Raccolta delle Regole dell’Ospitale di S. Maria della Misericordia di Udine. Dedicata a sua Eccellenza il N. H. Pietro Canal luogotenente Generale della Patria del Friuli e Protettore dello Stesso Pio Luogo. Seconda edizione. Bound with: Piano che Tende al necessario Provvedimento de’Fanciulli esposti adulti dell’Ospitale di S. Maria della Misericordia di Udine, e che nel tempo stesso invita I Fedeli al loro soccorso. . . Dedicato a sua Eccellenza Reverendissima Monsignor Pietro Antonio Zorzi, Arcivescovo di Udine

Together two volumes in one to which are included two “Advisi al pubblico” relating to care offered to pregnant women outside of wedlock, the care offered to abandoned and orphaned children, and request for help from women in the local communities of Udine.

4to.  270 x 195 mm., [10 ½ x 7 ¼ inches].  96, [1 blank] pp., plus one folding document; 50 pp., plus two folding public announcement in folio.  Bound in 18th century decorated paper wrappers, some minor wear to the edges, corners of wrappers and preliminary leaves a bit dogeared and some minor dust soiling to the edges, otherwise sound and attractive.

In 1791 Raccolta delle Regole was published by the same printer an edition entitled Raccolta di regole, e discipline dell’Ospital Maggiore si S. Maria della Misericordia d’Udine, which was the first printing of the rules governing the operations of the hospital.  Having become quickly unavailable, it was reprinted with updates in this 1795 edition.  First edition of the second work, Piano che Tende.  

The first work contains the provisions and rules issued for the management of the hospital for "abandoned" children, with a plan for entrusting the children to wet nurses, information on the lives of the abandoned children, and statutes on the hospital's operation. The second work, also very rare, dedicated to Antonio Zorzi, Archbishop of Udine, deals entirely with public assistance to abandoned children.  One of the more arresting statements in this "Avviso" is a description of the baskets which should be used to place the children and where at the hospital to deposit the newborns.  

Both titles are very rare.  The ICCU (Italian Union Catalogue) cites only one in Vicenza of the 1795 edition of the Raccolta  and like this copy is bound with the Piano che Tende; no copies of the 1791 edition are listed.  There are no copies cited in OCLC.