Velvets in Renaissance Europe: Making Consumerist Cultures, 1400-1700

该博士项目考察了1400年至1700年间神圣罗马帝国的意大利、法国和捷克土地上天鹅绒的物质、社会和经济意义，并对作为天鹅绒生产和消费中心的法院和城市进行了比较研究。近代早期被定义为“布料时代”（Lemire 2017:32），因此，这是一个纺织品生产主导经济生产力的时期。由于纺织品生产和贸易重塑了早期现代世界的消费主义文化（Peck 2013），本项目的主要研究问题是：丝绸纤维是一种具有惊人材料特性（光泽、柔软、弹性）的新纤维，它是如何激发企业创造力和推动技术创新的，从而从根本上重塑了文艺复兴时期的欧洲社会和经济？丝绸纤维进入欧洲市场意味着当地生产的粗羊毛和亚麻纺织品出现了强有力的竞争对手。这种可用性的变化创造了对柔软和闪亮材料的新需求（Monnas 2012; Schäfer/Riello/ molcom2018）。历史学家尚未解释这种欲望是如何推动技术和社会创新的。虽然棉花如何“创造现代世界”的故事众所周知（Riello 2013），但天鹅绒如何重塑早期现代世界的故事仍有待探索。与本项目相关的一些补充研究问题是：手工艺者如何发明复杂的丝绸和天鹅绒编织技术，这需要新的制作和知识形式，以及新的劳动专业化和组织形式？-对天鹅绒的新消费主义欲望是如何刺激重塑社会等级的经济变革的？-闪亮的天鹅绒如何体现文艺复兴时期的身份（Rublack 2010）？这个博士项目采用独特的材料方法，通过使用新的科学技术，将深入的档案研究与实际人工制品的研究结合起来，探索制作、交易、穿着、观看、触摸、加工和欣赏天鹅绒的真正含义。在“材料文艺复兴”（Rublack 2013）中，制造者和消费者对材料及其意义进行了实验。因此，将文艺复兴时期的天鹅绒制作作为一种材料实验形式进行研究是至关重要的，这种实验形式带来了新的体验和专业知识。这个博士项目将研究在塑造与天鹅绒相关的文艺复兴体验时，制作和材料熟练程度与感性是如何相互作用的。这里的重要研究问题包括：文艺复兴时期的天鹅绒制造商如何以及为什么突出特定的材料特性，如光泽、光线和柔软度？这些物质属性在多大程度上与早期现代的神性和正义统治观念相一致？——丝绒商家在销售策略中如何以及为什么赞美这些品质？评估宫廷和城市对天鹅绒的消费采用比较的方法填补了迄今为止主要关注威尼斯丝绸工业的研究中的一个紧迫空白（molente 2000）。按照韦尔奇的观点，法院和城市推动了不同社会层面的消费，这个博士项目将首次呈现文艺复兴时期欧洲天鹅绒消费的比较历史。该项目将对捷克、法国和意大利天鹅绒织工、商人及其客户的丰富文献证据进行研究，以分析他们的生产、贸易和销售网络。将威尼斯与曼图亚、马赛与巴黎、波西米亚城市与布拉格进行比较，博士将利用与文艺复兴时期主要天鹅绒生产和消费城市和法院相关的行会记录（法规、学徒制度）、商业记录（通信、账簿）和私人文件（例如清单、通信）。

Examining the material, societal, and economic significance of velvets in Italy, France, and the Czech lands of the Holy Roman Empire between 1400 and 1700, this PhD project presents a comparative study of courts and cities as centres of the production and consumption of velvets. The early modern period has been defined as "the cloth age" (Lemire 2017:32), thus, a period in which textile production dominated economic productivity. Since textile production and trade re-shaped consumerist cultures around the early modern world (Peck 2013), this project's main research question is to ask:- How did silk fibres-a new fibre with stunning material properties (shine, softness, elasticity)-stimulate entrepreneurial creativity and drive technological innovation that fundamentally re-shaped Renaissance European societies and economies?i. Investigating velvet-making as Renaissance economic creativity The introduction of silk fibres to European markets meant the arrival of a serious competitor to locally produced, coarse wool and linen textiles. This change in availability created novel desires for soft and shiny materials (Monnas 2012; Schäfer/Riello/Molà 2018). Historians have yet to explain how such desires drove technological and societal innovation. Whilst the story of how cotton "made the modern world" is well known (Riello 2013), the story of how velvets reshaped the early modern world is still to be explored. Some of the supplementary research questions pertinent to this project are: - How did craftspeople invent complex technologies of silk and velvet-weaving that demanded new forms of making and knowing, and new forms of labour specialisation and organisation?- How did new consumerist desires for velvets stimulate economic change that reshaped social hierarchies?- How did shiny velvets materialize Renaissance identities (Rublack 2010)?ii. Examining velvet-making as Renaissance material proficiencyTaking a distinctively material approach that combines in-depth archival research with the study of actual artefacts through the use of new scientific technology, this PhD project will explore what it actually meant to make, trade, wear, see, touch, process, and admire velvets. In the "material Renaissance" (Rublack 2013), makers and consumers experimented with materials and their meanings. It is therefore crucial to examine Renaissance velvet-making as forms of material experimentation that led to new experiences and expertise. This PhD project will examine how making and material proficiency interacted with sensorialities when shaping Renaissance experiences associated with velvets. Important research questions here include:- How and why did Renaissance velvet makers foreground specific material properties such as shine, light, and softness? To what extent did these material properties align with early modern conceptions of divinity and just rulership?- How and why did velvet merchants praise such qualities in their sales strategies?iii. Evaluating the consumption of velvets at courts and in citiesA comparative approach fills a pressing gap in research that has mainly focused on the Venetian silk industry to date (Molà 2000). Following Welch's argument that courts and cities drove consumption on various social levels, this PhD project will present the first comparative history of the consumption of velvets in Renaissance Europe. The project will examine a rich set of documentary evidence focused on Czech, French and Italian velvet weavers, merchants, and their customers to analyse their production, trade and sales networks. Comparing Venice with Mantua, Marseille with Paris, Bohemian cities with Prague, the PhD will draw on guild records (statutes, apprenticeship regulations), business records (correspondence, account books), and private documentation (e.g. inventories, correspondence) related to Renaissance cities and courts that were leading producers and consumers of velvets.