Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 480 pages
• Published by: W. W. Norton & Company September 1998
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0393318664
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0393318661
• Book Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Review
Drawing from her earlier and more academic studies, Lisa Jardine approaches the challenge of creating a new history of the Renaissance with remarkable bravura and all the boldness required to deliver a fresh and highly readable story of an age we think we know so well. In Worldly Goods, Jardine argues that while the Renaissance was indeed marked by a flourishing cultural identity, it was the material and commercial spirit of the 15th and 16th centuries that set the tone. Commerce and international trade provided the enormous fortunes that funded artistic production, and luxury goods, including great works of art, became important as means of displaying newly acquired wealth and status. It was an urge to own, a ceaseless quest for new horizons and exotic treasures, that fueled the cultural output of the Renaissance, according to Jardine, and that taste for conspicuous displays of opulence characterizes the Western experience of the arts and culture to this day.

That Worldly Goods succeeds in telling a captivating new story of the Renaissance is testimony to Jardine's literary and scholarly success at a difficult task. That her book, richly illustrated and well written, makes contemplation of its subject a thrill is testimony of a very good read. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Arguing that acquisitiveness ranked among the chief traits of leading Renaissance figures, Jardine (Erasmus, Man of Letters), a noted British academic, seeks to reinterpret the forces at work in an era traditionally defined in terms of the triumph of humanism. Writing with critical intelligence and authority, Jardine characterizes the artistic masterpieces of the period as "strictly commercial" undertakings designed to glorify their owners while doubling as convertible capital. Extravagant expenditures on conspicuous display in the interest of dynasty-building drew the Habsburg emperor Maximilian so deeply into debt to Jakob Fugger, the prominent German financier, that Maximilian was forced to cede long-term rights in the profits from his silver and copper mines in exchange for further loans. The struggle to control the globe led to intrigue at the highest levels-both Columbus and Magellan took advantage of stolen maps for their landmark voyages-and Jardine's examination of exploration and commerce provides a window onto the times. Her extended discussion of the rapidly emerging book trade highlights the role of financiers such as the Medicis, the Pope's main bankers, whose keen interest in profits led them to ensure that even books proscribed by the Church remained in circulation. By analyzing the Renaissance narrowly in terms of the ascendancy of modern mercantile capitalism, Jardine likens the period to our own. The risk of such an approach is to slight the hold of antiquity on the shapers of our modern world. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Worldly Goods (Hardcover) If you sometimes feel that the modern age is spiritually bankrupt, what with all the conspicuous consumption and "keeping up with the Jones's" that goes on and if you yearn for earlier and simpler times- well, you might find this book a bit of a revelation. Ms. Jardine shows us that even back in the 15th and 16th centuries wealthy people wanted to acquire all the art, jewelry,books, etc. they could afford and when they got carried away even more than they could afford. Kings and princes would borrow beyond their means and die surrounded by opulence and debt. Collectors of beautiful objects would become so obsessive that they sometimes could not wait for other wealthy people to die so that they could get their hands on their collections too! People would even collect books as status symbols. A wealthy nobleman might retain a scholar to travel through Europe to buy the "right" books to add to his library. These would be in Latin and Greek. The fact that the nobleman might not be capable of reading the language in question wouldn't matter for the book would look good in his library. Ms. Jardine has an engaging style and the book is beautifully illustrated. My only complaints are that the section dealing with printing tends to give some obvious historical information which is not central to the books thesis and that as you near the end of the book you may feel that things are becoming a bit repetitious. But overall I found the book very enjoyable!