The Social Fabric of Fifteenth-Century Florence: Identities and Change in the World of Second-Hand Dealers

by Alessia Meneghin

Overview

The Arte dei rigattieri (merchants of second-hand goods in Florence) has never been ​​the subject of a systematic study, even in scholarship devoted to the history of trades. Underpinned by a large collection of archival material, this book analyzes the social life and economic activity of rigattieri in fifteenth-century Florence. It offers invaluable information on issues such as the relationship between socio-political affiliations and economic interest as well as the structures of consumption and the spending power of different social groups. Furthermore, through the lens of the Arte dei Rigattieri, this work examines the connection between the development of the political bureaucracy, the establishment of Medicean power, and contemporaneous processes of identity construction and social mobility.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781000712513
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/02/2019
Series:	Routledge Research in Medieval Studies , #15
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Alessia Meneghin is the author of a book on the Tuscan Misericordie and co-editor of two volumes on Domestic Devotions. Her publications on Renaissance Italy and Tuscany explore issues of wet-nursing, food, credit, objects and practices of devotion, miracles, consumption, identity and social mobility of the Arti Minori.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Guild, Identity of Artifices and Economic Activities 1. Methods and Problems in the Study of the Guild of Second-Hand Dealers in Florence 2. The Structure of the Guild and Statutes 3. The Rigattieri in the Socio-Economic System of Fifteenth-Century Florence Part II: Work, Investments and Social Mobility 4. Credit, Concurrent Activities and the Appraisal of Goods 5. Land Ownership, Investments and Profits 6. From Sellers of Old Rags to the Urban Elite. Conclusions