Beginning in the mid-17th century, infant mortality in Veneto (a region in northeastern Italy) began to increase, starting at 250‰ and rising to 350‰ during the period of 1750-1850 – one of the highest levels ever recorded in modern Europe. This dramatic change was due to variations in winter neonatal mortality which, during 1750-1850, was 3-4 times higher in Veneto than in other areas with similar winter temperatures (such as England). We combine microdata on neonatal mortality with daily data on temperatures for a specific context during the period of 1816-68, when neonatal mortality was not only particularly high, but declined late and slowly. We find that winter neonatal mortality was extremely high during the first week of life and strongly correlated with external minimum temperature. Through a comparison of these results with other findings in the literature, we suppose that the increase in winter neonatal mortality in Veneto could have principally been caused by the deteriorating physical conditions of mothers, lessening the “quality” of infants who consequently were quite susceptible to cold temperatures.
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