Gilding the Market : Luxury and Fashion in Fourteenth-Century Italy / Susan Mosher Stuard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stuard, Susan Mosher, author.

Series:

Middle Ages series.

The Middle Ages Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consumption (Economics)--Italy--History--To 1500.

Consumption (Economics).

Fashion--Italy--History--To 1500.

Fashion.

Clothing and dress--Italy--History--Medieval, 500-1500.

Clothing and dress.

Luxuries--Italy--History--To 1500.

Luxuries.

Luxury goods industry--Italy--History--To 1500.

Luxury goods industry.

Italy--Economic conditions.

Italy.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (340 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2011]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the fourteenth century, garish ornaments, bright colors, gilt, and military effects helped usher in the age of fashion in Italy. Over a short span of years important matters began to turn on the cut of a sleeve. Fashion influenced consumption and provided a stimulus that drove demand for goods and turned wealthy townspeople into enthusiastic consumers. Making wise decisions about the alarmingly expensive goods that composed a fashionable wardrobe became a matter of pressing concern, especially when the market caught on and became awash in cheaper editions of luxury wares.Focusing on the luxury trade in fashionable wear and accessories in Venice, Florence, and other towns in Italy, Gilding the Market investigates a major shift in patterns of consumption at the height of medieval prosperity, which, more remarkably, continued through the subsequent era of plague, return of plague, and increased warfare. A fine sensitivity to the demands of "le pompe," that is, the public display of private wealth, infected town life. The quest for luxuries affected markets by enlarging exchange activity and encouraging retail trades. As both consumers and tradesmen, local goldsmiths, long-distance traders, bankers, and money changers played important roles in creating this new age of fashion.In response to a greater public display of luxury goods, civic sumptuary laws were written to curb spending and extreme fashion, but these were aimed at women, youth, and children, leaving townsmen largely unrestricted in their consumption. With erudition, grace, and an evocative selection of illustrations, some reproduced in full color, Susan Mosher Stuard explores the arrival of fashion in European history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Desirable Wares

Chapter 3. Gravitas and Consumption

Chapter 4. Curbing Women's Excesses

Chapter 5. Costs of Luxuries

Chapter 6. Shops and Trades

Chapter 7. Marketmakers

Chapter 8. Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-311) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9781283897341

1283897342

9780812205374

0812205375

OCLC:

651724417