And the other half I will keep

Coins and medals, but also votive accessories, such as rosaries, medallions and crosses, or of general use such as jewelry, buttons and ribbons and, from the Unification of Italy onward, even pictures depicting Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II and tricolor ribbons. These are the recognition signs of the Ospedale degli Innocenti, those little "broken" objects left to the girls and boys when they were entrusted to the Institute, to which they were given with the intention of ensuring their survival. It is to them, and especially to the stories they tell, that the exhibition E l'altra metà serberò io is dedicated. Signs of Recognition from the Ospedale degli Innocenti, which, starting Oct. 27, will be updated periodically thanks to the fruitful collaboration between the Historical Archives and the Museo degli Innocenti.

Recognition signs and the exhibition route

The Innocenti Historical Archives holds more than 40 thousand of them, one of the richest holdings of its kind in the world, from which currently, 68 have been selected for display. The result is a true journey through history from the unique perspective of the abandoned childhood entrusted to the care of the institution.

The largest number of signs preserved by the Archives dates back to the early 1800s, presumably as a result of the 1827 reorganization of the Scrittoio delle Creature, when these were wrapped in papers marked with the child's entry number and filed in small wooden boxes separated by year and month. But the earliest are documented as early as the fifteenth-century registers, annotated and stored in the camarlingo's room. It is from there that the exhibition route also begins, with the display cases reserved for the oldest materials.

Others follow, such as one dedicated to 1861: the Unification of Italy and the medals of Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II. In 1861, the year of the Unification of Italy, there were as many as 1,477 signs left for more than half of the acolytes, probable legitimate children whom the families of origin could later take back. New instances also appeared among the items, with medals depicting Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel II or Napoleon III. The tricolor dyes ribbons and ribbons, and in various policies children are asked to be given evocative names such as Italia, Cammillo, Garibaldo or Vittorio Emanuelle.

A display case is then dedicated to 1875: the closing of the Iron Window and the opening of the Delivery Office.

The use of signs diminished with the closing of the Iron Window (June 30, 1875) and the opening of the Office of Delivery for the reception of illegitimate children, which ushered in new administrative procedures for their recognition by court ruling. The custom of leaving infants with an object is, however, so entrenched that it survives throughout the next century. Although now unnecessary for recognition, signs in the twentieth century still include broken objects, although their value is exclusively affective and symbolic.

Finally, the last display case of the exhibition offers a focus devoted to the delicate art of reconstructing children's stories through documentary sources-linked together by a logical nexus-and archival work. Each child's story can be reconstructed from his or her details in the records of Nannies and Children, where it is described what he or she wore on arrival: the clothing, the signal and the accompanying policy, if any. The policies, in turn, were kept in filzas, collections of papers threaded with string once called Children's Policies. Then, during the child's growth, all those events that required intervention by the Administration or other authorities were documented, attested in the correspondence collected in Business for Creatures. Each story can, finally, be enriched by consulting the Hospital's Baptismal Records or the Books of the Dead, which noted the deaths of the acolytes, or even the Books of the Bailiwick and those of the Peoples for information about the nannies.

On the occasion of the exhibition, an ad hoc children's room was also designed to tell the stories of the signs and "Nocentini" to the youngest children, thanks to Tino the Nocentino.

And the other half I will preserve. Signs of Recognition of the Ospedale degli Innocenti is in fact also an exhibition attentive to children, to whom the room is specially dedicated with the projection of animated slides where Tino il Nocentino, one of the protagonists of the publication La moneta spezzata: una storia di Tino il Nocentino, takes shape and speaks, designed specifically to accompany the visit of the youngest children and realized thanks to the support of the Fondazione Istituto degli Innocenti Ets.

***

The future of the 40,000 Innocenti signs. The recovery, restoration and digitization project.

One of the Institute's goals is to ensure the preservation, protection and enhancement of the more than 40,000 signs, through archival reorganization, inventorying and digitization of the objects and documents related to them (children's hospital admission records). The images created and their metadata will be placed in a digital display case that will enable their use from the web, thus spreading awareness of them.

The exhibition And the Other Half I'll Serve. The Signs of Recognition of the Ospedale degli Innocenti was also designed in order to raise awareness of the major conservation project that the Institute has undertaken thanks to the support of the Fondazione Istituto degli Innocenti Ets, which supports the project by carrying out fundraising initiatives (for donations: www.fondazioneinnocenti.it), in particular through the Adopt-a-Signal project (www.fondazioneinnocenti.com/our-projects/Adotta-un-segnale .

The total duration of the intervention is estimated to be about ten years from 2023 and includes the reorganization, digitization and publication of about 4,000 pieces per year.

***

The exhibition catalog And the Other Half I'll Serve. The Signs of Recognition of the Ospedale degli Innocenti and the booklet La moneta spezzata: una storia di Tino il Nocentino, can be purchased at the Museum Bookshop with a minimum donation to be donated to the Fondazione Istituto degli Innocenti Ets, or shipping can be requested by writing to segreteria.fondazione@istitutodeglinnocenti.it, upon payment of the cost of the volume and shipping costs.