On Thursday, March 13, FGV Press will launch the book ?A piedade dos outros?(free translation, The pity of others), which addresses a crucial, though little known feature of the colonial life in Brazil: the abandonment of newborns and infants in the streets of Vila Rica, currently known as Ouro Preto, in the state of Minas Gerais.A result of the master's thesis of the researcher Renato Franco at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF), the book shows the movement of these children, the assistance given to them and the institutional alternatives to protect them, besides exposing forms of violence and possible destinies that those children were subject to, bringing to light a reflection on the means of child protection. The babies were abandoned for several reasons, and according to the author, Vila Rica abandoned their children as few cities in the world did at the time. Paradoxically, in the middle of the Golden Age and in the heart of the richest captaincy of the Portuguese Empire, the City Council of Vila Rica - institution responsible for providing for newborns - established only in 1750 the assistance to aid abandoned children by providing financial support for the individuals who applied as foster parents.With a variety of sources - Baptism certificates, death certificates, council papers, documents offering evidence opinions of mothers, fathers, boys and girls sharing their daily dramas - and a careful and sensitive narrative, Professor Renato Franco considers religious aspects of mental structures and beliefs to uncover the lives of thousands of children and the experience of governing childhood between the second half of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. A piedade dos outros (free translation: The pity of others)Author: Renato FrancoNumber of Pages: 256FGV Press Please visit FGV Press' website and learn more: www.fgv.br/editora