Upbringing

Question 1

How were girls educated?

Answer 1

With religious and moral training that was reinforced by the community. Wealthy girls would learn to read, but housekeeping and social accomplishments were most vital. Poorer girls would learn housekeeping and a skill to make some money.

Question 2

Which children’s education would be most neglected?

Answer 2

Bastards and orphans

Question 3

What were the three stages of childhood?

Answer 3

0-7, 7-14, 14-21

Most are working or married age 14-21

Question 4

Who cared for children

in infancy?

Answer 4

Mostly the mother, but if wealthy a wet nurse would do physical care

Question 5

By what age were children weaned and past the point of most infant mortalities?

Answer 5

2

Question 6

For Giles of Rome, what is prescribed for children?

Answer 6

Milk to start, followed by soft food - no wine. Children should be kept from crying, get used to cold, play in moderation. Storytelling to kids encouraged.

Question 7

What was avoiding games considered a sign of?

Answer 7

A potential saint

Question 8

What age did education of boys and girls diverge?

Answer 8

7

Question 9

What did Vincent of Beauvais suggest for girls’ education from age 7?

Answer 9

They should be watched closely to preserve chastity. Learn modesty, humility, and silence. Avoid gossip and personal adornment. Company of girls to be vetted.

Question 10

What were the opinions on girls reading?

Answer 10

Paolo da Certaldo thought reading should only be taught if they were to be nuns.

Pierre Dubois thought girls should have the same education as boys so that if they married medical men they could help care for patients, or marry wealthy Muslims and convert them to christianity.

Giles of Rome and Vincent of Beauvais thought reading and sewing or weaving would prevent sinful thoughts.

In pratical terms, reading was good for women who might need to work in business or wrote for a living, like Christine de Pizan

Reading was important in religious education, such as learning to recite prayers

Question 11

Who most likely chose reading material and taught daughters to read?

Answer 11

The mother

Question 12

How many boys and girls does Giovanni Villani estimate attended elementary school before the plague in Florence?

Answer 12

8000-10000

Question 13

Where were rich girls sometimes sent for an education, and sometimes stayed afterward?

Answer 13

A nunnary

Question 14

What skills might be taught to girls preparing them to run a household?

Answer 14

Sewing, weaving, washing, and cooking

Question 15

What social skills were taught?

Answer 15

Singing, dancing, riding, hunting

Noble Girls were often sent in England to live at other estates to gain practice and enlarge their contacts.

Question 16

What role did discipline and punishment play in girls’ lives?

Answer 16

Discipline was integral to upbringing. Some rebellion was expected, but parents ultimately expected obedience. Disownment was sometimes a consequence

Question 17

How was responsibility taught to young girls?

Answer 17

By having them take on certain jobs that would reflect their duties as adults: helping with housework, caring for young kids, looking after animals, fetching water and wood

Question 18

Why might a girl go find work away from her family as a servant?

Answer 18

The employer would often give them a dowry at the end of their term

Question 19

What was the danger of a girl going to work as a servant?

Answer 19

She might be assaulted or raped by members of the family.

Question 20

What trades were girls mostly apprenticed to in Montpellier?

Answer 20

Textile, food, mercery, and silkwork trades

Question 21

What was the length of an apprenticeship?

Answer 21

It varied a lot: 2-10 years

Question 22

How did the rules for apprenticeship change in the late middle ages?

Answer 22

IIn many guilds only the daughters of masters could be apprenticed in Paris.

Question 23

What would happen if a child became an orphan or a mother a widow?

Answer 23

Parents often remarried, creating compicated step relationships. Rich children were usually taken care of. If a father died in feudal society, the Lord would take over wardship of children and marriage responsibilities of the heir. This is why small children often had arranged marriages, so the family, not the Lord, could have the say. In the late middle ages, the mother usually got to keep the kids.

Question 24

How were courts involved with orphan citizens in London?

Answer 24

They kept an eye on orphan’s guardians to protect against interference in property. They monitored the orphan’s progress, having a say in their apprenticeship and marriage. Guardans were prosecuted if they were found neglectful.

Question 25

How were bastards treated?

Answer 25

The Church’s position on marriage was harsh towards bastards, and secular laws were harsh. In England bastards couldn’t inherit, thought in northern Italy, they had some rights. If the parents married, it was forgiven by the Church. In rich society, a father might try to have a bastard son legitimised if they only had daughters or distant relatives to inherit.

Question 26

What happened to abandoned children?

Answer 26

Many went to orphanages or hospitals, like Santo Spirito in Rome, or Santa Maria della Scala and San Gallo in Florence. More girls than boys were abandoned, and almost all were bastards. Mortality was high, and the children often had few prospects. With no dowries, girls could turn to prostitution.

Question 27

What was the end goal for girls - what was all this upbringing striving for?

Answer 27

To equip girls with what they needed as adults, which was moral and social teaching, and practical skills. Marriage was the ultimate goal, and their own household. They should love and honour the husband’s family, love and be obedient to him, care for the home and be hospitable. Don’t be jealous, don’t wear makeup, love her family, and teach her children. Run the house according to God’s laws.

Question 28

When did the Church allow marriage of a girl?

Answer 28

Age 12. Often pregnant at 13. Childhood and adulthood overlapped.