A Renaissance baron and his possessions : Paolo Giordano I Orsini, Duke of Bracciano (1541-1585) / by Barbara Furlotti.

A Renaissance baron and his possessions : Paolo Giordano I Orsini, Duke of Bracciano (1541-1585) / by Barbara Furlotti.

Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols, ©2012.

xxviii, 333 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 25 cm

Cursor mundi ; v. 15

This book explores the subject of baronial identity and material culture in sixteenth-century Rome by focusing on the Duke of Bracciano, Paolo Giordano I Orsini, his court, and his possessions. It is an investigation into the way in which a Roman baron constructed and disseminated his sense of self through the objects he owned, the events he organized, and the relationships he forged by means of material goods and works of art. The analysis of the use of artistic and luxury goods in the form of pawns, rentals, loans, gifts, and thefts shows how aristocratic patrimonies were subject to continual mobility and served a multiplicity of goals. Supported by a wealth of documentation, mostly unpublished, including inventories, correspondence and account books, this study provides a new dynamic insight into a Renaissance aristocratic court.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [293]-326) and index.

Part I. The creation of a Renaissance baron
Paolo Giordano Orsini in context
Performing identities
Part II. Possessions
Displaying status
The mechanisms of consumption at Paolo Giordano's court
Part III. Mobility and value
Pawns and credit
The rental market and loans
Gifts and thefts.

Cursor mundi (Turnhout, Belgium) ; v. 15.

Belgium.

DG540.8.O62 F87 2012