Employing a rigorous methodological approach and analysing a vast body of sources from towns and regions in Italy, France and England over 300 years, this book hints at the extent of ‘routine’ infanticide of newborns by married parents in early modern Europe, ignored by contemporary tribunals.
Death Control in the West 1500–1800 examines baptismal registers and ecclesiastical censuses across a score of communities in Catholic and Protestant Europe. Married women had little reason to hide their condition from priests, midwives, neighbours, and friends, however, the practice of post-partum abortion was common everywhere, especially during times of hardship. By no means was it confined to the lower classes or to girls alone. Proposing a series of reflections on population control, this volume explores how families adopted a system of selective infanticide to manage resources and to safeguard social status, just like populations elsewhere around the globe.
This study is an excellent tool for students and researchers interested in the demographic mechanisms of the age and social and familial relationships in early modern Europe.
- ISBN13 9781032267579
- Publish Date 21 September 2022
- Publish Status Forthcoming
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 344
- Language English