Real and virtual families : forms and dynamics of fostering and adoption in Bologna’s early modern hospitals

Institutional care for orphaned and abandoned children varied significantly according to the state of their kinship connections. Fostering which preserved known ‘real’ family connections was the norm, while adoption was a form of ‘virtual’ family employed in cases where there was no known lineage. Bologna’s orphanages for abandoned children eschewed adoption, and worked with their wards, particularly females, to maintain family name and kin identity. From 1570, its foundling home (Ospedale degli Esposti) distinguished between naturales (born of known fathers) and spurii (with unknown fathers). The former kept family names and earned dowries, while the latter were formally adopted by the institution and received both a family name (Esposta) and a larger dowry to allow them to move more readily out of the virtual family of the institution and into a new real family with a spouse