The story begins with the abandonment of the newborn Agata Smeralda on February 5, 1445, in Florence’s Hospital of the Innocents, the first―but certainly not the last―child to be left at its doors. In an era when children were frequently abandoned, often trafficked or left to die on the streets, an orphanage devoted to their care and protection was a striking innovation. The Innocenti, as it has come to be called―the first orphanage in Europe devoted exclusively to unwanted children―would go on to care for nearly 400,000 young lives over the next five centuries. Reflecting in a touching preface on the major caregivers in his own life, Joseph Luzzi narrates the fascinating history of this revolutionary orphanage, offering readers the first comprehensive “biography” of a groundbreaking humanitarian institution that recognized poor and abandoned children as worthy of nurture―and thereby shaped education and childcare for generations to come. Buona lettura!