1. SOBRE A ESCOLHA DAS NUTRIZES: MEDICINA, DIETÉTICA E MORALIDADE NOS CUIDADOS DOS INFANTES ARAGONESES (1306-1318).
- Author
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Toledo Silva Amatuzzi, Renato
- Subjects
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COURTS & courtiers , *DEATH rate , *BREASTFEEDING , *NEWBORN infants , *NURSES , *INFANT mortality , *CHILDREN'S rights - Abstract
Ensuring material and healthy conditions to survive early childhood was a first-order topic among monarchies from the medieval West. The first years of life were a crucial stage, as infant mortality rates used to reach high levels. In the court of King James II of Aragon, care and personnel were not spared in order to nourish and guarantee a full development for the monarch's ten children. In this process, an essential role used to be performed by the wet nurse, who was in charge of breastfeeding newborns until the age of seven or eight years. This article aims to analyze the role played by wet nursing within the Aragonese royal court and the dietary and medical interferences, as well as the moral pressures, that existed on them. As objects of analysis, a set of letters exchanged between King James II and his children's wet nursing and two medical treatises (On the Disease of Women, by Trotula di Ruggiero, and the Children's Treaty, by Bernardo de Gordon and the Afonsinas Partidas were used. These sources provided us a view of this essential position regarding the upbringing of future crown heirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022