230X (online)