Le cartelle cliniche pediatriche come fonte storica Intorno a un archivio fiorentino (1881-1945)

To date, Italian historiography has paid little attention to the documents kept in hospital archives,in particular in the pediatric ones, which arose at the end of the nineteenth century indifferent cities across the peninsula. This article examines the recently inventoried archive ofthe Anna Meyer Pediatric Hospital, and of the Pediatric Clinic of Florence, which the hospitalhas hosted since 1901. In doing so it aims to assess the real potential of this type of source,which mainly consists of medical records. On the one hand, it sheds light on the various datacontained in this documentation, relating to the social history of childhood, the history of thefamily and that of childcare professions. On the other hand, it discusses some critical pointsand gaps that may complicate the concrete use of these sources.