The Ancestors Wealth

Gaia Bruno

doi:10.6093/978-88-6887-149-9

The Ancestors Wealth: Material Culture of the Neapolitan Society in the Eighteenth Century

Authors

Gaia Bruno

University of Venice Ca’ Foscari

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6887-149-9

Keywords:

Material Culture, Naples, Social History, Eighteenth Century, Inventories

Synopsis

Publisher: FedOA - Federico II University Press

Series: Clio. Essays in History, Archaeology and Art History

Pages: 192

Language: italian

NBN: http://nbn.depositolegale.it/resolver.pl?nbn=urn:nbn:it:unina-28752

Abstract: According to Carlo Ginzburg, culture is not only the scholars’ knowledge, but it is also made of all the mixture of a population attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. In this sense, objects are one of the culture’s main expressions. Using materiality as a key, the volume analyses the history of the Neapolitan society during the Eighteenth century in some of its multiple articulations: aristocracy, law men, middle class, lower class. The idea of defining the strata of the ancien regime society is now considered unfeasible, partly because the criteria of definition and legitimation were multiple and different at the time: legal certifications, occupation, geographical origin, wealth. In this complicated universe, owning specific goods was part of the process of definition of the individual affiliation to a group, in terms of having a similar life style, as well as adopting the same ideals. The objects, inherited and annotated into inventories, useful to understand this phaenomenon, were not only precious dresses and jewels, but also iron spoons, lead cruxes, or glass beads. Despite their physical features, the value of these goods was not just economic; it stands also in the symbolic meaning they carried.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Gaia Bruno, University of Venice Ca’ Foscari

Gaia Bruno is post-doctoral fellow at the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari in the ERC project Water-Cultures - The Water Cultures of Italy, 1500-1900 (PI prof. David Gentilcore, grant agreement N° 833834). She obtained her PhD in the History of European Society from the University of Naples Federico II (2016). She is especially interested in the history of material culture, history of water and urban history. She is author of different essays, edited in volumes and journals, including: Cultura materiale aristocratica nel Settecento napoletano: l’esempio dei Carafa di Ielsi («Studi Storici», 55, 2014, 4), Vivere a Napoli nel XVIII secolo: il Tribunale della Fortificazione, Acqua e Mattonata («Società e Storia», 162, 2018, 4), Fronteggiare l’emergenza: le istituzioni del Regno di Napoli di fronte agli eventi sismici del XVII secolo («Mediterranea», 51, 2021).