I Mendicanti e la politica assistenziale Italiana

This essay provides a wider context for the study of the history of the hospital of San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti by examining the Venetian institution in relation to the development of the Mendicanti hospital movement in early modern Italy. First, this essay compares San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti in the early years of its existence with institutions established in other Italian cities, to determine similarities and differences. Particular attention is paid to the Mendicanti in Bologna, since it was supposed to have been the model for similar institutions in Venice and elsewhere. Second, the essay shows how the function of Mendicanti hospitals evolved in response to changing socio-economic conditions in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, from more discriminatory policies of marginalising beggars to providing the poor with an important survival strategy in a period typified by recurring epidemics, dearth and economic crises.