The Annunziata scandal of 1897 and foundling care in turn‐of‐the‐century Italy

Abstract In 1897 a foundling home scandal in Naples shocked local and national opinion alike and seemingly set the political apparatus of reform in motion. In spite of political and professional debate and repeated attempts to introduce appropriate legislation, no such law was passed until 1923. In the process of analyzing both the local and the national investigations inspired by the Neapolitan scandal, this article offers a picture of Italian foundling care in a crucial but generally neglected period when abandonment, though still a major social problem, had begun its inexorable decline. Moreover, the investigations and associated debates begun in 1897 reveal an interesting sociocultural geography of practices and attitudes, corresponding generally to earlier political divisions. Finally, the surprising tenor of the 1897 reaction as compared to earlier relative indifference, and the subsequent inaction find an explanation in their placement at the intersection of two conflicting trends in public opinion...