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

这个博士项目考察了1400年至1700年期间在意大利、法国和神圣罗马帝国的捷克土地上的天鹅绒的物质、社会和经济意义，提出了对作为天鹅绒生产和消费中心的宫廷和城市的比较研究。早期现代时期被定义为“布料时代”(Lemire 2017：32)，因此，这是一个纺织生产主导经济生产力的时期。自从纺织生产和贸易重塑了早期现代世界的消费主义文化(Peck 2013)以来，这个项目的主要研究问题是：-丝绸纤维-一种具有惊人材料性能(光泽、柔软、弹性)的新纤维-如何激发企业家创造力并推动技术创新，从根本上重塑文艺复兴时期的欧洲社会和经济？i.将天鹅绒制造作为文艺复兴时期的经济创造力进行调查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的强大竞争对手的到来。这种可获得性的变化产生了对柔软和有光泽的材料的新需求(Monnas 2012；Schäfer/Riello/Molà2018)。历史学家还没有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“创造了现代世界”的故事是众所周知的(Riello 2013)，但天鹅绒如何重塑早期现代世界的故事仍有待探索。与该项目相关的一些补充研究问题是：-工匠如何发明复杂的丝绸和天鹅绒编织技术，这需要新的制造和了解形式，以及新的劳动专业化和组织形式？-新的消费主义对天鹅绒的渴望如何刺激重塑社会等级的经济变化？-闪亮的天鹅绒如何实现文艺复兴时期的身份(RuBlack 2010)？考察天鹅绒的制作作为文艺复兴时期材料的熟练程度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对实际文物的研究相结合，这个博士项目将探索它对制作、交易、穿戴、观看、触摸、加工和欣赏天鹅绒的实际意义。在《物质文艺复兴》(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带来新经验和专业知识的材料实验形式进行审查是至关重要的。这个博士项目将研究在塑造文艺复兴时期与天鹅绒相关的体验时，制作和材料熟练程度如何与感官相互作用。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要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符合早期的现代神性和公正统治的概念？-天鹅绒商人如何以及为什么在他们的销售策略中赞扬这些品质？评估天鹅绒在宫廷和城市中的消费比较方法填补了迄今为止主要集中在威尼斯丝绸行业的研究中的一个紧迫空白(Molà2000)。根据韦尔奇的观点，法庭和城市推动了不同社会层面的消费，这个博士项目将呈现文艺复兴时期欧洲天鹅绒消费的第一个比较历史。该项目将研究一组丰富的文件证据，重点是捷克、法国和意大利的天鹅绒织工、商人及其客户，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，博士将利用行会记录(法规、学徒制度)、商业记录(信件、账簿)以及与文艺复兴时期的城市和法院相关的私人文件(如库存、信件)，这些城市和法院是天鹅绒的主要生产者和消费者。

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.