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benbenberi June 23 2012, 00:17:59 UTC
Caveat - I speak from knowledge of France more than Italy, but there's a lot of socio-cultural similarity...

It's highly probable that your wandering scholar has correspondents, or at the very least friends-of-friends, in any cultural center he may choose to settle in. With a good education comes connections -- people worked the old school tie as much in the 17c as any other time. He almost certainly knows someone who knows someone who can help him get settled in in his new location with introductions, references, poss. even help him arrange a place to live, servants, etc. If he's fluent in the local language, so much the better, but even if not, if he's fluent in Latin it's enough to get him hooked into the intellectual circles of his new situation.

For employment, there are a lot of possibilities. Assuming he's not earning a living from writing (which was just as hard then as it is now), there are still a variety of positions scholarly types might hold. University professors were mostly church-men, but secular scholars were often employable as tutors in a wealthy household (which might be light or heavy duty depending on the # & quality of the students & the expectations of the family), or as secretaries, librarians, & other staff positions -- which again, depending on the particulars, might mean a lot of work or a lot of free time. Some wealthy patrons employed agents in scattered locations for various purposes, e.g. to keep an eye on their business in an area, to conduct negotiations of various sorts, to locate & purchase art, books, furniture, property, etc..

To get his daughter launched -- I recommend getting help from the friends-of-friends. And send her to a good school a a good convent: the old school tie worked among women as well as among men, and she'll have the chance to form invaluable connections.

For your priest: unless you're going to tie him to a living without backup, he can have as much freedom to travel, visit, study, etc. as you want him to. Many young priests of good birth held clerical appointments that entailed only nominal duty at most. A priest of his class was expected to be able to hold his own in social situations, and he'd have as much chance to interact with women & children as any other man of rank -- perhaps more, because he would be considered sexually "safe" by virtue of being a priest (regardless of whether he was actually celibate or debauched). Many of the employment opportunities I mentioned above would also apply here, esp. if he was not on the fast track to becoming a bishop or abbot.

(Note that a position in a great noble household was not regarded as menial or lowering - serving those at the top of the social hierarchy tended to lift you too at least a notch or two higher.)

For additional research, bear in mind that the 17c in Italy is really post-Renaissance. "Baroque" is a good keyword, in artistic contexts, "early modern" in others.

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