The Material Renaissance

by O'Malley, Michelle; Welch, Evelyn

• ISBN13: 9780719081255
• ISBN10: 0719081254
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-01
• Publisher: OXFORD UNIV PR

Summary

Despite the recent interests of economic and art historians in the workings of the market, we still know remarkably little about the everyday context for the exchange of objects and the meaning of demand in the lives of individuals in the Renaissance. Nor do we have much sense of the relationship between the creation and purchase of works of art and the production, buying and selling of other types of objects in Italy in the period. The Material Renaissanceaddresses these issues of economic and social life. It develops the analysis of demand, supply and exchange first proposed by Richard Goldthwaite in his ground-breakingWealth and the Demand for Art in Renaissance Italy, and expands our understanding of the particularities of exchange in this consumer-led period. Considering food, clothing and every--day furnishings, as well as books, goldsmiths' work, altarpieces and other luxury goods, the book draws on contemporary archival material to explore pricing, to investigate production from the point of view of demand, and to look at networks of exchange that relied not only on money but also on credit, payment in kind and gift giving. The Material Renaissanceestablishes the dynamic social character of exchange. It demonstrates that the cost of goods, including the price of the most basic items, was largely contingent upon on the relationship between buyer and seller, shows that communities actively sought new goods and novel means of production long before Colbert encouraged such industrial enterprise in France and reveals the wide ownership of objects, even among the economically disadvantaged.

Author Biography

Michelle O’Malley is Director of Research in the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex.

Evelyn Welch is Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

List of figures * List of tables * List of contributors * Notes on currencies and measurements * Abbreviations * Preface and acknowledgements * Introduction * Consuming problems: Worldly goods in Renaissance Venice – Patricia Allerston * Republican anxiety and courtly confidence: The politics of magnificence and fifteenth-century Italian architecture – Rupert Shepherd * Making money: Pricing and payments in Renaissance Italy – Evelyn Welch  * The social world of price formation: Prices and consumption in sixteenth-century Ferrara – Guido Guerzoni * Perugino and the contingency of value – Michelle O’Malley * States and crafts: Relocating technical skills in Renaissance Italy – Luca Mola * Diversity and design in the Florentine tailoring trade, 1550-1620 – Elizabeth Currie * Art and the table in sixteenth-century Mantua: Feeding the demand for innovative design –Valerie Taylor * The illuminated manuscript as a commodity: Production, consumption and the cartolaio’s role in fifteenth-century Italy – Anna Melograni * Credit and credibility: used goods and social relations in sixteenth-century Florence – Ann Matchette * The innkeeper’s goods: The use and acquisition of household property in sixteenth-century Siena – Paola Hohti * Coins, cloaks and candlesticks: The economics of extravagance – Mary Hollingsworth * Index